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Post by E on Jun 12, 2009 12:42:50 GMT -5
I agonized over where to put this and brought it here because it is a personal path, or topic on beliefs if you will.
Nature vs Nurture is the debate over how much of our personalities, tastes and behaviors are genetic and how much of that is learned.
The Nature side is that which is inherent (involved in the constitution or essential character of something- merriam webster) or hard wired into us by genetic factors.
The Nurture side is that which is your life experience reflected in you. Your learned behaviors which come from developmental influences.
Psychologist Donald Hebb is said to have once answered a journalist's question of "which, nature or nurture, contributes more to personality?" by asking in response, "which contributes more to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width?". This brings up an interesting perspective, is N vs N a 50/50? Which leads into, is Nurture affected by Nature?
I have to run for now, Mommy duties are calling. I've got more on the Big Five personality traits and moral debates.
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bear
Full Member
Posts: 104
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Post by bear on Jun 12, 2009 20:24:53 GMT -5
I've always been very much in the "nurture" camp. Until Little Bear. She is so much like her birth mother. We did everything we could do for the first 3 years of this child's life to keep her away from all things "pink" and "princessey" because we didn't want to program her into gender stereotypes. I even bought her boys clothes to keep her out of pinks.
Guess what her favorite color is: pink.
And she loves everything that is girly-girl.
She even wraps herself in a blanket and walks around the house the same way her birth mother does.
On the other hand, I think she has mine and Mrs. Bear's sense of humor.
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Post by MsAriel on Jun 15, 2009 8:00:26 GMT -5
I think it can be a combination of both. There are things I do and say that are very much like my parents (keep in mind I'm adopted as well), and there are other things, specifically my political leanings and spiritual leanings that are almost the direct opposite of them.
All growing up I have always wondered how they can think the way they do on certain things, and I simply don't get it.. Especially certain prejudices they seem to harbor. Now I could attribute some of my politics to my best friend who has always been very much a Democrat. So that could fall into the Nurture category since I was influenced by part of my environment.
My kids are also another example. They live with their father and step-mother and spend way more time with them than they do me. My daughter is almost a carbon copy of myself in both looks and in the way she acts and reacts to things. I never realized how much of a Drama Queen I was as a teenager until I see my daughter acting that way.
So I guess the bottom line is, there is always a combination because we are all influenced by our environment, which is more than our genetic parents or family.
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Post by blackrose on Jun 15, 2009 8:01:49 GMT -5
Psychologist Donald Hebb is said to have once answered a journalist's question of "which, nature or nurture, contributes more to personality?" by asking in response, "which contributes more to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width?". This brings up an interesting perspective, is N vs N a 50/50? Which leads into, is Nurture affected by Nature? I generally agree with him - I think that both Nature and Nuture play a large role in our make-up, and that sometimes it's rather hard to try and separate where one lets off and the other begins... I have never understood why some people seem so vehemently to pick one side over the other. It always seemed rather silly to me, actually. Of course we are shaped by our genetics, and of course we are shaped by our experiences, and of course we are still responsible for the people that we are and the way we behave, regardless... "It is our choice, Harry... " Anyway - I suppose that I tend to see the nature part as predispositions, and then the nurturing shapes how these predispositions are expressed, or repressed. It's far more complicated than that, of course, but that's the gist as I see it. I think you can act against your nature - ideas of what you should be, which often come through nurture - but that we are often happiest acting according to our nature, and we just have to find the best ways of expressing ourselves within the confines and strictures of society.
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Post by blackrose on Jun 18, 2009 9:42:06 GMT -5
I just wanted to add that when I think of Nature I tend to think of Essential Nature - which is sort of a mixture of biology/genetics, soul/essence/whatever, as well as a bit of psychology, which, itself, is sort of a mixture of nature and nurture... So when I talk about going against your nature, I'm referring to your true Selfdom, and not just to genetic markers...
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Post by E on Jun 18, 2009 22:10:42 GMT -5
I'd like to think that we are a combination of N & N. I mean there is only so much that one can do to go against Nature (genetics, family teachings and predispositions). I think alot of nature is nurtured into us though.
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simplykali
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Mid-Coast Maine REPRESENT!
Posts: 47
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Post by simplykali on Aug 27, 2009 21:21:16 GMT -5
Scientifically speaking, part of us that is nature and not nurture is our basic intelligence. Studies have shown that the intelligence of the genetic relatives greatly influences the intelligence of the child. They studied this with adoptive children. The scientists tested the intelligence of the birth parents, the child, and the adoptive parents. If the child is in a home with very intelligent parents and the child's birth parents are of poor intelligence, in general, the child with most likely have poor intelligence, despite the adoptive parent's effort to nurture the child's general intelligence.
The scientists also found, however, that the morals and life lessons from the adoptive parent's had a huge impact on the child's life choices, how they learned from mistakes, and what core values the child had as he or she progressed and grew up.
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Post by MsAriel on Aug 28, 2009 10:08:44 GMT -5
That's interesting, Kali...I know the basics of what I believe is right and wrong I definitely learned from my parents. However other things are vastly different. So different we're almost on the opposite ends of the spectrum. But my sister is very much cut from the same cloth as our parents.
The funny thing, at least to my family, is that my mother, sister, and I all look generally alike; so alike that people have commented on how much my mother and I look like each other.
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Post by E on Aug 29, 2009 22:12:10 GMT -5
Is it coloring Ms A like being blonde or brunette or is it hair style and application of makeups do you think? Facial structure is facial structure in any human but I believe that one learns specific expressions from their parents and therefore "look" more like them.
So I'd say that the way we hold our facial muscles is nurtured as much as nature.
What do you think?
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Post by MsAriel on Aug 31, 2009 7:44:51 GMT -5
Well, my mother was a natural red head, and my sister had red hair when she was born, which turned blonde. I was a toe-head when I was a baby. We're all about 5'2" +/- as well. There was one time my mom and I went into McDonald's when I was working there, and one of the ladies, who had never met my mother, knew she was my mom due to how much we looked like each other. When I have my hair short, like I do now, we do look alike. Mom and I just laugh about it. Then again, half the time I don't even think about being adopted, and kind of assume that most people know. I do agree that mannerisms get picked up, but that would be true for a biological child as well. We pick up things from friends and other relatives, children especially when they get to school.
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