Do you believe people can be born "bad" or they became "bad" through society and family environment?

Question

I'm reading a psychology book about the subject and was wondering what people think about this?
The book claims environment and society are the main factors to someone became violent, without society values and with no respect for life of others.

Answer 1

I agree with your book. Human are not god and not bad by nature. They are just human. Environment, society, religions and other factors influence what and who a grown up will be.

Answer 2

Without getting into the concept of original sin (since you posed this as a psychological question rather than a religious one), I would have to say that I've observed NURTURE being the culprit for behavior and personality far more than I have NATURE. As a teacher, I am amazed every year at how much of a difference a child's upbringing affects their behavior. I don't think this means we can blame society and a person's environment for their actions though- there comes a point in your life when you have to decide whether to follow what is right or what is wrong.

Answer 3

I agree. Although many would argue that it's how a person is raised, one can't ignore the fact of it being partially due to ones genetics, as well as influence from society .... hence, Jeffery Dalmer.

I've seen children come from a wealthy, educated and stable families ... and turn out to be the worst person you've ever come across. On the flip side, I've seen numerous instances where a child came from a unstable childhood ... but still came to be a responsible, capable and respected adult.

IMHO ... it's a combination of the three....genetics, society and family environment.


BTW: Thank you, for a question that requires some thought and intellect. I'm sure the other posters in here would whole-heartedly agree.

Answer 4

Their used to be a big debate on these nature vs. nurture issues, but through much research and debate, it's been pretty well shown that both are very important. It's likely that some people are born with more of a tendency toward violence, but how they are raised will determine whether that tendency shows itself. There are plenty of people from bad childhoods that lead good lives as well. But having a bad childhood defintely increases the chances that someone will become violent.

Answer 5

Yes, I do think that society has shifted that direction. An example? One busy working mom, in a newspaper piece filled with fawning enthusiasm for her lifestyle, was said to have "missed out on having any time with her children". This is a woman who admittedly was only in the same city as her kids for about 14 days in the last year. She clearly is a busineswoman who happens to have kids, rather than a working mom. I found it interesting that the "cons" of her lifestyle were framed in that way. SHE missed out on something she might have enjoyed. Not, "It was hard for the family to deal with the career". It's all about self-gratification these days.

Answer 6

books written by psychologist is not to be taken seriously,lets say,he writes a book at age 30 and at 40 he write another book and say this is more to the point and at 50 after going through another phase of life he tell you the rest is not very good,so,which one do you want to take as a guide?the environment and society at this level is due to the failure of education,the home,school,society and religious education.The new generation of parents are not education the child anymore,it is either done by the television or the computer games and they are filled with sex and violence,with a mind full of violence killing for them is only a game,they do not know it is wrong,that is why there is so many cases of minors at 12-16 shooting classmates,teachers and even parents.To prevents all this you have to starts at home,less of violence TV and games,hope we are heading towards a non-violent environment.

Answer 7

still the argument between nature vs nurture going on.Pavlov's experiments state that most of the human behavior is conditioned.some schools of thought believe that heredity plays an important role in moulding a person's personality.Freud emphasized that the experiences,traumatic in early child hood influence the character of a person a lot. but behaviorists contradict it.i feel both heredity and environment are interrelated. suppose a person was born in a family of thieves, naturally, that boy will also become a thief due to environmental influence. here we can not make a differentiation between nature or nurture. whether he has become thief due to hereditary or environment is very difficult to be judged. but if the children by birth have defects in the brains, they will certainly become psychopaths, and acquire personality disorders.in a recent study by an Indian missionary of two small girls who when they were discovered,we actually living in a wolf's den. these children displayed in their howls and the baring of their teeth, in their going on all-fours, and in countless other ways, their affinity with wolves rather than with men.they were brought by that missionary and reared as human beings.one of the babies,irrespective of every effort to make her human manifested the bodily postures and and manners of a wolf.but after long years, she acquired the behavior of a human being. the other baby got early death.this dispels the emphasis on hereditary theory.you did not mention the name of that psychology book,. even twins manifest not identical behavior but different behaviors if they are separated in their child hood. but in case of identical twins, even if they are separated in their child hood, the differences in their behavior to some extent is identical.in support of hereditary, people advocate that genetic traits are passed on from one generation to the next by paired genes. some of these traits are dominant and the others are called recessive when any given gene is made up of the same recessive or a dominant trait from both the parents,such a gene is called a homosygotic gene, and transfers the true characteristic trait to the next generation. thus hereditary theory also holds good.both these environment and hereditary theories are alike upper and lower blades of scissors.

Answer 8

There do seem to be some kids that have a propensity to do bad , but their surroundings are the biggest factor , i.e. environment and family , or lack their of . It is said where you end up often depends on where you start

Answer 9

To me a child could simply not be born bad . I believe that its the influences on a childs life that impacts his or hers behavior .

if you have two identical ppl from birth and you send one to the ghetto & the other one some high class place , with famillies who are completely opposites , i bet that when those two meet they will be completely different .

Answer 10

It's absolutely true: You are a product of your environment and surroundings. However this can be modified over time due to a change in location,people etc... It takes 2 years to start to change behavior at the least.