The concept of “Nature” is derived from the definition of heredity which means the transmission of characteristic traits from parents to offspring. Thus, the prolifics in the field of genetics and developmental psychology believe that most of our physical attributes and personality traits were inherited from our parents.
Growing up, I remember always being identified by people to be like my father in terms of his physical appearance as a tall, slim, and good looking (I assumed) man. Also, since my father loved to sing and he sang with love and passion especially kundiman songs (old Filipino songs), I believe that I got from him my inclination and alacrity to singing too but not much of the looks I think because admittedly he is more handsome than I am. I started singing at the age of 4 and I would remember standing on top of a big can of milk as my stage while I was holding a long piece of wooden clip for clothes as my microphone. One time when I joined a singing competition during the centennial celebration, he taught me the song “Ang Tangi Kong Pag-ibig.” He watched me perform on stage and he was very proud of me winning that competition. Vividly, I asked him to sing as I recorded his voice in my hand phone. Every now and then, I would play his songs and I can’t help but cry because he is now gone and I only have his beautiful voice with me. I miss the time that we would sing together his favorite old songs.
Well, my mother surely would not be out of the scene. Academically, my mother finished only up to Grade 3. Given a chance to study further, I am very sure that she would have excelled in class because of her mental acuity particularly in language and numbers. I remember her being my human calculator whenever I couldn't compute anymore my math homework especially in multiplication and subtraction. Similarly, she sounded very smart and confident talking in English with my friends and colleagues in the profession and she would bravely talk to foreigners she met when I was young. Personality wise, I believe that the distinct traits we inherited from our mother were humility, generosity, and compassion especially with poor individuals. My mother was a paragon of a selfless and magnanimous woman and mother to us especially with the less fortunate people as she could relate with them. She was a very prayerful person too. I would see her wake up at dawn to pray the rosary daily alone by herself. We grew up valuing the importance of prayer especially praying the rosary thus, we have imbibed from her the same religious practice. With all humility, I believe that we have inherited most of my mother's personality traits while we got from our father his being a kind and loyal friend.
The concept of “Nurture" is associated with the external factors that surround us which influence our growth and development as a human being whether social, moral, emotional, and spiritual. In this light, family, friends, school, religion, culture, tradition, and other significant factors play a pivotal role. Nowadays, you see the great impact to people of the things they see and experience. The mass media and technology being the source of all information, trends, passion, and popularity are now the standards of people in almost everything such as what clothes and accessories to buy, which places to go to for vacation, what is a good place for hanging out with friends, and especially the fad and latest in fashion and electronic gadgets. People are so consumed that many are extrinsically motivated to work hard just to possess all of these things. In fact, I have friends whose social standards are strongly attached and influenced by consumerism.
As a professional counselor, I have observed that most students are greatly influenced by their peers and thus submit themselves to their personal interests and preferences just to gratify the 'need to belong'. Most importantly, parents have a very strong and significant impact on the lives of their children, and perhaps most of them are not aware of the effects of the same on their growth and development as a person. I remember many students I have counseled who would sadly share that their parents forced them to enroll in the course that they did not want to pursue.
Nature vs Nurture is still a debatable topic in human psychology. It can give us a lot of insights and view about human nature. Reality is that, “Nature” is innate and that we cannot change it but we can only manage it while “Nurture” is learned or acquired and we always have a choice to accept or reject it. Perhaps, we can all look at our own being and dynamics and asked ourselves if we are a product of “Nature or Nurture.” What is your answer?
Growing up, I remember always being identified by people to be like my father in terms of his physical appearance as a tall, slim, and good looking (I assumed) man. Also, since my father loved to sing and he sang with love and passion especially kundiman songs (old Filipino songs), I believe that I got from him my inclination and alacrity to singing too but not much of the looks I think because admittedly he is more handsome than I am. I started singing at the age of 4 and I would remember standing on top of a big can of milk as my stage while I was holding a long piece of wooden clip for clothes as my microphone. One time when I joined a singing competition during the centennial celebration, he taught me the song “Ang Tangi Kong Pag-ibig.” He watched me perform on stage and he was very proud of me winning that competition. Vividly, I asked him to sing as I recorded his voice in my hand phone. Every now and then, I would play his songs and I can’t help but cry because he is now gone and I only have his beautiful voice with me. I miss the time that we would sing together his favorite old songs.
