ingsozluk.com - Nature or Nurture?

Nature or Nurture?

While many individuals complain that they are not sufficiently clever to succeed in life, I firmly believe that personality and development are decided more by education and training after birth than any given gene.
To begin with, environment is a determining factor of one's personality. One may think that personality is already shaped once a baby is born, but in fact there are many contributing factors. The baby, for instance, would most likely be pessimistic if he or she lived in a poor family, where the baby always received punishment from his parents. His view of life would be very different from another individual who lived happily in a perfect nurturing family with encouragement and psychological support from his parents.

Further, education after birth plays a significantly role in one's development. Education, which helps children develop their thinking and accumulate their knowledge, is a deciding factor of one's success. For example, a high-school level person commonly may not to the extent of a person who has received an university education. This is not only because of the greater breadth of knowledge acquired, but also due to a more critical and focused way of thinking that is imparted and refined during ones senior education. A wolf child, to offer another instance, due to a deficiency of education by contact with human beings, could hardly live in our society or self-develop.

Admittedly, nature, decided by the genes given by one's parents, also affects one's personality and development. One can clearly find differences among younger kids in their learning ability, which could prove the importance of genes in this regard. However, when compared with other factors after birth, the role genes play in one's personality and development may not be particularly significant. Not all genius will inevitably be successful, and similarly not all great men are genius in their childhood. Therefore, I hold that environment and education after birth weigh heavier than nature in regard to one's personality and development.