Are you a product of your environment?

Question

Everything form your neighborhood,friends,your parents,other adults.If you are brought up with no morale and do not know right from wrong is there an age when you do learn.Or do you end up just like your parnets.And if you are brought up with morale and know right from wrong can you stray from what you know.

No your not nature, at least not all nature if anything maybe both.

And is there a point in your life when it is to late to change because you have been taught to think and act a certin way your whole life and that's all you know.

Answer 1

I think that we are all a product of our enviroment to one degree or another. Our parents influence us even if we are not openly aware of it. Friends influence us, relationships influence us and happy or tragic events in our life influence us. Different things influence people differently and to variable degrees. That is why two people from the same family can have completely different personalities. There is truth in the saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", but as with many things there is that one exception. An apple appearing to fall far from the tree may also bring to light unknown family secrets also. It is not simple.

Answer 2

ahh the old nature verses nurture argument......

If the sum total of me was my mother plus my father equals me then I would be a neurotic, controlling, violent, racist, alcoholic that has no empathy.

I am not.

I learnt right from wrong in many ways. I spent time with other people too and thankfully they were not like my parents and I heard lots of other opinions ideas values and morals.

However I did feel inside whether some things were right or wrong and their is no explicable way to determin how I knew these things I just did.

Some things I learnt by simply realising that since I did not like to be treated this way or that then it made sense not to treat others that way.

A lot of learning is internalised in such a way it would be impossible to determine just how it happens.

Likewise I have known a lot of people that had good strong guidance from the parents in positive ways and some of those people have gone astray from their families views.

My present partner said to me that he thought I had to have had a very good upbringing because I have good manners and one thing he notes about people is how they hold their cutlery. He always believed that you could tell if a person had a good pbringing by how they hold their cutlery. So he was curious that if my family were not so 'good' how come I hold my cutlery correctly. I don't really know. Perhaps it is because I am lefthanded, a sign of evil in my family's superstitions, and whenever I ate with other people I would wait for them to take up their cutlery and watch what they did so that I knew which hand to hold the fork in. Perhaps I learned more than which hand to use by observation.

How much is determined by nature? How much is determined by nurture? How much is determined by the individuals capacity to learn by experience and to understand the experience in new ways. How much is determined by the individuals desire to fit in to the society they live in? The answer to these questions will never be fully resolved. We are after all an evolving creature that adapts, adopts, learns, and understands on many levels throughout our life span and we continually change how we think feel and experience things.

Answer 3

Are you a product of your environment? Or, is the environment a product of you? Happens all of the time. Good kids go bad, and bad kids go good. Classic example of this is Butch O'Hare. His father was a two-bit accountant for the mob in Chicago. Butch grew up on the streets. Watched a few people get mowed down with "Tommy" guns. Butch ended up in the Navy, flying fighter planes in WW II. Butch became quite a hero at the battle of Midway. O'hare Int. Airport is named in his honor. On the other end of that spectrum, we could look at the boys in the Columbine shooting (Harris and Clebold). Both came from an "affluent" neighborhood. They had everything an "underpriviledged" kid could only dream of and still...
People have the innate ability to learn and grow. Most, somewhere along the way, figure out that their parents weren't always perfect but instead of crying "It's not my fault, I was raised this way," mature into adults who hopefully will assume some responsibility for themselves, their actions, or inactions. It's called choice. And sometimes, we need professional help to sort out all of the wrong answers we were programmed with from an early age from the good answers. The question then becomes, what is an inherited trait and what was learned?

Hope this is engaging and most of all, hope this helps.

Answer 4

I don't believe that you are a product of your environment. Somewhere along the lines of all corruption whether it's when you are young or maybe in your later years, you at some point stop to think about what else is there. I think we make conscious efforts to better ourselves, but as we too often see we loose sight of what is correct and right to do. Ultimately we either choose to use bad judgment one too many times or we stray from what we know and do the opposite.

Answer 5

I was brought up in a very abusive home. I went through several fostor homes. I was a very angry child. I did not grow up to be abusive. I did not marry an abusive man. I did not give up my children like my parents did. I have allowed myself to learn to love. I allowed myself to be a compassionate person. I think its all about what you want out of life. It doesnt require you to be a strong person, it just requires you to want to be a better person. My father was in the military, there were a lot of people who knew what was going on in my home, but they looked the other way. I wont do that to a child. You dont have to be like your parents if you dont want to be. Your only who you decide to be. You can break the cycle.

Answer 6

Well, I grew up in foster homes and children homes and at times on the street. I have 4 siblings, 3 are like the parents. Then my baby sister and I chose not to go that way. We stepped out and went on our own path.

We knew right from wrong, but never learned that from the family but on our journeys thru life. I refused to turn out like my mother.

I have 3 foster sisters who had the best up bringing, however, they ended up the ones to go thru all the things they once thought "That will never happen with our children" so Say's their parents and yet, it did.

They took me in to teach their girls a lesson and in turn I was was the only one who learned a thing!

Not to keep up with the Jones', because they really are not as Hip and on top of things as it appears from the outside.

Answer 7

There is no objective morality. You learn right and wrong from birth. There is no such thing as being brought up with no morale. Being considered moral or immoral is totally dependent upon your conformity to society's norms. Straying from these norms results from a variety of factors outside of your control.

Answer 8

I quess you mean morals and not morale. I was brought up in an exceptionally loving and caring and different environment. But, quess what, I still had my share of problems and made my share of mistakes.

Yes, our environment plays a huge role in who we become, but its not the only factor involved, genetics plays a role as well, as do the things that happen in the world.

Answer 9

I'd say I'm 80% a product of the American system, and 20% of my own will and self determination.
I'd say most Americans are close to 100% a product of their environment because they don't have the courage to challenge the forces that shape them.

Answer 10

No. I'm my nature VIA my nurture. When are you sociologists going to get this?

PS> You obviously misread my answer. This makes me believe you are not looking for truth, but to merely confirm your preconceptions. A true sociologist.