NATURE VERSUS NURTURE 2

Nature Versus Nurture

When reflecting on my personal traits and worldviews and how they were developed, it
is clear that many of them can be attributed to the way my parents raised me. I probably would
not have them if I had been raised differently. There are, however, many other traits that I
possess which I cannot attribute to how my parents raised me. I seem to have been born with
them. I would, therefore, would still possess them regardless of the manner in which I would
have been raised. There are, however, many other traits that I possess which I can neither
wholly attribute to the way my parents raised me or to genes. It is likely that I was born with
these traits but were modified by the way my parents raised me.
A look at my traits and worldviews shows that most of them fall in this latter category.
These traits were developed through interaction of genes and parenting. Of these two, I believe
that the genetic influences were stronger because I notice similar traits in close relatives who
were not raised by my parents and did not grow up in the same environment as mine.
From this observation, I hold that individual traits and social skills are developed
through interaction of genes and the environment. Therefore, in the debate of nature versus
nurture, both of them have influences in the outcome characteristics of an individual. As to
which of them exerts more influence, I believe that genetic influences are stronger than
environmental influences. Caplan et al. (2019) arrived at the same conclusion when they found
out in a study that genotypes were the primary influencers of social skills with parenting only
moderating these skills. Thus, if I were to choose between the role of nurture and nature in
shaping individual characteristics, I would choose nature.

NATURE VERSUS NURTURE 3

References

Caplan, B., Morgan, J. E., Noroña, A. N., Tung, I., Lee, S. S., & Baker, B. L. (2019). The nature
and nurture of social development: The role of 5-HTTLPR and gene–parenting
interactions. Journal of Family Psychology.