Nature or Nurture?

Question

We're learning about this in History right now, so I figured I'd see what you guys think.

Here's the debate- does a person's nature (biological instincts; hereditary traits) affect how they turn out, or is it the person's nurture(d) environment (how they were raised; what kind of enviroment they had, etc.) that affects them the most?

I'm actually expecting most of the answers to be in favor or nurture. Research seems to say otherwise, but what I'm stuck on is what makes humans different from animals.

Answer 1

I think for domestic animals and human it would be nurture, or how they were raised. For wild animals definitly nature. They have wild instincts and being raised in captivity isnt going to change that.

Hope that helped!

Answer 2

i think their both ok to use.

Answer 3

I agree with whizkid. We had this discussion before, but I think in Science. In Health, we recently learned that both nature and nuture contribute. Your hereditary traits + your environment (peer pressure, society, television) both affect you.

I think many people can have different opinions, any side is arguable.

Hope this helps!!

Comments

Hmm...do humans even have hereditary behavioral traits, though? That's what I've been wondering. Is there a predisposition in certain people based on their genetics to be aggressive? What makes us different from animals? (I'm confusing myself a little. XD)

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Sometimes anger issues or other emotions can be genetics,but usually it is your environment. Babies can learn a lot about the world just by looking. If you are talking from a Christian perspective, humans are different from animals because we have souls. But, if you're talking on the "scientific" and the "politically-correct" perspective, there isn't very much difference from us and animals. My own opinion is the Christian perspective. We are totally different from animals. We did not evolve from amebas and monkeys. (Okay, I know I side-tracked...a lot..) :)

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I'm not sure yet if I agree with the Christian creation theory, I was raised religiously but...I'm not sure yet. Anyway, I'm fairly sure that we did not evolve from monkeys. Because from a scientific perspective, I know that monkeys are unable to communicate ideas and concepts (e.g. "There's the banana-go get it."), so there's no way that some magic or something could've happened and all of a sudden monkeys could talk. Even if there's skeletons and stuff researchers look at and go "Oh, you can see how they evolved".

I don't know what I'm trying to say any more... I don't disagree with you, but ...oh man I'm confused.

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Totally agree with all of you guys!

Answer 4

Definitely feel it is a combination of both. You can take a puppy and have it raised in the wild. A few years later the dog will be too wild to handle and keep at home. The exact same dog raised at home would be a great pet and can be around young children. The reverse is true too if you take a wolf or any other animal and raise it at home.

I think the big difference where nature takes over is when the nuturing is about the same. Some dog breeds will be easier going than other, more intelligent, etc. That comes down to biology and how they are physically wired up.  

Great question!

Comments

Actually, I recently watched a documentary on this, and they did that experiment where newborn wolf cubs were taken from a nature preserve and hand-reared in a human home- the results were, let's just say, disastrous. A similar experiment was done using foxes captured from the wild and/or bought from fur farms, and by selectively breeding the tame foxes, within 3 generations the kits were tame enough to be held. The same held true for aggressive foxes, by the third generation the narrator called them dragons instead of foxes.

But I totally agree on the point of "when does nurture take over from nature" or the other way around, which I'm too tired to dechiper right now. It's my opinion that somehow, humans have an extra gene or something that tells them to "screw nature, obey nurture". But what exactly makes them do that?