frame

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

DebateIsland.com is the largest online debate website globally where anyone can anonymously and easily debate online, casually or formally, while connecting with their friends and others. Users, regardless of debating skill level, can civilly debate just about anything online in a text-based online debate website that supports five easy-to-use and fun debating formats ranging from Casual, to Formalish, to Lincoln-Douglas Formal. In addition, people can improve their debating skills with the help of revolutionary artificial intelligence-powered technology on our debate website. DebateIsland is totally free and provides the best online debate experience of any debate website.





Nature vs. Nurture

Debate Information

Nature vs. Nurture, the age-old debate and one of the oldest mysteries in neuroscience and psychology. Do your genetics determine behavior/personality or does the environment?

"Nature" refers to the hereditary factors and genes that are innate from birth. These genetic codes determine our physical appearance, as well as our personality attributes. "Nurture" refers to a variety of factors, integrating the environment, experiences, and upbringings that establish behavior. Development is critical in childhood, and they relate to events experienced that are contributing factors to personality.

Do you think "nature" or "nurture" determines personality/behavior?



Debra AI Prediction

Predicted To Win
Predicted To Win
Tie

Details +




Post Argument Now Debate Details +

    Arguments


  • K_MichaelK_Michael 114 Pts   -  
    I believe that nurture has more to do with your behavior than nature, though both influence it. In a study where more agressive dogs were bred together, and calmer ones together, the behavior became more aggressive and more calm. Whether this is directly from genetics or as a response to being surrounded by a specific behavior, is in my opinion inconclusive. 
    "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." 
  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 6053 Pts   -  
    Imagine a ship that sets sail from one port to another, carrying a load of wine. When it arrives to that port, some of the wine has been spoiled, while the rest of it can be sold.

    What determines how much wine ends up being sold: the construction of the ship, or the weather conditions on the route of that ship? Obviously both play an important role. The construction of the ship determines the impact a given weather condition has on the wine, and the weather determines the impact on the wine with a given construction of the ship.

    It is the same here. Nature determines how your organism reacts to and how it is conditioned by the environment. Nurture determines how the traits native to the individual evolve over time.

    ---

    For illustration, take two idealized children: one has a natural affinity to overcoming obstacles, while another prefers to avoid challenges. Let us call them A and B.

    When A is raised in poverty, he has a goal to get out of poverty, and he enjoys the challenge in that. He works hard towards that goal, and eventually becomes very rich and successful.
    When B is raised in poverty, he tries to escape the grim reality, early on finds escape in cigarettes and alcohol, closes in himself and loses any hope for getting out of poverty. His life is miserable.

    On the other hand...

    When A is raised in wealth, he is deprived of his challenges - so he creates artificial challenges for himself, bored out of his mind. He tries things like extreme mountain climbing or diving, and dies in one of the more daring attempts.
    When B is raised in wealth, he is perfectly happy with his situation; he learns to preserve his wealth by investing it into safe ventures. He lives a happy and care-free life; he is totally in his element.

    These are not the necessary outcomes, but they demonstrate how both nature and nurture can make or break a person. As such, I believe that the whole package should be considered, and not one of these two aspects chosen/preferred.
    Oppolzerwhiteflame
  • whiteflamewhiteflame 689 Pts   -  
    I don't know how we can determine what constitutes more of our personality or behavior, or for that matter the entirety of ourselves. Determining what constitutes a majority of ourselves in any respect is difficult, and understanding what contributes to each characteristic even more so. If we're talking about physical traits for which we are aware of specific genes and their effects, we can make some informed guesses, but doing so for personality or behavior seems impossible given the dearths in our knowledge regarding the functions of the vast majority of genes and epigenetic markers (which are also heritable). Only if we have a clear idea of what nature provides are we able to make claims about what nurture accomplishes, so the whole exercise of separating one effect from the other seems fraught with issues.
    Oppolzer
  • If think its a mix of both genes and the environment.
    Oppolzer
    Not every quote you read on the internet is true- Abraham Lincoln
  • *I
    Not every quote you read on the internet is true- Abraham Lincoln
  • 대왕광개토대왕광개토 235 Pts   -  
    I think both nature and nurture influence a person's behavior/personality. If we can somehow make an experiment where different babies are raised(until they become adult) in exactly same way under the same condition, then we can figure out what determines a person's behavior.
  • maxxmaxx 1135 Pts   -  
    its obvious that it is both@Oppolzer
  • It's not about nature vs. nurture anymore. It's more about nature being entangled with nature. To understand this more read the following:
    The latest research is that the brain is malleable; not fixed. Nurture is part of nature's process. Likewise, the human brain and body adapt to its environment is also part of nature.



  • all4acttall4actt 315 Pts   -  
    There was a study done on sextuplets.  This study had all the children living under the same standards.  They were a mixture of boys and girls.  What really stood out to me was one of the boys could not tell a lie.  He just seemed to have a high moral value and even when coaxed to lie he could not.  Then his brother did nothing but lie.  He lied even when it wasn't necessary.  These two boys along with their 4 siblings were raised exactly the same.  The only conclusion they could come to was that nature ruled more than nuture.  It is not to say that nuture has no affect on a persons behavior but that in some cases no matter how well someone is raised or not their nature is what will determine their future behaviors and success'.
  • jesusisGod777jesusisGod777 115 Pts   -  
    All are sinful.

    Kid will beat each other's brains out most of the time if you don't watch them or teach them not to.

    In a naturalistic explanation of nature, to suggest nature has some innate cause and insinuate someone is incapable of suppressing aspects of their nature suggests someone's personality is based on

    1. Their nature
    2. That all thoughts feelings emotions and decisions are based on nature.

    If you've ever done something you've never wanted to, you realize someone is not subject to nature.

    Considering people change by Jesus Christ the Lords grace, it's obvious you must nurture someone's behaviour.

    However nurture insinuates that you have to effectively  change someone's pre-existing behaviour.

    So what the debate is asking is if people are socially the result of their environment.

    All Serial killers, etc, didn't grow up  with all serial killers.

    What your thinking about is more dynamic then you understand.

    Want an answer read the Bible.

    Don't read the Bible keep on lacking how to understand the world.

    Jesus is Lord.
Sign In or Register to comment.

Back To Top

DebateIsland.com

| The Best Online Debate Experience!
© 2023 DebateIsland.com, all rights reserved. DebateIsland.com | The Best Online Debate Experience! Debate topics you care about in a friendly and fun way. Come try us out now. We are totally free!

Contact us

customerservice@debateisland.com
Terms of Service

Get In Touch