Well, my mother surely would not be out of the scene. Academically, my mother finished only up to Grade 3. Given a chance to study further, I am very sure that she would have excelled in class because of her mental acuity particularly in language and numbers. I remember her being my human calculator whenever I couldn't compute anymore my math homework especially in multiplication and subtraction. Similarly, she sounded very smart and confident talking in English with my friends and colleagues in the profession and she would bravely talk to foreigners she met when I was young. Personality wise, I believe that the distinct traits we inherited from our mother were humility, generosity, and compassion especially with poor individuals. My mother was a paragon of a selfless and magnanimous woman and mother to us especially with the less fortunate people as she could relate with them. She was a very prayerful person too. I would see her wake up at dawn to pray the rosary daily alone by herself. We grew up valuing the importance of prayer especially praying the rosary thus, we have imbibed from her the same religious practice. With all humility, I believe that we have inherited most of my mother's personality traits while we got from our father his being a kind and loyal friend.
The concept of “Nurture" is associated with the external factors that surround us which influence our growth and development as a human being whether social, moral, emotional, and spiritual. In this light, family, friends, school, religion, culture, tradition, and other significant factors play a pivotal role. Nowadays, you see the great impact to people of the things they see and experience. The mass media and technology being the source of all information, trends, passion, and popularity are now the standards of people in almost everything such as what clothes and accessories to buy, which places to go to for vacation, what is a good place for hanging out with friends, and especially the fad and latest in fashion and electronic gadgets. People are so consumed that many are extrinsically motivated to work hard just to possess all of these things. In fact, I have friends whose social standards are strongly attached and influenced by consumerism.
As a professional counselor, I have observed that most students are greatly influenced by their peers and thus submit themselves to their personal interests and preferences just to gratify the 'need to belong'. Most importantly, parents have a very strong and significant impact on the lives of their children, and perhaps most of them are not aware of the effects of the same on their growth and development as a person. I remember many students I have counseled who would sadly share that their parents forced them to enroll in the course that they did not want to pursue.
Nature vs Nurture is still a debatable topic in human psychology. It can give us a lot of insights and view about human nature. Reality is that, “Nature” is innate and that we cannot change it but we can only manage it while “Nurture” is learned or acquired and we always have a choice to accept or reject it. Perhaps, we can all look at our own being and dynamics and asked ourselves if we are a product of “Nature or Nurture.” What is your answer?
tnx for this post about one of the very basic yet still unresolved issues in pyschology to date. well, personally, i have resolved it in myself. i believe we are all an outcome of the interplay between nature and nurture. just a comment though on the line where you wrote that 'nurture', being acquired or learned, 'we always have a choice to accept or reject'- from infancy to toddlerhood and to early childhood, we do not have the conscious choice and capacity to reject what our parents inculcate in us through their words and actions. what have you got to say about this?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you have not rejected what your parents or siblings asked you to do when you were young? Or, have you not accepted a gift or food from someone because you liked it? According to the NAEYC the developmental definition of early childhood education(National Association for the Education of Young Children), spans the human life from birth to age eight. Don't you think at that age you have not rejected nor accepted what your parents or other people asked of you to do?:)Maybe that's why there are kids who behave differently because of this kind of experience. I think that is "nurture.":)
ReplyDeleteindeed, at a later part of 'early childhood', when we are at the age of reason, we exert conscious efforts to reject or accept what our significant others in the home front and even those in a larger environment would present to us. but as an infant, for example, we do not have the conscious choice to accept or reject, and i suppose that accepting or rejecting is basically instinctive (and therefore unconscious in that sense) for our survival as such an early age. at such age, we are totally dependent on significant others for survival, hence, to accept or reject what they give us is not a conscious choice that me make
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