Nature vs Nurture

What makes us who we are today? Who taught our parents how to raise us? Did it come naturally to them or did they learn it from their parents? Many developmental and personality psychologist have discussed and argued about what makes us who we are today. What is nature and nurture and what is the controversy about it? Nature is what comes naturally to us, it is biologically based. Nurture is environmentally based, in which we are influenced by the surroundings and people around us. The controversy that exist between nature versus nurture is “about whether development is primarily influenced by what comes naturally or by our surrounding,” according to Santrock (2012). This, in turn, begs the question: How does nature and nurture play a role in parenting styles? First what are some different styles of parenting? According to Diana Baumrind there are four different styles of parenting; authoritarian, authoritative, neglectful and indulgent parenting. The authoritarian style is a restrictive style where the parents push the child to follow their directions and set firm limits. The authoritative style encourages the children to be independent, the parents are warm and nurturing but still place limits. The neglecting style is where the parent in uninvolved in the child’s life. And lastly, the indulgent style is where the parent is too involved and does not assert much control on the child. With all these parenting styles one is still left to wonder on whether they are nurture or nature based? As stated before the authoritarian style is where the parent is restrictive towards the child. Children of these parents are sometimes anxious, weak to communicate, and fearful. The outcome of the child of an authoritarian parent can be classified as nurture, because of the environment the child is encountering. As for the parenting style itself, it could be nurture also because, they, the parent themselves may have experienced the same kind of parenting. The