Nature or Nurture.(Steven's)

Nature or Nurture

Many people assert that heredity (‘nature’) is more essential in infants development. Meanwhile, other people indicate that children are influenced by environment (‘nurture’). Personally, I am in favor of the latter view, this essay will discuss both sides in this debate.

Many years ago, people thought most human activity in society was guided by biological instinct, that means nature. The biologist Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution claimed that human behavior was instinctive. Some people tend to think that trait of children were affected greatly by their parents. That is to say, a child’s character is inborn, where is from their father and mother. If a child were not a clever person, finally he would not be come a successful man, even though he grown up in strongly atmosphere of study. Moreover, according to Chinese traditional culture said that man nature at birth is good. Specifically, newborns have goodness when they came to the world. When a person become a killer or murder, the most important reason is the growth of atmosphere. Although a person who has white or black skin, blue or yellow eyes and brown or black hair, the genes mainly decide that. In other words, only these features come from their parents. So I don’t think nature is important for a child’s growth.

On the other side of the debate though, many individuals argue that nurture play a significant role in human whole life.Genes decide their sex, height, weight, hair, eye color and so on through their parents. In other words, children share a lot of characteristic with their father and mother. However, when they are growing up, many differences from their parents are exposed. According to a new, a famous psychologist grew up in a working families whose parents worked in a small factory; a Spanish girl who was born in Shanghai cannot speak Spanish, because she has been lived in there twenty years and never go back to Madrid. There are so many examples about people were changed by different environment. Different experience gives them change of different and makes their features various but unique. What is more, different habits of right and wrong lead to different behaviors. For example, a boy thinks smoking is given to his health. But, if he saw his parents smoking everyday, he would want to smoking, because a little boy has curiosity, even though he thinks this is wrong. Consequently, we should not overlook the fact that nurture is of great significance not only in personality but also in one’s development.

To sum up, this essay for us to find nature and nurture can never be separated. Not only nature is a fundamental element in human behavior, but also nurture plays an essential role as well. For human, then, nature and nurture are inseparable. I think that a person who was grew up in a favorable environment and work hard will be succeed possibly.

References:

John B Watson, American Psychologis, Behaviorism (1925; revised ed., 1936) Psychological Care of Infant and Child(1928)

George Herbert Mead, anti-Watsonian

Nature and Nurture, www.nutrition.ac.cn/cmain.asp