Influence of Nature in Terms of Explaining How We Become Who We Are - Assignment Example

DISCUSS THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE AND NURTURE IN TERMS OF EXPLAINING HOW WE BECOME WHO WE ARE Introduction The of the growth of human beings has been one of the most interesting subjects in the world. It has attracted a number of scholars who have been researching on the issue of evolution of human being right from how they are born and how they developed. The first postulation about the evolution of human by Charles Darwin opened a new chapter of debate on the relative importance of innate qualities in the way we grow up. There has been debate on the issue of how our nature which is a combination of several factors including natives or inmates affect out whole development as we grow up. The subject of debate on this issue has been the influence of the nature of the environmental factors that influence how individual develop behavior and other relative practices as they mature. The topic of human development has been viewed in line with the innate factors which are the genetic make up of a person and the environmental factors which nature the growth of a person. The two have been shown to be responsible to the individual differences that are evident in all people as they grow up. The individual differences in physical development and behaviors have largely been attributed to the genetic make up of the person and the growth environment. Therefore both nature and nurture factors plays an interactive role in the development of a whole person. There is still not clear evidence research of which between the two factors nature and nurture contributes more to the personality of a person. Therefore the main debate has been between which of the two factors the generic make up of a person or the growth environment greatly contributed to there overall development at the end determines their personality. Nature vs. nurture Our nature is defined by the genetic make up of a person. This descried the innate qualities that we have in our bodies which represent the natural factors of growth which we tend to inherit from our parents. Since the early 19th century scientist Charles Darwin theory of evolution estimated that all human behaviors was instinctive, there have been many debates that have been trying to explore the postulation. Since there this postulation by Darwin has not remained a dominant view but there is still thinking with us that there are some factors that we see that are clearly inherited from the parent. For example there has been a lot of issues about the born criminals which means that there are some people who are both with criminal elements insides them and which shows a pattern of being inherited from the pastures. It looks like it is factual that our ancestral history somehow us to form certain species in the animal kingdom. In places where there are various situations, natural selection and heredity, there has to be a form of evolution. Under this postulation, the unique gene combination which is composed in the mother's egg and which is later completed by the father's sperm helps us to become the distinct individuals that were. This means that gene helps us to form our humanity and is responsible for the individual differences that we find in this world. There has been issue with other social psychologists who have been arguing against his biological postulating of the genetic theory. (Schbert 2006, p. 70) There is lot of difference that we find in the world which can be attributed directly to nature. These include factors that have brought bout variation in all the species. There is a wider variation that can be found between species and at the same time that is a specific variation that can be found between different individuals of the same specific. Motivation, personality, crime, ambition, leadership skills are all factors that can be attracted the nature or to the genetic factors that we have. Men and women are very different from each other. In a wider variation there is the animal kingdom and there is the plant kingdom. This is a wider variation that has been created by nature and which can be directly attributed to the genetic difference in the world. But there is a narrow variation in each kingdom. For example in the animal kingdom there are human beings and there are other animals like dogs. A dog is different from the human beings. There is a further variation in the human being species that can also be attributed to the nature. For example we have seen that men and women are totally difference. Further variation can also be found in each individual. For example there are short and tall men and women there are brown and black men and worm. The variation according to nature further continues. According to the discussion that was igniting by Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert, there is a lot of effect of social theory that determine how our genetic make up finally express. According to Herbert, Horton was an idealist or a mentalist for whom imaginations were solid facts of the society instead of symbolic interaction. Cooley expresses the Cartesian body-mind dualism which is in disagreement with idealisms and behaviorism. Therefore he had an ultimate aim of creating a communalization theory and understanding as the most important factors in a pragmatic society. Therefore the two come with a conclusion of a sociological theory of social order and social changes. (Fuhrman, 2000, p. 87) When we are conceived we get a total of 46 chromosomes in the genetic make up of our body. 23 chromosomes are contributed by the mother while the other 23 chromosome are contributed by the father. Therefore we receive half of our father and half of our mothers. This means that under normal condition we are likely to have inherited the character for our mother and our father alike. This is why it has been shown the there are a lot of similarity between the child and the parent. There is a fact or the more strong genes in the process of conception and therefore there will be one gene that will express itself more than the other. When we are born we either take the physical form of our father or our mother. But why is it that we are not also like our mother or our father Why is it identical twins are not also why the same In one study that was to find out whether we are entirely constituted of our genetic make, identical twin were reared apart and then compared in a random study. The twin shared identical gene but they were brought up under different environment. In another study identical twins were brought up together which means they shared the same family and environmental conditions and then they were compared to fraternal two who have been brought up together. In this case fraternal twins share half of their genes. It is to be found out that there will be a difference that will be evident between the two set of twins. The difference is brought about by the environment under which the two twin live. (Alberta 1998, p. 76) If we closely follow the earlier postulation by Darwin about natural evolution, we will find that that theory was based