Nature vs. Nurture
Issues in Understanding the Self
Your physical features can be identified as identical to that of your parents,
like your eyes from your father, and the hair color from your mother.
However, your personality and talents may have come not from your father
or mother. The environment where you grew up may have a lasting effect or
influence on that way you talk, behave and respond to the things around
you.
Many scholars in different fields and across generations have attempted to
explain and thoroughly expound on several issues and controversies about
the nature, existence, and dimensionality of self.
The Argument Continues: Nature or Nurture?
One of the oldest arguments in the history of psychology is the Nature vs Nurture
debate. Each of these sides have good points that it's really hard to decide whether a
person's development is predisposed in his DNA, or a majority of it is influenced by this
life experiences and his environment. As of now, we know that both nature and nurture
play important roles in human development, but we have not known yet whether we are
developed majorly because of nature or due to nurture.
What is Nature?
Biological sciences explained that our traits are passed on to humanity from one
generation to another, and these transmitted traits served as a blueprint of our self and
make us predispose to certain self-expressions (e.g., attitude, behavior, tendencies,
etc.). Here, the self is being studied structurally and functionally, from the molecular
level to the entirety of human physiological systems. Genetics for example contributed
so much information about the descriptions of the self. This field of biology primarily
deals with the study of heredity (transmission of traits and characteristics from
generation to another) as a process, as well as on the characterizations (similarities and
differences) of organisms.
The coding of genes in each cell in us humans determine the different traits that we
have, more dominantly on the physical attributes like eye color, hair color, ear size,
height, and other traits. However, it is still not known whether the more abstract
attributes like personality, intelligence, sexual orientation, likes and dislikes are gene-
coded in our DNA, too.
Today, developmental psychologists rarely take such polarized positions (either/or) with
regard to most aspects of development; instead, they investigate the relationship
between innate and environmental influences. They will often use the biopsychosocial
Issues in Understanding the Self
Your physical features can be identified as identical to that of your parents,
like your eyes from your father, and the hair color from your mother.
However, your personality and talents may have come not from your father
or mother. The environment where you grew up may have a lasting effect or
influence on that way you talk, behave and respond to the things around
you.
Many scholars in different fields and across generations have attempted to
explain and thoroughly expound on several issues and controversies about
the nature, existence, and dimensionality of self.
The Argument Continues: Nature or Nurture?
One of the oldest arguments in the history of psychology is the Nature vs Nurture
debate. Each of these sides have good points that it's really hard to decide whether a
person's development is predisposed in his DNA, or a majority of it is influenced by this
life experiences and his environment. As of now, we know that both nature and nurture
play important roles in human development, but we have not known yet whether we are
developed majorly because of nature or due to nurture.
What is Nature?
Biological sciences explained that our traits are passed on to humanity from one
generation to another, and these transmitted traits served as a blueprint of our self and
make us predispose to certain self-expressions (e.g., attitude, behavior, tendencies,
etc.). Here, the self is being studied structurally and functionally, from the molecular
level to the entirety of human physiological systems. Genetics for example contributed
so much information about the descriptions of the self. This field of biology primarily
deals with the study of heredity (transmission of traits and characteristics from
generation to another) as a process, as well as on the characterizations (similarities and
differences) of organisms.
The coding of genes in each cell in us humans determine the different traits that we
have, more dominantly on the physical attributes like eye color, hair color, ear size,
height, and other traits. However, it is still not known whether the more abstract
attributes like personality, intelligence, sexual orientation, likes and dislikes are gene-
coded in our DNA, too.
Today, developmental psychologists rarely take such polarized positions (either/or) with
regard to most aspects of development; instead, they investigate the relationship
between innate and environmental influences. They will often use the biopsychosocial
