NATURE VS. NURTURE

The debate between nature and nurture has been one of the earliest arguments in the history of Psychology. Both have their own perception or explanation about the development of a person.

Let us first tackle about nature:

Nature, on the perspective of development, focuses on the traits or characteristics that are inherited by children. It is more on genetics. According to Zaky (2015), nature is something that is influenced by genetic and other biological factors. The physical attributes such as height, hair color, pigmentation of the skin, and other features are considered to be part of nature since it is usually inherited.

What about nurture?

As we grow up, we experience a lot of things that might affect how we behave or interact. These experiences may have a great impact on our development. The concept of developing behavior through experiences or culture is called nurture. Unlike in nature where the focus is mainly on the genetic aspect, in nurture we tend to look at how the one’s experiences shape his or her behavior. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors (Zaky, 2015).

The video below would further help us to understand the debate between nature and nurture.

As stated in an artcicle by McLeod (2007), the debate between nature and nurture is concerned with what influences human behavior. Being knowledgeable regarding this topic is very important since it does not only tackle about the technical aspects of the issue but rather it helps us to understand and get to know ourselves better.