Tuesday, June 10, 2014

By using nature versus nurture, analyze your own life or that of someone else.

You will likely want to include your own experiences to complete this assignment, but I will provide a few examples to help demonstrate the concept. Before beginning, it is important to understand the difference between nature, which is behavior defined by a person's genetic makeup, and nurture, which is behavior influenced by one's environment and learning.
There has long been a debate over whether physical talents are the product of nature or nurture, since parents skilled in certain areas often produce children gifted in the same areas. It is possible that children inherit this talent, and it is also possible that talented parents skillfully train their kids in similar areas of expertise. I noticed a recent example during the Winter Olympics when the announcer highlighted bobsledder Aja Evans's athletic family, which includes her NFL-defensive-tackle brother, collegiate-swimming-champion father, MLB-outfielder uncle, and MLB-outfielder cousin. The article included below portrays Evans as a fiercely determined athlete who works hard and values motivating others, and it highlights her mother's role as a motivator. Aja undoubtedly hails from a competitive and hardworking family, and her family's shared biology may or may not play a key role in athletic success.
One of my personal favorite pastimes is reading, which I have enjoyed since childhood. Although it is possible that I was born with an innate love of reading, a more significant factor is that I grew up in a home filled with books and was raised by parents who read to me often, loved reading themselves, often took me to the library, and encouraged a love of books. My sister enjoys reading as well, and between us, we have 5 children who love to read and who are being raised in literary homes. They are not directly biologically related, which indicates that environment may be a key factor. Book ownership has been linked with lifelong success and future earning potential in various studies (an article relating to this topic is included below), which indicates the pronounced effects that reading can have on a person's life.
As you approach this homework assignment, it may be helpful to consider areas of your own life in which you have similarities to family members or friends with shared backgrounds. Then, explore the roles that nature and nurture may have played in influencing your lives. Other topics to which the nature versus nurture debate is relevant include intelligence, personality traits, cycles of abuse (abused children often become abusive adults), and homosexuality.
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/a-book-in-every-home-and-then-some/

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/olympics/ct-spt-aja-evans-bobsled-20180205-story.html

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