Origin of Personality: Nature vs Nurture
The scientific question of the origin of personality has posed a challenge to many scientists. Some think that one's character comes from what we're born with, the DNA from our parents. Others propose that our associative traits arise through life's events such as being raised through infancy and adolescence. So what determines how we'll react to life and it's loop holes?
My mother has told me that it is easily seen that even babies have distinct personalities, so how could it be anything but naturally inherited? Some studies have hypothesized that our personality comes from the DNA that is not responsible for anything like storing the codes for proteins that generate the color of our hair or eyes. However there is no discovered method of proving this.
In my pondering I always thought it was mostly nurture, noticing that a child often reflects how his parents, friends and siblings treat him along with the situations he/she endures. I've even given the possibility, to some degree, that what happens to us before we are born has bearing on our characteristics in society. But are we not given something that governs our reactions to stimuli from the very beginning?
This is where I've decided that it requires both nurture and nature in the manufacturing of one's complexities. The amount of influence of both of the factors seems to differ for every person. Without nature we would not have the basis on which we decide how we'll react to peers etc. Without nurture our personalities would not progress past maturity of the very first humans in infancy, because they would be unalterable past the combinations that were made between parents. Therefore we are not completely born with, or shaped through experiences, the capacities of our personalities, but a mixture of the two.
My mother has told me that it is easily seen that even babies have distinct personalities, so how could it be anything but naturally inherited? Some studies have hypothesized that our personality comes from the DNA that is not responsible for anything like storing the codes for proteins that generate the color of our hair or eyes. However there is no discovered method of proving this.
In my pondering I always thought it was mostly nurture, noticing that a child often reflects how his parents, friends and siblings treat him along with the situations he/she endures. I've even given the possibility, to some degree, that what happens to us before we are born has bearing on our characteristics in society. But are we not given something that governs our reactions to stimuli from the very beginning?
This is where I've decided that it requires both nurture and nature in the manufacturing of one's complexities. The amount of influence of both of the factors seems to differ for every person. Without nature we would not have the basis on which we decide how we'll react to peers etc. Without nurture our personalities would not progress past maturity of the very first humans in infancy, because they would be unalterable past the combinations that were made between parents. Therefore we are not completely born with, or shaped through experiences, the capacities of our personalities, but a mixture of the two.
posted by Sir Radish at 7:56 PM
3 Comments:
I think it's so cool how you're so cool with your mom. Also...I really don't think my personality came from anything my parents taught me, that's just not fair to them...lol jk Besides, how could you be so introverted, and McKay be so extraverted when you have the same upbringing?
What do you mean by your comment? Are you leaning one way or the other? Though McKay and I may have the same upbringing we still have VERY different preferences. This is where genetics come in. He's got the majority of my dad's traits and me, my mom's traits. p.s. I'm not sure if you were sarcastic about your parents not teaching you anything? If I did refer, in the post, to one's parents teaching you how to have a personality then that is not what I meant. They have an influence on you and are largely included in those events that determine how you'll decide to shape your personality.
haha read the time on my comment...12:10 am. Not the best time for thinking. But yeah, I was exaggerating/joking when I wrote it anyway. I believe in a pretty good mixture of the two: upbringing and innate personality
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