Nature vs Nurture: What Really Shapes Who We Become?

Human behavior has been undertaken study for so long yet we still can’t seem to fully comprehend how humans think and believe. Scientifically, behavior refers to a range of actions exhibited in response to a stimuli of the environment. In relation to the study of human behavior and traits, Sigmund Freud’a psychoanalytic model argued that behavior is shaped by earth childhood experiences. On another scope. Ivan Pavlov argues that all behaviors are learned through our interactions with the environment. Charles Darvon also says that all thoughts, feelings and behaviors have a biological cause.

There’s actually a lot more of these theories, but what we can deduce from all these diverse school of thought is that there’s not just one thing we can pinpoint to and say is the main determinants of human behavior or traits. Every human is unique in his own way and our traits and behaviors can be both learnt and from inwards. I say this because a lot of factors contribute to who we are today, how we behave and how we even respond to situations. This is where the issue of nature and nurture comes in.

Everyone of us obviously grew up in the family as we are all born into one. Our first point of learning is our family as they are the first people we come into contact with. And as we all know, children tend to learn from what they see people doing around them. So, this first contact already starts to shape you into who you are even before you become self conscious. So, I’d like to assume that before you become self conscious, you’re running on behaviors you learn and were thought by people are around you, your experiences and what you see on the daily basis. This is where correction comes in, because not everything around you is obviously good and you need someone to guide you in differentiating good habits from the and bad ones.

Fast forward to when you become self conscious and you’re finding out more about who you really are. This is the stage where you start making changes to your habits to fit into your thoughts of who you really are or want to be. So, in as much as we say that a child’s upbringing plays a huge role in who he becomes in the future, discovering his true self also contributes to this. There’s this saying that if a child will spoil, he will spoil and I believe it’s true to some extent. I’ve seen children grow up in households with strong morals and values yet along the line these children go rouge and the same way I’ve also seen children from be very unstable families turn out very well. I believe it’s all about ten individuals and their choices.

Some people don’t want to grow up to reflect the situations they grew up in and this is mostly for people who grew up in dysfunctional families and they work so hard towards it. Others also loose themselves along the line due to their bad choices. So, it’s really not a one size fit all situation when it comes to traits. The best parents can do is to guide their kids to the right path, counsel them and teach them to be discipline. This , also coupled with prayer and hopes that your child actually takes the right path is the best a parent can do. The rest is just up to the individual himself to make the right choice for him or herself.

I hope you enjoyed this, thank you for your time.

all images belong to me.