Nurture Over Nature

Words: 841
Pages: 4

Nurture Over Nature
Though some believe that who you are in pre-determined prior to birth, the idea that your identity develops from the environment and surroundings is significantly stronger. Nature is responsible for developing a fetus into a healthy child however, it cannot mature a child into an educated, well-rounded adult. Only through experience which nurture gives a person, will an individual grow and develop. Environmental factors have a lasting effect on how individuals behave, talk, and respond to the world around them and aid in making an individual unique.
The way an individual is nurtured has the most significant impact on their identity because an individual's behavior is influenced by the people around them, the world they
…show more content…
Everything from the way a parent shows affection towards their child to the way they discipline them can affect their child’s overall behavior. Parents pass down traits, values and beliefs which compose a child’s characteristics and shape their personality. Family and parents teach a child the basics of life and provide them with the knowledge needed to succeed at life, thus individual’s growth is dependent on their upbringing. The structure of a family can also influence human behaviour as seen in studies conducted by the National Centre for Health Statistics. It was found that children living with non-biological parents, or a single parent have more health, emotional and behavior problems compared to children raised by two biological parents. Studies on children raised in isolation with no human contact have also shown significant abnormalities in behavior compared to that of a typical child. These “feral children” lack behavioral and social skills because of the absence of human contact, care and love throughout their upbringing. These studies support the fact that the people in a person's life significantly influence their behavior. The people in an individual's life are just one environmental factor that greatly impacts who they are and who they become which shows that…. **Natisha insert better closing sentence …show more content…
The type of lifestyle an individual has would shape how they perceive the world. This lifestyle may include exposure to wealth, addiction, abuse, or perhaps violence. In third world countries where people lack basic needs such as food, their overall well-being is limited and thus their behaviour is influenced by this. On the opposite end of the spectrum, children of celebrities grow up exposed to wealth and attention and therefore turn out very different because of the society they are raised in and the lifestyle they are exposed to. Regardless of the society an individual is raised in, the behavior and habits demonstrated by the people around them which they are exposed to, influences their development. In Bandura’s “Bobo Doll Experiment”, children watched as adults were aggressive towards a toy doll in a room. The kids’ responses were observed, and they were seen copying the adults’ behaviour and imitating their actions that were modeled for them. The aggressive manner that the children were exposed to altered their way of thinking and ultimately influenced their behaviour. When children are exposed to a certain type of behaviour, they learn from what they observe and are likely to mimic and repeat it regardless if it is right or wrong. Exposure to a variety of environmental factors aid in shaping an individual and