NATURE vs. NURTURE

Introduction

Nature refers to innate or inborn qualities while nurture refers to behaviors learned by an individual in relation to environmental orientation. A good example of an attribute of nature is the explanation of how human beings are able to talk while an example of nurture is the personal experiences that are learned through life like culture, language among many others (Age of the sage.org, n.d). Nature emphasizes hereditary while nurture emphasize on environment.

The nature vs. nurture controversy is an age-old dispute that has elicited mixed reactions from behavioral psychologists, theologians, philosophers and theorist consciousness in trying to explain and understand the source of human personality. The controversy is whether human development and behaviors originate from environment that we are raised (nurture) or biology (nature).

According to Kant the human form and action is provided by nature while the content that comes from human is generated provides from an individual’s experience (Schmidt, 2008, p. 463). Human cognition is largely reflective of the innate or rather genes which take control of our human development and personalities. These intrinsic and innate characteristics form the basis of our personalities. He argued that environmental factors do not cause substantial variations and complexities in our cognitive capacities. According to Kant, nature is responsible for providing naturally arising potentials while nurture provides the content, which is adopted by the potentials. A good example is that the capacity to learning and language use in innate while the language that is spoken by an individual depends on the socialization such as culture within which a person has been nurtured. Therefore, this can be argued that many people while growing up, they learnt and adopted the cultures, religions, languages and doctrines. They internalized them and socially defined them hence serving as their human identity, as they gave them meaning as members of a specific society and or wider human society in which they felt themselves comfortable to be in. On the other hand, British philosopher John Locke, views on the debate about nature and nurture in describing the human thoughts and personality focused on the role of the surrounding environment (nurture) (Simpson, 2006, p. 693). In supporting his view that human thoughts and personality is based on the surrounding environment and life experiences, he compared the human mind as a blank piece of paper without anything written on it. He therefore suggested that human beings only draw knowledge and reason from the experiences they go through in their day-to-day interactions within the environment.

In the Scandinavia studies, cancer was found to be associated with nurture (environment) except few cases where hereditary factors caused it (Jarome, 2000, p.1). While on the other hand, schizophrenia disorder in identical twins was likely to be similar regardless of environment in which one is in because the genes carried the traits of the disorder. Nevertheless, both studies seem to postulate that both nature and nurture plays a role in the humanity personalities and disorders.

In the studies conducted by Scandinavia researchers, on nurture and nature, on the incidence of cancer, 45,000 pairs of identical twins with identical genes, and fraternal twins sharing an average of 50 percent of their genes revealed /concluded that environmental factors played a major role as opposed to genes which only played a minor role (Jarome, 2000, p.1). However, exceptions occurred in the colorectal and prostate cancer where hereditary factors were more prominent. On the other hand, in study on schizophrenia disorder among identical twins, Breggin claims that a twin with this disorder implies that the other has 48% chance of acquiring the same disorders. While among the fraternal twins, the chance is 17 percent. This implies that if a person’s genes cause the disorder then the identical twin should have it (Simpson, 2006, p. 695).

The similarities in these studies findings is that both acknowledge that both nurture and nurture contribute to the behaviour and personality of humanity, but are not clear and exact on the causes of these behaviors and personalities The differences that emerge in these two studies are relatively minor. In the Scandinavia study, its findings is biased on the environment compared to the nature, while in the twin’s disorder studies, the emphasis is in nature as opposed to nurture.

In summary, the Scandinavia study gives more weight on the environment or rather nurture to be the determiner of our personality and behaviors through the cancer case. On the other hand, the study on twins with disorder of schizophrenia inclined more on nature, with identical twins having similarities in disorder while showed variation in fraternal twins. Hence, debate on nurture and nature is important as it help us to have insights on how humanity personality and thought actually function. It is a debate that elicited a lot of reaction and views from philosophers and still scientists have taken on the mantle to try to find the puzzle of what these words really imply. The studies of Scandinavia and that of Breggin, although oppose each other, they help to greater magnitude in understanding and conceptualizing the meaning of the words.

References

Age of the sage.org. (n.d). Transmitting the wisdoms of the ages: The nature vs nurture debate or controversy – human psychology: The Nature vs Nurture debate or controversy. Retrieved from http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/nature_nurture.html

Jerome, G. (2000). Nature vs. Nurture in cancer. Retrieved from http://biochem118.stanford.edu/Papers/Genome%20Papers/Nature%20vs%20Nuture%20 in%20Cancer.pdf

Schmidt, S. (2008). Kant’s transcendental and empirical psychology of cognition. Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 39(4): 462-472.

Simpson, T. (2006). Knowledge. Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition), 692-695.