on the ability for the species to live under the changing environmental condition. Therefore it means that there is an influence of the environment on the way we live. This explains the nurture aspect of what determines who we are at the end. Psychology like John Watson were the first critics of the genetically theory of evolution. They challenged the naturalistic perception of our developed and came up with an approach of the behaviorism. Watson claimed that all human behavior is learned and is dictated by the environment under which we develop. There were others worked by anthropologist which illustrated the great cultural variation that exits in the world. Though we have the same origin according to the naturalistic perspective it is evident that there are a lot of variations that is evident between different human beings in the world. This work supports the postulation by Watson. Identical twins who have been brought under different conditions will definitely exhibit different personality. This is contrary to the identical twins that have been brought under the same condition that may have an almost similar personality. This has been explained by the variation that we acquire as we grow with is contributed by the experience that we have in the growth environment. In the womb, in our fails, in our social relationship and in other environment factor, there are various elements that affect the way we grow up. Nature explains the differences that are evident between us. Nature affect us in the design an in the way that we are unculturalised. Our natural development expect certain nurture for tuning the genetic make up that we have in order to help them to express. Therefore nature helps the innate response to express in any situation. The evolution theory is such a postulation that shows that we are made of experiences which is traced to many years ago. Therefore humans are made of special forms of matter which bring experience of million years together to the presence form of human. Therefore nurture explains the factors that affect our nature in order to mould our personality. A young human who has been brought up in a family of monkey will exhibit similar behaviors like monkeys. Likewise chimpanzees which have been brought in the same nature with human have been shown to exhibit human characters. These are some of the things that tell us that our nature is not enough to determine who we group to be but there is also the input of the experience that we have over the years. Contemporary social science does not prove that natural biology does not have a role to play in our development and in shaping our human behaviors. This is because it recognizes that human physical traits are very much linked to inherit factors which are the genes. There are also some charactrsitsics in our life like intelligence, potential to excel in education and in other subject which will be highly linked to the genetic make up of the person. Therefore the modern social science recognizes that the issue of nature and nurture are the same and linked. There has been recognition that some for the trait in our life like the native language are not found in our genetic make up. A young child will learn the language that is commonly used in the growing environment. Therefore the environmental factor cannot be dismissed and are important in determining the grown up individual. Linguistics has found out that any child is capable of learning any language so long as they are brought up in an environment under which that language is spoken. Environmental factors have also been found to very much influence the behavior pattern that we develop with. Behavior depends on our culture and other home practices and it is also depend on those who are around us. We must differentiate between behaviors and traits. Our behaviors are dictates by what we learn from others who are around us and on the other hand traits are departmental on the heritable factors that are passed on to our parents. For example we may learn the English language because we have grown up in an environment where the language is spoken. But our mastery of the language will be different. Some of us will have mastered the language better than others. Masterey of the language is a natural trait that will depend on our intelligence. This will be determined by the natural ability of our IQ that we have inherited from our parents. (Gutman 1998, p. 86) Nature vs. nurture in our growth The example that we have given above will have two aspects in the making. Our mastery English language will be affected to the natural IQ that we have inherited from our parents. But it will also be determined by the environmental and the personal effort that we have put into practice. If a child is brought up in a family where the parents emphasize one need to communicate in English language and allows communication with the child in the language the child may develop an interest and therefore to master the language. If there is another child who is brought up in a family where parents speak another language and the child learns the language only in school, the child is not likely to master the language well. It has been shown that family environmental factor have an effect on the childhood IQ development. The family environment accounts for variance of the in the child IQ factors. Therefore the IQ of the child which is the genetic make up will be changed by the growth environmental for the child. There have been studies that have used the example of the personality to show heritable traits and how they are affected by the genetic make up and the environmental factors. An example of this can be that on the twins that we had looked up earlier. Identical twins who have been brought apart are more similar in personality that any other randomly selected pair of people. They are also likely to be more similar than that same pair of the fraternal twins. This shows that the nature of the personal is very important in determining the personality of that person. These examples shows that personality is a heritable trait but which can be changed by the environmental factors. This shows that our nature is somehow affected by our nurture. This is because our genetic make up need other environmental factors in order to express to the full. The process of socialization is very important since it helps us to attain the valuables that help to live with one other. The foundation of the society and the culturalization process is also important since it helps to orient us to the basic of the society. At the need this is important since it helps to attain social order. (Bolender 2004, p. 73) References Alberta, A 1998, The concordance of Geore Herbert Mead's social self, Journal of Economic issue, Vol. 32 Bolender, J 2004, A pragmatic society, American Sociological Review 32, Issue 8 Fuhrman, E. R 2000, Cooley, Charles Horton, American Council of Learned Societies: Oxford University Press Gutman, R 1998, Cooley: A perspective, American Sociological Review 23:3. Pp: 251-256. Schbert, J 2006, The foundation of Pragmatic sociology, Journal of Classical sociology, Vol. 6, Issue 1, p. 67-87 Read More