Nature or nurture

When we are often ask questions about behavior people tend to look at home because they say "charity begins at home" so that automatically means behaviors are inherited "if I'm not mistaken" I've seen several podcast about this particular subject matter and to my greatest surprise we haven't really come to the conclusion on if behaviors are learned or inherited rather they drew a thin line between them.

Now here I am to talk about the same subject matter. Well, I'm gonna try to put some things together though. Ever been in an African where a visitor comes and starts watching your every move, then, after concentrating on you for a while, they end up saying, "Ahh! This girl, you are behaving like your mother or father," or they might say you possess certain traits of your parents. It is crystal clear that certain traits, like the color of our eyes or skin, can be inherited, but when it comes to behavior, I think it is more complicated.

Instead of focusing my attention on trying to pick a particular one, I've decided to go with both because they both affect our lives. Come to think of it, what if I'm an early bird or a late bird, or maybe I'm a completely neat person, does that have to do with a genetic trait? I believe behaviors are both inherited and learned because nature and nurture are our genetic endowment and then our life experiences and situations determine our behavior.

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But then people also went further into saying that the contribution from our genes is more than we can actually imagine. "How true is that?" Haven't you seen a child who grew up in a good home becoming something entirely different from the home training he got from home?

Little story: there was this girl in my school back then in senior secondary school. When she first started school we were all envious of her because from the way she talked and did things, you would know this person was raised in a good home with strong values and good morals. Often she would tell us how her parents taught her kindness and honesty, which is accompanied by hard work.

This girl was very bright and accomplished in her academics; however, as time passed, she started associating with a group of people whose values are totally different from hers. This girl began to hang around her new friends, as days turned to weeks, she started to adopt their behaviors and attitudes, which were completely contrary to the behaviors she learned from her parents.

She started skipping classes and getting into trouble in school. I can remember a time when she got involved in some minor delinquency. So behaviors can be inherited from home, but then they can also be learned when we start associating with peers, observing, and imitating others. I've come to the conclusion that learned behaviors can override inherited behaviors because it has to do with our daily experiences and the environment we find ourselves in.

Thanks for reading 🧡