I've been interested in "what makes people tick" for as long as I can remember.
The way I see it, what makes people tick - what makes them think and act as they do, is a combination of two factors - Nature and Nurture. Nature being genetics and Nurture being our upbringing and environment.
According to Wikipedia, "The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature", i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences ("nurture", i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits."
I'm no genetic scientist or evolutionary biologist or any other person with a fancy title like that, so will leave discussion of the Nature side of this debate to those qualified to do so. While I'd be very interested in finding out exactly how much like our parents, grandparents et al we all are, I'm very happy to let others answer those questions as my interest lies more with the Nurture part of the debate.
Going on the premise that who one is as a person is determined both by Nature and by Nurture, I'd like to look at what "Nurture" is. To me, it is how one's upbringing and environment contributes to what makes someone who they are.
Upbringing and Environment include a lot of things, including: the country one lives in, one's city or village, family, extended family, neighbours, social relations, language and linguistic background, history, ethnicity, culture, religion, financial situation, education, social expectations, class or socio-economic status, sex/gender attitudes, stereotypes and expectations, and so on.
(See also my post on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory)
I'd like to address all of these issues at some point in this blog, however I plan to focus primarily on developmental psychology and comparative religion.
Looking at how different religions and spiritualities have shaped and impacted attitudes and thinking is also something I would very much like to look at.
Staying with the religious theme, there is also the question of whether how, why and what someone is might just all be pre-ordained and nothing at all to do with Nature or Nurture and simply with No-other-choice-in-the-matter. This is another interesting aspect of the Nature-Nurture debate that I would like to examine in more detail at some future time and will then no doubt write about.
The way I see it, what makes people tick - what makes them think and act as they do, is a combination of two factors - Nature and Nurture. Nature being genetics and Nurture being our upbringing and environment.
According to Wikipedia, "The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature", i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences ("nurture", i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits."
I'm no genetic scientist or evolutionary biologist or any other person with a fancy title like that, so will leave discussion of the Nature side of this debate to those qualified to do so. While I'd be very interested in finding out exactly how much like our parents, grandparents et al we all are, I'm very happy to let others answer those questions as my interest lies more with the Nurture part of the debate.
Going on the premise that who one is as a person is determined both by Nature and by Nurture, I'd like to look at what "Nurture" is. To me, it is how one's upbringing and environment contributes to what makes someone who they are.
Upbringing and Environment include a lot of things, including: the country one lives in, one's city or village, family, extended family, neighbours, social relations, language and linguistic background, history, ethnicity, culture, religion, financial situation, education, social expectations, class or socio-economic status, sex/gender attitudes, stereotypes and expectations, and so on.
(See also my post on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory)
I'd like to address all of these issues at some point in this blog, however I plan to focus primarily on developmental psychology and comparative religion.
Looking at how different religions and spiritualities have shaped and impacted attitudes and thinking is also something I would very much like to look at.
Staying with the religious theme, there is also the question of whether how, why and what someone is might just all be pre-ordained and nothing at all to do with Nature or Nurture and simply with No-other-choice-in-the-matter. This is another interesting aspect of the Nature-Nurture debate that I would like to examine in more detail at some future time and will then no doubt write about.
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