Many theorists think that it is nature, what we have inherited and our genes, makes us the way we are and how we develop. Where other theorists believe it is the way we are brought up and our experiences, that make us the way we are and how we develop.
A wide variety of things have been considered in this, including personality, sexual orientation, intelligence, and propensity for violence or criminality.
Physically the way we look can be argued to be mainly due to nature, this is because the genes we inherit from our parents make the way welook.
For example, people often say ‘Don’t you look like your mum!”or “ Don’t you look like your dad!”This can determine our eye colour, whether we have straight or curly hair or how tall we will be etc, and it can also inherit certain disease which can seriously impact on our health.
People who believe in the nature part of the debate believe that all of a person's characteristics are inherited from their parents, this is everything from your eye and skin colour to yourpersonality. Nature includes all the genetic parts of your development, so you would have gained your behaviour, looks and personality from your parents solely.
Example of nature: A lady who has been in prison for aggressive behaviour has a son, as her son grows up the child shows more anger than perhaps other children would.
Some people could think that this was inherited from his mother, but others could believe that the environment in which the child was brought up in has influenced this.
Nature can also be linked to illness, people who believe in nature could think that because one of your parents has breathing problems, then their child will to, although this could also have been affected by the environment. The childs ability to walk and run could be affected by the way that they are brought up, the accent a child has will also be affected by their parents/carers talk. This is nurture as these things need to be taught to a child