Question

Describe how your biological self influences your environment.

Answer 1

It is a well known and proved fact that nature and nurture interact with each other to determine one's behavior, physicality and personality. Nature can be defined as genetic and hereditary determinants of one's behavior, physicality and personality. Nurture can be defined as environmental factors responsible for one's behavior, physicality and personality. Essentially, there is an interplay between genes and environment, which determines who we are. A simple example to explain the stated fact is that of 'height'. Height is a physical trait and is considered to be biologically controlled. A child may be expected to become tall. All his family members are tall, so the child is expected to inherit the genes of becoming tall. But if the child is brought up in a deprived environment, devoid of proper nourishment, the child may not become as tall as he could have, if he would have been brought up in a healthier environment. It is also a fact that there may not be an interplay, but the domination of genes over environment or the domination of environment over genes. So, there are times, when the biological self influences one's environment. The biological self, with all it's characteristics (physical and psychological) shapes the environment by his actions and activities. For example, if a person is very intelligent, he can indulge himself in scientific experiments to bring about innovations, inventions and revolutions in the society. He can bring about technological changes, which can prove to be fruitful in the areas of medicine, communication and infrastructure of a state or country. A person can have a leadership trait, like his father or mother. He can therefore become a leader of a political party and then the leader of a country. He will therefore be able to generate welfare plans and bring about sound changes in the country.