Nature vs. Nurture Debate: Since

Nature vs. Nurture Debate:

Since the inception and throughout the existence of the field of psychology, the nature vs. nurture debate has been a topic of huge controversy. While nature is described as the heredity factors i.e. those that are genetically inherited from ancestors and family, nurture refers to environmental aspects like social and upbringing factors. Consequently, the study of behavioral genetics focuses on analyzing the impact of heredity and environmental factors on human beings and animals. The reason for the huge controversy regarding the nature vs. nurture debate is the fact that it contributes and impacts the development of various aspects on individual's identity such as

Personality:

Every individual has a unique personality that determines his/her way of experiencing and participating in the world. However, there are several concerns on whether personality is really unique and how personality is identified or determined. There are several ways that have been suggested in different historical periods that are classified into three categories. These three categories are personality originates from environmental factors, personality is inborn in the genetic make-up, and personality is a combination of heredity and environmental factors (Tomasic, 2006).

Similar to earlier times, there are still common explanations today that personality is based on environmental or exogenous factors like a person's birth day. In this case, it's believed that the day and time of one's birth and astrology will determine an individual's personality. In the ancient times, Greek astrology and Chinese astrology were mainly used to determine people's personality. Currently, there are several websites and books that are used to identify the unique horoscope for a person's birth day to determine personality.

Secondly, personality is regarded as an aspect that is passed down from parent to child or people with similar characteristics are likely to exhibit same personalities. The theory is the basis for the Japanese theory that personality can be determined by a person's blood type. Since personality disorders are inherited, it can be assumed that overall personality traits are inherited from parents. Generally, people with similar characteristics have similar personalities since it's hereditary.

Self-Confidence:

The question on whether people are born with self-confidence or they are taught on developing this aspect is a fundamental issue about the nature vs. nurture debate. In the view of self-confidence being developed from environmental influences, it's basically stated that an individual's psychological traits that form confidence are developed mostly by parenting (William, 2009). Some of the parenting attributes that contribute to self-confidence are the parents' beliefs, expectations, and modeling. Moreover, the initial efficacy experiences are usually based on the family as peers become increasingly important to a person's development of self-knowledge of their capabilities as their social world expands in their growth processes. However, self-confidence is regarded as more of a genetic predisposition than a state of mind and can therefore be influenced by heredity. According to the findings of a research, a child's self-confidence is heavily influenced by heredity just like his/her IQ.