Question

1. What is the "nature-nurture question" (or nature v. nurture debate)? And, which way do sociologists (largely) lean on this question?

Answer 1

• The nature versus nurture debate started during the 1800s just when sociology was recognized as a part of science. It is a highly controversial topic that debates whether human behavior is basic living instincts, predetermined by cognitive programming or slowly molded by each individual’s upbringing and external social factors.
• It has been discussed and concluded many times by sociologists, biologists and psychologists with their own opinions.
• Height, hair color, eye color and sex are just a few examples of ways our DNA has shaped us. But could it be possible that our DNA also affects the way we behave in society. It is possible that genetics affect us is more ways that we may have imagined.
• Dr. Peter B. Neubaur believes that shyness, eating disorders, obsessive behavior and psychological illness can all be traced back to our genetics.
• Sexual orientation is also believed to be derived from genes in our body which determine what sexual preference we prefer. Violence and other types of crimes can be linked back throughout a person’s lineage to witness that other family members have been committed similar crimes without ever meeting one and other.
• Throughout our lives we have all been influenced by our environment and other outside forces. Our environment may change the way we think, act and behave in life.
• Since we are all products of our environment, it comes to no surprise that we, as humans, tend to behave in a society the same way others around us behave but at the same time we strive to find who we really are.
• Since birth, humans have always analyzed the world around them. With each day that passes, humans take in more and more information from the outside world. The information which humans obtain through their environment subconsciously influences the decisions people make throughout their daily life.
• On the other hand, our genetics also play a vital role in determining what type of person we are and what will we become.
• Sociologists actually agree more with the nurture i.e. environmental side of the debate in determining human behaviour. They believe in nurture because of following reasons:-
• Nature arguments suggest human behaviour isn’t dissimilar to animal behaviour, which is based on automatic responses and pre-determined modes of behaviour or that our behaviour is pre-determined by our genes.
• However, human behaviour has changed significantly throughout history whilst animal behaviour has changed only slightly over a very long period of time. This suggests humans interact with their environments in a unique manner, both moulding and being moulded by it.
• The second argument uses anthropological evidence. Anthropologists are people who study and compare societies from all over the world. If our behaviour was in our genes then people all around the world would behave in the same way.
• This is because other than the external physical difference between humans, the actual biological difference between people from different parts of the world is tiny. However, anthropologists show that people behave differently in different societies.
• Society, through institutions such as the family, media, education and the police effects different group’s behaviour. This is a fact, because we can very accurately make generalisations about the expected behaviour of these groups in society. Your behaviour isn’t as unique and individual as you think.
  
• I feel that nature plays the more domineering role in the foundation of human existence. All though every day we are bombarded with outside forces, it is our internal make up that determines how we would react to our environment.
• Our environment only adds to what nature has given to us. If we use it in the correct ways then it will be beneficial to society and our selves.