Nature and Nurture

Nurture plays the most Significant Role in Human Beings.

Nature and nurture are two terms that have raised controversies in the philosophical explanations of human behavior. The terms nature and nurture are bandied about all time to explain human behavior. The debate involves the extent to which the two influence a human being through genetically acquired or learned influences. Nature is simply what we view as influenced by biological factors such as genetics, while nurture is taken from the external factors that a human being encounters after conception. Nurture includes influences from life experiences, learning, and exposure on an individual. Both concepts are essential in determining the traits of an individual; however, nurture plays a more significant role for a human being.

Main Argument

Nurture refers to the environmental factors that influence human beings. The factors include but are not limited to birth order, parenting style, family size, language, culture, education, and peers. The behaviorism theory by John Watson explains human behavior as a result of stimulation from the surrounding environment or the consequence of a previous stimulus. The theory argues that temperament and intelligence, among other individual traits, are influenced by nurture. Empiricists believe that humans are born with nothing in their brains, like blank slates, and get all information from the environment.[1]. Therefore, everything they portray in their behaviors is obtained from the outside environment, and thus, they were not born with anything remarkable. The inherited or innate factors have minimal effect on human behaviors; thus, nature cannot be considered to influence an individual's traits. Therefore, all behaviors are acquired through personal interactions with the environment.

The social learning theory argues that people learn through seeing, coping, and practicing the observed behaviors. The theory argues that the environment and human behaviors determine one another through reciprocal determinism. The theory states that nurture significantly impacts human behavior since one can learn from interactions with other people in society. People develop other people's behaviors by observing them and assimilating how they do things.[2]. After assimilating, they imitate the behavior, especially if their experiences are positive. Imitation of behavior involves the actual reproduction of the observed activities. For instance, if a child observes parents visiting children's homes to offer material assistance like foodstuffs and clothing, the child will likely mimic those behaviors. If the parents are rewarded through praise and appreciation by the needy children, their children will be encouraged to do the same. However, the influence also applies to the harmful behaviors an individual might observe from others. For instance, a new employee observes and imitates the behaviors of peers. If the peers are engaging in harmful behavior contradicting the workplace culture, the new employee might develop such inappropriate traits. Therefore, nurture plays a significant role in human beings.Nurture affects the mental health of human beings. Some genetic aspects may create a foundation for a particular disease, but the chances of a person developing the illness depends mainly on the surrounding. When a gene indicates a chance of mental illness development, the information might be used to nurture behavior to reduce the severity of the disease.[3]. However, if such a factor is ignored, it might result in the illness getting severe, thus affecting the individual. Therefore, nurture is more significant to human mental well-being.Human beings learn behaviors from classical and operant conditioning. People are born with nothing in their mind; thus, ‘tabula rasa’[4]. Human beings are encouraged to engage in practices that have positive reinforcement. When an individual is born, they elicit responses automatically. For instance, whenever a child sees the parent get home with a game jacket, he might get excited because he has associated the jacket with a trip to the park. The child is already conditioned by the previous experiences of the parent wearing a game jacket during trips to the park. Therefore, the individual's experience has shaped their behavior when presented with certain things, thus nurturing.

Childhood experiences have significant effects on our adulthood. The individuals` early experiences shape their beliefs about themselves and the world, thus nurturing can prevent adverse early experiences[5]. For instance, a child who has grown up in an abusive environment tends to fear other people in society, believing that children are constantly abused. Such a child is affected by previous experiences in the early stages of life. If the child is not nurtured differently, they might adopt the abusive behavior and find themselves acting the same in adulthood as other children. However, if the child's environment is changed before she can observe the behaviors of the adults, the chances of becoming abusive in adulthood are minimal. Moreover, a child born in a healthy environment but later still at younger age gets transferred to a toxic neighborhood is most likely to assimilate the behaviors in the new place. Therefore, nurture plays a significant role in human beings.

Counter Argument

There are some controversies about the influence of nature on human behavior. Radical behaviorism argues that human beings are born with innate behaviors and thus recognize the role of biological components such as genes in behaviors.[6]. For instance, a child can be born to singer parents, but unfortunately, they succumb in an accident. After some years, the child might start singing songs similar to those the parents practiced. These features resulted from parental genes. Another example is a professor who gets agitated as the semester ends. The behavior is explained by internal factors such as lack of sleep due to hours spent preparing grade reports. Therefore, nurture does not have a significant role in human beings.

Some studies oppose the idea that nurture plays the most significant role in shaping human beings. Several research studies on twins separated immediately from birth reveal that nature plays a significant role in human behaviors. The twins are observed to have common behaviors even without interacting with each other. Both children also show some similarities despite growing up in different environments whose features are not similar. The environment has little impact on the personality of the twins. Therefore, the studies reveal that genes are essential in developing various features, such as sexual orientation.[7]. Moreover, some oppose the idea that nurture impacts the mental illness of a human being. If the genetic variant indicates the possibility of an illness, it might not be easy to prevent an individual from it. One cannot nurture a behavior to prevent some genetic issues from occurring. The genetic factors are rooted in individuals and cannot be easily influenced by the physical environment. Therefore, nurture does not have a significant role in human beings.

Response to Counter Argument

Genetic factors can be influenced by life experiences, thus opposing the argument that genes have a more significant role in human beings. Positive experiences, including; exposure to high-quality learning opportunities and negative factors such as toxic environment, can reformat the combination that converts genes in the brain. The change might be short or long term through epigenetic modification. Moreover, the environment can influence genes, but biological factors cannot impact society. Therefore, the environment has a more significant role in human beings than innate.

It is impossible to change an extreme environment because some primary factors are present in some surroundings but lacking in others. Some social behaviors like religiosity and sexual orientation cannot be genetically influenced but can only be learned from the physical environment.[8]. Personal experiences and environment form their beliefs and attitudes. The beliefs influence human behaviors and shape our actions, widely becoming part of our culture, which shapes others in society. Children's genetics are determined much by their experiences in the environment. Therefore, nurture has a more significant role in human beings.

Conclusion

Nurture includes various environmental variables that influence a human being. People's experiences in childhood, family, culture and social relationships have a more significant role in shaping an individual. Both nature and nurture have influences on human beings. However, nurturing has a more significant impact because it involves all of a person's interactions since conception. Human experiences influence genetic factors in the outside world. The children born with deformations due to mothers` exposure to a toxic environment determine the genetic factor. Therefore, nurture can influence nature; hence the former has a significant role in human beings.

Bibliography

Biglan Anthony, Flay Brian, Embry Dennis, and Sandler Irwin, The Critical Role of Nurturing Environments for Promoting Human Wellbeing (2012)

Biglan Anthony, Ryzin Mark, and Hawkins David Evolving a More Nurturing Society to Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (2017)

Duschinsky Robert, Tabula Rasa, and Human Nature: Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2012) 

Gericke N, Carver R, Castera J, Evangelista N, Marre C, and El-Hani C, Exploring Relationships Among Belief in Genetic Determinism, Genetic Knowledge and Social Factors (2017)

Malone John, John B. Watson (2017)

Nabavi Razieh, Bandura's Social Learning Theory and Social Cognitive Learning Theory (2012)

[1] Malone John, John B. Watson (Researchgate, 2017), 5