Nature or Nurture?

Question

Which decides how we act and behave and our personality? The way we are brought up (nurture) or simply our genes (nature)?

Answer 1

i think both play a part on how we behave. but i would say the way we brought up plays a bigger role due to personal experience and also there's a study on a pair of twins being separated and lived in 2 different countries being brought up by different cultures and of course they behave differently to similar situation. (i don't really remember which sociology textbook i read this from) this shows that nuture plays a bigger part.
Not to say in different countries, i was brought up separately from my siblings but still living within same country.We never been very close till recently and i was amazed at times that we shared habits (nature) but react differently to same situations.(nuture)
my sister was brought up being abused by my mother and my family has got this trend of doting on the sons more than the daugthers. Now, my sister has her own family with one son and one daughter. it's so scary to realise that the cycle is on again. she shows signs of abusing my niece and dotes on my nephew alot. she was confronted but she said she had no control. it seems to be in her sub-conscious mind that she react this way. so is this nature or nuture? haha
your question is interesting. :)

Answer 2

The two are intertwined... you can't really separate them. Our genes determine a certain amount of who we start life as, but as we move through life, "nurture" determines more and more.

And then there's the issue of choice, and of free will. We can choose to respond to stimuli/events in certain ways... at other times, we have to make decisions, because we have made choices that lead us to that. We are thus affected by events based on our choices in them, and this too shapes our eventual character and persona.

So, the simple answer is both.

God bless.

Answer 3

A combination of both. Nature gives us a blueprint for what our life will likely be. Our environment can affect changes in this blueprint in small ways. Although they seem small at the time, even a minute change can alter destiny completely. In the end, we choose what we believe is the best path through life, and some of us get lucky.

Answer 4

Nurturing is like feeding ourself with good or bad thots and thus watever u feed ur mind it will accept that .
Nature is when one is able to justify between wrong and right, good or bad, evil or holy one can analyse as to wat kind of a person u are thats natural genetical thing which will classsify itself as ur nature and when u feed ur nature with good thots it is u being a good natured person or viceversa.....So Both Nature and Nurture are deciding factors in making us into an whole individual coz both these go hand in hand. U will have nurture in ur nature. Since we human being are influenced by many external factors and many other different human beings we have to nurture ourselves to wat is good ,bad, right, wrong, evil, holy when we decide wats for us it's us nurturing our nature.

Answer 5

Both...

nature affects how energetic, aggressive, happy and others thing we are.

However, nurture has the most affect on people's personalities, in my opinion.

Answer 6

nature is lesser as compared to nurture that includes the environment. speak to a chinese american and to a china chinese. they have same colour and totally a different mindset. hence the political culture does shape our minds and outlook. the chinese genes is i suppose to color the body and some chinese american i know dont even know how to eat/cook chinese food. it goes with african american. take them to africa and they will be lost! likewise with any other person. our environment esp school and the company we mix tend to shape our personality.

Answer 7

both, in equal measures. but we all have very similar genes. take fruit flies for example. they've got different genes from us. no personality whatsoever.

Answer 8

I think a little bit of both, plus "learned" behavior.

Answer 9

Yeah, I wonder about that too... I think it's a bit of both.

Answer 10

a bite of both