Personality Trait: Nurture
Essay by review • October 21, 2010 • Essay • 532 Words (3 Pages) • 1,697 Views
Human beings obtain their physical traits clearly through heredity. A nice boy gets the delicate shape of his nose from his mother. However, the question is, "Where does this 'nice' boy get his 'nice' trait from?" In the battle of 'Nature versus Nurture' in shaping an individual's personality, nurture wins.
Heredity is not the key factor in contributing to our personality.
"People with high self-esteem and confidence get these traits not from their parents, but from their experiences." -John Hoover
"Genetic material does not make us human. Genetic material does not lead us toward self-awareness. Genetic material does not spontaneously give us language skills."
"Sigmund Freud a vast industry of psychoanalysis, psychiatry, psychotherapy, and social work has constructed itself on the turf of the improvability of human personality."
Can people change their personality? There have been studies conducted on thirty year olds. They are interviewed every five years about their lives and it results that they really do change. Therefore, if we can change our personalities, during our lifetime, it is not genetic.
A survey on American therapists say that patients who are not satisfied with their lives strive to change and 80% of these patients are successful in changing for the better.
If our personalities were genetic, we would all act similar and how can it explain this? In a family line of criminals, the grandfather was a criminal. The father was a serious criminal. However, the sons grew up to be extremely noble and modest, without any crimes in the whole life time.
While talking about the past, people often go, "Oh my gosh, was I really like that?" because they are so changed!
Researches on adoption say, there was a pure 100% Korean kid biologically, who was adopted by American parents at a very young age. But this boy grew up to be an American behaviorally but nothing like Korean. Much alike, there are many other similar cases. For instance, in the University of ... this happened...
The fact that heredity determines the physical features makes a person tall. This fact gives him confidence since he is taller than others around him. Therefore, he is more likely to be a good basketball player than he actually is.
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