Nature and Nurture Debate

The Nature and Nurture debate

Nature- approach suggests that people are born with qualities, abilities and characteristics that determine the kind of person they will become.

Nurture- approach argues that it is the way a person is brought up and their circumstances which are more important influences on the kind of person they become.

The debate

The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest issues in psychology. The debate centers on the relative contributions of genetic inheritance and environmental factors to human development. Some philosophers such as Plato and Descartes suggested that certain things are inborn, or that they simply occur naturally regardless of environmental influences. Other well-known thinkers such as John Locke believed in what is known as tabula rasa, which suggests that the mind begins as a blank slate. According to this notion, everything that we are and all of our knowledge is determined by our experience.

For example, when a person achieves tremendous academic success, did they do so because they are genetically predisposed to be successful or is it a result of an enriched environment? Today, the majority of experts believe that behavior and development are influenced by both nature and nurture. However, the issue still rages on in many areas such as in the debate on the origins of homosexuality and influences on intelligence.

| |Nature |Nurture |
|What is it? |In the "nature vs. nurture" debate, nature |In the "nature vs. nurture" debate, nurture |
| |refers to an individual's innate qualities |refers to personal experiences (i.e. |
| |(nativism). |empiricism or behaviourism). |
|Example |Nature is your genes. The physical and |Nurture refers to your childhood, or how you |
| |personality traits determined by your genes |were brought up. Someone could be born with |
| |stay the same irrespective of where you were |genes to give them a normal height, but be |
| |born and raised. |malnourished in childhood, resulting in |
| | |stunted growth and a failure to develop as |
| | |expected. |
|Factors |Nature factors that trigger an individual to |Nurture factors that trigger an individual to|
| |commit crime are influences by biological and|commit crime are influences by social and |
| |family factors. |environment factors |

Jennifer Lopez Life Stage childhood-

Physical development- Jennifer’s body developed, brain develops more, at this age they understand what their parents are saying to them. She grew taller and her muscles developed. The physical developments of the childhood are nature as every child has to grow taller; all children’s bodies develop at this stage. This is also nature because Jennifer’s parents are tall so she grew a bit taller than other kids as it is in her genes because both her parents are tall.

Intellectual development- Jennifer at childhood developed a lot of skills at the age of 5 she was talking, singing, dancing etc. and took dancing and singing lessons at the age of 7, this made her brain develop more skills to do with singing. The intellectual development can be nature and nurture. As nurture she developed all the ideas of singing and dancing in her brain by the people around her like in school kids could sing songs which influenced Jennifer to sing, or she could have watched TV programmers which people were singing on, this could have made Jennifer inspired and want to sing. Or this could be nature as someone in Jennifer’s family could have been a singer this could have gone into Jennifer’s genes so she was good at singing since a young age because of it.

Emotional development- At a very young age Jennifer had to move houses as there was a lot of financial problems going on through parent’s lives. And because of this it’s very hard for her to communicate with people, as she kept moving places. This could make a child feel lonely and upset as they feel like they have no friends and having to make new friends is really hard when you are child as some kids could be bullies and other kids have gangs which like certain people. The emotional development is nurture as it is to do with environment, and to do with the people in the environment as they could treat the new person bad, which could make them upset and this makes it hard for them to communicate with them. Also Jennifer is a Latina so she must of sounded/spoke different to them, and they may be didn’t like her cause of it this can cause her emotional pain as she is still young and just wants friends.

Social development- In childhood Jennifer had to move houses, she moved into a very different environment to what she used to live in before and she didn’t know anyone there. So it must have been hard for her to communicate with them, as she didn’t know them and they didn’t know her, so trying to interact with them must have been hard for at least 6-7 months. This is nurture as this is to do with environment, and how people interacted with her, and how she socially developed her skills. She develops them through environment as others influence her and she socially interacts with people she doesn’t know.

Jennifer Lopez Life Stage Adulthood-

Physical development- Jennifer grew into a proper woman, her whole body has been developed, she has stopped growing now, all her muscles have developed and brain has fully developed. She also got pregnant; her body was physically developed for her to give birth to her twins. This physical development for adulthood is nature, as everyone stops growing at adulthood age and everyone’s body is fully developed and their brains all fully develop. Also Jennifer has got it in her genes to grow tall, as both her parents are tall. Jennifer also got pregnant and this is nature because most women who want kids get pregnant. Also everyone in Jennifer’s family has had kids, so she followed want her family have done.

Intellectual development- she had to memorise more song lyrics as she made more music. She learnt how to socialize even more with other singers. This could be nature and nurture, as she could not have the ability to memorise songs, so she could try and memorise song lyrics just like her family have in the past this can be done through genes so it could have been done by nature, also she could memorise songs the nurture way as she could have developed ways how to learn song lyrics in school by the teacher, so she could have developed it environmentally.

Emotional development- Jennifer had emotional attachments to her lovers. She also had divorce 3 times this could have got her into depression or made her upset about life. She also gave birth to twins, and she is emotionally attached to them now and when she gave birth must’ve been happy and stressed at the same time. And after all her marriages and divorce she married her longtime friend. This emotional development is nurture as she has developed all her emotional attachments by the environment. So this is due to personal experiences with her past lovers, so she has experienced new relationships and break-ups which make her emotional developments.

Social development- she socially interacted with other singers like Ice T, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne etc. as she has made music with them so it is easier to socially communicate with them. She socialises with her friends from school. She went on Oprah Winfrey’s chat show spoke to fans. She is more confident then she was before. This social development is to do with nurture as she interacted and socialised with people she doesn’t know or with friends. Also if she wasn’t brought up to interact with people then she wouldn’t have interacted with anyone, so her family have taught her this so it could be nature.