A Lot of Styles of Parenting Exist - Essay Example

Nature VS. Nurture Sur s Nowadays there are a lot of styles of parenting exist. About all of them are written many books and articles about parenting as a magnet attract users in the Internet. At the heart of these endless debates about how is better to raise children, is the idea of the special importance of education. However, there is one question that participants of parental wars are seldom asked: what if the style of parenting is not so strong influence on children? Meanwhile, according to a number of studies based on the observation of twins and adopted brothers and sisters, parents are not so important, as we are assured by moms, dads and powerful music teachers. Studies show that when it comes to such things as the character, health and chances for success in life, nature (genes) usually outweighs education. Giving priority to nature, we recognize heredity as the basic condition for the development. Preferring to consider nurture as the basic condition for the development, scientists are actively studying the environmental factors and their influence on the process of developing childs personality. Nature and nurture are related in such a way that the contribution of the one factor is added to the contribution of the other. However, in real life both factors have a mutual influence on each other. As the children grow up, they are becoming less and less dependent on the maturation, which means the changes in the body, deriving more or less automatically in a given sequence by irreversible physical and chemical processes. Education and nurture become to be on the forefront. It is important to mention that in the process of learning the human body undergoes changes by responding: as children get older, their minds are not being revealed, but formed (Baker, Ezdijian & Raine, 41). Childrens behavior is influenced by six factors. Three of them belong to heredity (temperament, inherited vulnerability and certain medical conditions), and three - to education (quality of relations between parents and child at birth, presence, intensity and duration of the stress factors, the type and quality of the environment). Childrens behavior, intelligence, emotional self-control depends on the complex interplay of many genetic variables, supplemented by specific environmental factors. Heredity and education interact with each other, forming childs personality and inner identity. In addition, the importance of the effect of these two factors is enhanced with functional age. In the first three years of life the childs personality is influenced by the relationship between the parents and his temperament. As child gets older biological temperament loses its significance, and first place takes environment (people, atmosphere, everything that a child sees and knows, stresses that he has experienced), supported by genetically determined vulnerability. According to studies, even in the presence of genetic "weaknesses" (which make us susceptible to certain diseases), we still can affect the way they show up or not. Our brain is also different amazing flexibility: genetic structure of the brain, as well as the impact of the environment to which it is exposed, affects the formation of personality throughout life. Scientists have shown that strong shocks, depression and stress can actually affect the structure and functioning of the brain. Therefore, human beings do not exist in unchangeable physical body or the social system, but they exist in a world where complex interactions occur constantly, giving impetus to the development process. Individuals become active agents that form both themselves and the world around them. Their actions are changing the world in which they live, and thus humans are formed and changed as a result of their own activities. This dynamic interaction between the individual and his environment is the basis of human intelligence, knowledge and culture. In the depths of us the program lies (character qualities or disease) which was transmitted to us by blood ancestors and it inevitably finds its manifestation. The human brain is an extremely complex structure, which depends on more than thirty thousand genes. Supporters of the paramount influence of heredity as arguments cite numerous studies according to which most aspects of behavior and mental health are given by nature. Proponents of this theory argue that identical twins, separated at birth and raised in completely different conditions, often have very similar traits (Pinker, 47). It is clear that the implementation of human socialization requires appropriate genetic basis, as well as an adequate environment. Since human beings had to adapt to their environment, they needed the ability to communicate with each other. Indeed, any social interaction involves communication, which is the process through which people exchange information, ideas, opinions, and states of mind. It includes all the verbal and nonverbal processes by which the person sends and receives messages. Not being able to communicate, people would have been locked up in their own private little world. Communication allows us to establish a "community" with each other. This is an essential mechanism through which people achieve social goals. Communication helps people to coordinate complex group activities as well as it is an expression of institutional life (Westen, 54). Language has allowed human beings to cross the boundaries of biological evolution. If biological evolution is performed only by genes, cultural transmission occurs by verbal information. For many years, social scientists