Difference Between Nature and Nurture

Nature vs Nurture

In the realm of psychology and the behavioral sciences, (plus, in the academic study of education and family life) the great debate about nature and nurture never seems to end. Some people who are not as learned as most academicis or students of human behavior and biology would think that the two are interchangeable, when in fact they are not. However, the differences between nature and nurture are not enough to put the two head to head with one another and have other think that one is better than the other.

When you talk about the concept of nature, as for example applied in the behaviorist setting, you are talking about a set of roles, skills and hereditary characteristics which are passed on from one generation to the next. For example, if your mother and your maternal grandmother are both good singers then chances are you can also be a great singer yourself ‘“ because genetically, it is in your lineage and the chances of it being passed on to you without effort whatsoever is very high.

When you talk about nurture, on the other hand, the set of skills and roles are to be cultivated through time, care and practice while completely eliminating the variable of hereditary characteristics. You invest time and effort into something that you can be good at even if it is not in your lineage or you have not started out with the potential to be it by ouido (by ear), for example.

Nature relies mostly on inherited traits, while nurture relies mostly on time spent improving a skill set. These two things, heredity and lineage (for nature) and time and effort invested into practice (nurture) are the stark differences that would pit these two concepts against one another in many a debate in and outside the circles of the educational institution.

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