Nature vs. Nurture | Teen Ink

Nature vs. Nurture

February 22, 2013
By TuckerTuckerTucker123 BRONZE, Montgomery, Illinois
TuckerTuckerTucker123 BRONZE, Montgomery, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

There have been numerous arguments over nature vs. nurture. Do people turn out successful or unsuccessful by the way they were raised or the way they were born? Although nature shows through some people, nurture has been shown to be the dominant deciding factor of a child’s life. A girl named Katie Beers was an abused kid all her life. She was molested by her godfather since she was 5 years old. When she was kidnapped by a man and held in an underground coffin, the police found her and investigated the family. They found out what her godfather was doing, and put her in foster care. After being in foster care, she has become successful in adult life. If it wasn’t for her foster home, Katie would’ve experienced more severe trauma than she already experienced. The way you were raised also helps you through situations in adulthood.

A woman was raped and left in the street after a party at night, but since her parents were so supportive, she was able to stay strong with their support. This correlates to nurture because if your child becomes successful by the way you raise them, then they will cope with situations better than those who aren’t supported or nurtured.

Personality traits also affect a person. Boys act the way they do because of their surroundings, not their nature. Boys will get made fun of and called “gay” no matter what they do. They’re expected to be aggressive, strong, unfeeling, and competitive. Also, some children can be born being both genders. This means a baby is born with both reproductive organs. The child can grow up in life with being treated as either gender. The parents decide which gender they are going to treat the baby as, and the child then stays with that gender due to nurture.

Scientists say that when a baby is born it functions strictly on nature. The Id tells the baby when it needs necessities. Once the child develops more, the child then has been shaped into the child it is by nurture. Every decision they make is in some way formed around experiences, events, and influences such as a parents’ rules. No thought goes through one’s mind without an influence.

Although nurture is dominant, nature also shows through in some cases. Some kids go through a bad life as a child but end up successful due to the nature of the person. Also, a child with a good life as a child could turn out unsuccessful due to the choice of the person, not the nurture of which they were raised.

Personally, I have had experienced some people close to me turning out successful due to a nurturing environment. My adopted brother and sisters were born to a bad situation at home. My father adopted them into the family to take care of them. All of them are successful with children and good jobs. My brother turned out to have the same personality as my father. He likes the same things and has similar jobs working with computers.

Having siblings and placement in your family can also be a deciding factor of how you turn out as an adult. If you have many siblings, you might become more social when it comes to relationships. If you’re an only child, you might be shy outside of your home because you aren’t used to a lot of people around you. If you have stepsiblings, it could change a child’s life in a good way and in a bad way. Many people with step siblings feel left out but some people love having a step family. Children with parents who were divorced might have a hard time during childhood but it doesn’t mean they are going to turn out bad. Nature shows through sometimes.

After evaluating all of the reasons children turn out unsuccessful or successful shows how influencing the environment in which you grow up changes the way a person in when they hit adulthood. All in all, nurture is more of the deciding factor of our children’s future.



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