Among the oldest philosophical issues in psychology is the nurture versus nature debate. Nature encompasses the hereditary factors that influence how human beings are pre-wired biologically. The genetics and heredity come to play. On the other hand, nature encompasses factors that can be regarded as external and influence individuals after conception. These factors include experiences from life, exposure to the environment, and learning. The nature versus nature debate examines the relative contribution that the two approaches have on an individual’s behavior, such as temperament, character, and cognitive traits. I believe nurture impacts the behavior of an individual more than nature.
While certain aspects such as color of the eyes, skin pigmentation and some diseases are passed on to offspring from the parent regardless of the environmental effects, their manifestation on a human being is greatly dependent on the environment an individual is bred. From when a baby is born, its sensory experiences that take over to shape development and environment powerfully influencing their behavior. Therefore, as much as the brain is wired biologically, learning experiences determine how the babies grow and develop. For example, the social learning theory by Albert Bandura maintains that a lot of learning takes when individuals observe behaviors of others. In the popular Bobo Doll experiment, Bandura’s demonstration results prove that interactions and observation are a sure way in which kids learn aggression. Notably, in society, social ills are rooted in aggression. After subjecting the children to two adult models, a non-aggressive and an aggressive one, Bandura’s predication was that those who observed aggressive behavior on the adults acted aggressively even in the absence of the model. In contrast, those who observed non-aggressive adult models acted less aggressively (Cherry, 2020). Therefore, behaviors are learned and imitated, and thus the nurture effect on a human is stronger than their natural genetic heredity.
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Unquestionably, the human genetic capacities to learn, be healthy, anti, or prosocial vary greatly. However, societal productivity is based on how well nurturing is done on individuals. This means that allowing human development outcomes to shape the society with the pretext that they are nature’s course and out of control, then the human behavioral problems plaguing the world will go on. Such would be a tragic move, and human-well-being will continue to be threatened. For instance, the lifestyles of parents and not their genes are chiefly responsible for the resultant obesity in their children. A study revealed that overweight parents increase the chances of their children being overweight by up to 27% when compared with children born by parents who are not overweight. The reason is that the weight problems are associated with the lifestyles provided by the parents and not their genes (London School of Economics (LSE), 2015).
In sum, nature, and nurture relatively contribute to the making of human behavior. On its part, nature determines the genetic inheritance of a person, while nurture encompasses all the environmental variables that impact how an individual is. Nurture comprises factors such as social relationships, childhood experiences, culture, education, and parenting styles. As revealed by the Bobo Doll experiment, learning occurs through imitation where the dolls led children to believe that aggressive behavior is acceptable. However, a potential flaw that may not have been discovered is the undermining of some environmental inputs by some genes. The environment may be harboring some toxins, potentially altering how some genes are expressed. An example is in the case of a lifelong smoker who never experiences smoking-related diseases.
References
Cherry, K. (2020). What the Bobo Doll Experiment Reveals About Kids and Aggression .
Verywell Mind. Retrieved 11 May 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/bobo- doll-experiment-2794993.
London School of Economics (LSE). (2015, February 11). 'Nurture' more important than 'nature'
in childhood obesity. ScienceDaily . Retrieved May 11, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150211083210.htm
