“Many parenting studies measure a correlation between parenting practices and children’s outcomes and conclude that parenting made the difference… (However) It poses a question, how do we explain this very large component of personality that’s not genetic but that just surely doesn’t come from growing up in a particular home?”
“It’s the assumption that what makes children turn out the way they do, aside from their genes, the environmental part of child development, is the experiences they have with their parents. It’s really in the second half of the twentieth century that this idea of parental importance has become popular and, in my view exaggerated.”
“ Nature/Nurture work more as a dance… like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Once the dance starts it’s how they interact together…The potential is only defined by the gene interaction with the environment, and it may be that the environment sets the constraints just as … much as the genes do.”
Write a short essay (3-4 paragraphs) on this topic: Tell whether you think nature or nurture has the stronger effect on making us who we are. Describe your personality and abilities. In your own experience, which seems to have the upper hand? Why? Why do you think scientists have been debating this question for centuries?