Nature Vs Nurture

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When we born, we all are like a blank slate (Uzgalis). Then, why are we the way we are? How the slate is filling? This answer will lead us to consider the decades of debate, nature vs nurture. In this age-old debate, scholars are trying to figure out whether it is nature or nurture influences and affects individual's development. Nature is heredity or genes that we get from our parents and nurture is our environment. We can't ignore, we share the DNA from our parents, but it is the environment that is filling the slate and shaping us. Again, environment is brighter in describing the shaping of a person because a person is a reflection of the environment of which they were brought up in. Here, environment refers to the experience, information, and knowledge that we acquire from our family, peers, school, neighborhood, and of course, from the media throughout our lifespan. So, I think, nurture has more influence on who we are and will be because our personality, behavior, values, and ideals are not born, but made by the environment around us. We do not born with a set of identities, attitudes or values, eventually we started to develop those from our parents and family. We do not only learn from their teachings or sayings but also by observing them. If we grew up in environment where were loved, protected, and had high standards and expectations, we would learn to love and appreciate. Therefore, in our family, where we experience ideal conditions, we are more likely to be confident, content, and consistent. "Different studies of children and teens growing up in tough, poor neighborhoods show that parental warmth is associated with both social and academic competence" (Masten and Coatswaorth 209). Thus, secure family environmen... ... middle of paper ... ...Search Premier. Web. 21 May 2014. "Risk-Taking: Knowing When to Say No." Films On Demand. Films Media Group, 2008. Web. 19 May 2014. . Suh, Grace. "The Eye of the Beholder." Mirror On America. 4th ed. Ed. Joan T. Mims, and Elizabeth M. Nollen. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. 139-44. Print. Uzgalis, William. "John Locke." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 2 Sept. 2001. Web. 8 May 2014. < http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/ >. Weinstein, Rhona S. " Schools that Actualize High Expectations for All Youth: Theory for Setting Change and Setting Creation." Toward Positive Youth Development: Transforming School and Community Programs. Ed. Marybeth Shinn, and Hirokazu Yoshikawa. North Carolina: Oxford UP, 2008. 81-101. eBook Collection. Web. 16 May 2014.

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