Journal Response #3
Due: Wednesday, October 10th
Please answer the question below:
Question: Chapter Three explores “nature” (heredity) versus “nurture” (the social environment) in terms of how our human characteristics are developed. What are your feelings on this? Would you attribute the development of human characteristics to nature, nurture, or a combination of both? Please cite examples from class, the text and your own personal experiences to support your position. How has sociological research/observation responded to this question?
posted by Danelle @ 7:43 AM
6 Comments:
A lot of our human characteristics are developed by "nurture"( the social environment); in fact most of them are developed this way. One is born with characteristics like non other but they don't become known as something until that person is in an environment that can label them and explain what the characteristics are. Take talking for example. If it were hereditary and one was born with language, it would just be that, a sound coming from within us. But it doesn't happen like that and the fact that we learn language from our environment we live in, also helps us to understand language why we use it, and how it affects people. Another example to support my position would be the story about the isolated girl Isabelle. She was locked in a dark room from the time she was born till she was 6 and 1/2 years old. Her mother was deaf and mute and also was very young, so basically Isabelle had little to no social interactions. Her characteristics were anything but human; for she could not walk on her legs-a disease called rickets-and she could not speak. Instead she made a strange croaking sound to try and communicate. If she was raised normally in society that would have never happened. If human characteristics were developed by heredity, based on my family's older generation, and my father's bad habits, I would be an alcoholic, an addict, and would not be going to college right now. But since in my opinion human characteristics are affected by social environment, my mother put me in a different environment other than that of the life my father was living. The results of her efforts are my brother, sister and I all at the age of 17 or older not influenced (by my fathers mistakes), going to college, and pursuing our dreams.
Nurture is clearly the main contributing factor to human characteristics. While some skills are inherent at birth, vital life skills such as language and emotional expression are learned through socialization. Without these learned skills, one cannot become a productive member of society. Both of these concepts were proven in an experiment conducted by Skeels and Dye in the 1930s. A dozen infants who suffered from mental retardation were placed in the care of mothers suffering from the same condition. These mothers showed the children love and affection. At the same time, slightly more intelligent children were placed in cribs and were only cared for through feedings and diaper changings. The retarded infants grew up to become productive members of society while the infants of higher intelligence did not.
This experiment proves by far that nuture prevails while nature has little to do with life skills. This can also be seen in feral children who have had absolutely no human contact and behave primatively. They also have abnormal abilities to tolerate harsh weather. They live this way because no one has taught them differently. One is not born knowing human behavior, it must be taught to him or her.
While I do believe people are born with hereditary genes possessing the capability of influencing individuals in certain directions, I also believe that the environment is definitely a factor in contributing a significant part of who we become. The biological heredity is merely a starting point for what is to become of us. In class, we discussed our ethnocentric views of other groups. It is within those groups we form our beliefs, values, and principles of life. We adopt these characteristics from those who raise us and the environment in which we live. The case of Oscar and Jack from the textbook supports this theory. These two people who were born with identical genes but reared in completely opposite environments, one Jewish and despising Hitler, the other born Jewish but has grown to hate the Jewish people. This is due to the input of family and the society in which they lived. In opposition to this idea, my parents were divorced when I was 11 years old. I lived with my mom after the divorce, but throughout the years I have realized how much my mannerisms resemble my fathers.
One prime example is how I hated to be alone in my house at night. I would go out in the garage, open the big door, and wait for someone to come home. My dad did the exact same thing when he was that age and for the same reason. I just found this out a couple of years ago. I have yet to figure out how that could have been a learned trait. The fact that sociologists are studying feral children, Institutionalized children and those who grew up isolated from society, shows sociologists are responding to the question of nature vs. nurture.
I would attribute the development of human characteristics as a combination of both nature and nurture. In the text, it reports the finding in "The Case of Oskar and Jack, Identical Twins." Separated at birth, Oskar and Jack had different beliefs, convictions, work ethics. On the other hand, they had similar likes, such as sweet liqueur and spicy foods. One could come to a conclusion from this case study that nature and nurture play a part in how human characteristics develop. Personally, in my own case, nature and nurture has influenced me. I share very similar qualities and mannerisms as my father has. Surprisingly enough, he is gone five out of the seven days of the week. But when he is home those two days, it is obvious that I do many things just like he does. Yet nurture has influenced me and I also like things completely opposite from what my dad enjoys, such as hard rock, theatre, and sports. This shows that my dad has influenced me to a certain extent. From where he left off, I was able to make my own decisions in what I like and dislike. Researchers have not settled the question completely of nature verses nurture. But so far, a conclusion could be drawn "that the limits of certain physical and mental abilities are established by heredity, while attitudes are the result of the environment."
I feel that human development is mainly from nurture. I feel that the environment a child is in has a lot to do with the development of that child. I grew up in a close-knit family. My parents have always been a huge influence in my life. I feel that my parents have shaped me into the person I am today. If I was in a family that wasn't so close or didn't care for me much, I don't think I would be the same person. I feel the nurturing of my environments and my family is what helped mold me.
To claim that we are solely a product of nature is to undermine the importance of nurture, to deny the symbiotic relationship that occurs between the two. We may be
genetically predisposed to affect certain habits and modes of thought, but these dispositions can surely be altered through rigorous learning models instated by a specific culture. To cite an example from the book, a pair of mono-zygotic twins are separated
at birth, one to the loving care of a Jewish family, the other fostered by a Nazi couple.
Despite their genetic parallel, both children cultivated the values and norms of their respective culture. This is indeed an indication of nurture's capacity to conform an individual to its ideals. Further examples are cyclopian in their abundance, and should provide supple examples to researchers and sociological dilettantes alike.
Thankfully, sociologists have responded in a most appropriate manner, realizing the
inseparable ties that bond nature and nurture together. To better understand their relationship, sociologists attempt to isolate one from the other to examine
their individual effects. Nature bestows the gift of understanding, and nurture presents the discretions to shape that understanding apropos to the cultural ideals.
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