have argued that babies are born without innate ability to use speech. But then, linguists began to trace the similarities in different languages (Buss, 121). Apparently, the entire worlds languages have nouns and verbs, using all languages people can ask questions, give commands and deny approval. Moreover, children learn their language almost without effort, although they have to learn a whole set of extremely complex and abstract rules according to which happens semantic transformation of sound chains. Even deaf children have a strong inclination to communicate using language means. People are also able to understand and reproduce the countless proposals, even those which they had never heard or uttered before. Language is a unique attribute of human being. Psychologists in their experiments have taught chimpanzees and gorillas many different things, including the use of symbols. However, the methods of learning animals are quite different from those natural ways using which children learn and get many other skills. In the evolution of chimpanzees and gorillas does not happen anything that would allow them to create their own symbols for communication. Consequently, they do not have unique abilities to speech and thinking characteristic of normal human beings. Nevertheless, it is not enough to have proper genetic basis to succeed in communication. To learn the language children must have an opportunity to communicate with other people using this language. Generally, the acquisition of language skills cannot be understood by studying the genetic factors and learning processes in isolation from each other. Biochemical processes, maturation factors, learning strategies and social environments are in constant complex and dynamic interaction. None of this aspects itself is not able to make people to talk in their own language. Although babies have genetically inherent plan, which directs them to language and speech, this ability can be acquired only in a social context. Human qualities is a social product, the result of socialization - the process of social interaction in which people acquire the knowledge, attitudes, principles, and learn the rules of behavior which are necessary for a successful life in society. Due to socialization simple biological organism is transformed into a personality - a truly social being. Countless studies show that the environment in which person lives and is brought up to a large extent may affect the aggressiveness and problematic behavior. A terrible birth experience or complications during them, as well as cold attitude to the child from the mothers increases the risk of detachment of violence and aggression in adolescents and adults. Studies compiled a list of economic factors that have a significant impact on childs behavior: poverty, death of parents or lack of work, malnutrition or poor nutrition, homelessness, drug abuse by parents, domestic violence and insecurity in the family. Percentage of behavioral disorders among young children significantly reduces in cases where families receive support from the pre-school and health facilities, rehabilitation clinics and various special programs (Symons, 62). Without socialization revival of culture from generation to generation would be impossible. Human beings are totally dependent on social heritage, created by countless generations of their ancestors for thousands of years. Due to the cultural heritage each new generation is able to move forward, having the achievements of the previous generations as a base. Without communication and interaction society could not exist. Individuals would not have the general skills and understanding they need to coordinate their actions and combine individual life in a single social system. Sure, nobody says that parents do not mean anything. Of course, they can expose children to a more or less reasonable choice, especially in the short term. The question is how strong the long-term parental influence? Scientists are actively trying to find an answer on it, and every year there is new information, but until nature looks much more important factor.]\ Thus, we can draw the following conclusion - intelligence and individual abilities can be both inherited and developed, but the personality itself as a system of ethical values is a purely social product. The human body is not a passive object programmed by internal genetic forces or formed under the influence of the external environment (Westen, 74). Hereditary and environmental factors are intertwined and determine each other. That is why, perhaps, it has always been given so much attention on training and education of the younger generation in society. References 1. Baker, Laura; Ezdijian, S. & Raine, A. (2006). "The Science of Antisocial Behaviour". Behavioural Genetics (Durham, NC: Duke University School of Law) 69: 7–46. 2. Buss, D. M. (2011). Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind (4 ed.). New York: Prentice Hall. 3. Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E., & McGuffin, P. (2008). Behavioral Genetics (5th edition). New York: Worth Publishers. 4. Halwani, Sana; Krupp (2004). "The Genetic Defense: The Impact of Genetics on the Concept of Criminal Responsibility". Health Law Journal 12: 35–70 5. Pinker, S. (2004) Why nature & nurture wont go away. Dædalus. 6. Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E., & McGuffin, P. (2008). Behavioral Genetics (5th edition). New York: Worth Publishers. 7. Ridley, M. (2003) Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, & What Makes Us Human. Harper Collins 8. 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