Nature vs. Nurture

If everything has an beginning and an end, the only thing infinite is the possibility of a new. For as many times as we repeat ourselves acting volatile, greedy, impetuous or cold, we have had the opportunity to adjust these hereditary behaviours and further our development by breaking formed habits.

I have been having some interesting conversations with people lately about their ideas of how we develop to be the people we are as adults, is it more nurture or nature? The response seems to be split when it comes to opinion, some say nature, others say nurture. For me the options themselves answer the question.

I think that nature and nurture are equally as important to one-another when formulating our personalities and choices. Nature is just that, natural, like survival instincts. Upon the first few months of our development we learn our "first round" of likes and dislikes. Now what I mean by the "first round" is that at this juvenile age we are still not as susceptible to the societal and behavioural pressures that teachers in school, the news, forums of institutionalization and so on will place on us. Moreover, the concept of morality (however much it is an ideal rather than a reality) has only vaguely come into play and this will also influence our psyches when we become more cognitive as children.

Nurture, like nature involves a level of psychology, but instead of being applicable to the public forum, I think nurture relies more heavily on the impact of your home upbringing - more directly relationship with family. They say that we repeat what we see and I think this is a feasible observation but not merely enough to be the only clutch to explain all human actions. While we can repeat what we see, we can also be outraged and discouraged by the way our parents and siblings were with us. Through the process of nurture we have the ability of changing ourselves in adulthood to break the pattern of what we disliked as youth.

As humans we are given education that will both enlighten us to be good people and teach us how to acquire selfishness so that we can gain through the fulfillment of what we think are merit desires. Nature and nurture are in a constant state of conflict with each other but the distribution of there impact is equally as vital in making us who we are.