Nature VS Nurture – Theories of personality in the 21st century

Nature vs. nurture theories have wasted a lot of human energy. Plato is considered to have been the first to realize that he is made not only of flesh but also of an intellectual soul.

The problem may be much older…

In Greek mythology, when the gods created man, they endowed him with divinity. However, the man began to challenge them. They feared his potential and decided to deprive him of power.

“Where to hide the divinity?” was the big question

They considered heights of icy mountains, borders of bright stars, and pits of the earth. But each place was accessible to the capabilities of man.

So they decided to hide it within the man himself.

Since then, man has been climbing mountains here. He has sailed deep seas. He has crossed the moon. His machines have even touched Mars. But he keeps looking for the ‘lost paradise’ of him.

Man, it’s in you!

Now they call it personality. It is ‘scientific’ to ask how it came into being. Is it heritable? It’s natural? Is it the result of the environment? Do you have any will to change your behaviors or are you forced to follow dictates?

Nature vs. nurture theories focus on these issues. New discoveries in the genome and quantum physics have reignited the debate. By the way, the more they discover, the more they puzzle. The abstraction continues to intensify.

How to Define Nature vs. Nurture Theories

There are three distinctive schools of thought.

1- Personality is natural

This group believes that your personality is the result of an evolutionary process. You inherit behaviors due to the complex interplay of genes. They control their behaviors. So you have no free will to act otherwise.

2- Personality is nourished

This group argues that personality is not inherited. Your mind is a blank slate at birth. It is their environment, upbringing, and culture that shapes their behaviors. There are differences on the issue of ‘free will’ to change their behaviors.

3- Personality is spiritual

This group affirms that your personality is not the result of nature or nurture. It is a gift from some deity. They are divided on the issue of ‘free will’.

Nature versus nurture theories and evolutionary psychology

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Darwin’s theory of evolution led William Hamilton, George Williams, and many others to the idea of ​​personality evolution. They proposed that, like physical organs, your personality is the result of natural selection for the survival of the fittest. You do what your genes dictate.

They suggest that fear of death, fear of injury, fear of snakes, shyness, addiction, criminality, and sexual orientation are prime examples of hereditary behaviors. Steven Pinker (2004) includes religiosity, liberalism and conservatism in the list. William Paley believes that cognitive abilities, temperaments, and unfaithful behavior are hereditary.

However, there are strong criticisms of this approach.

1- There is no single universal behavior that can be demonstrated as evolutionary. Even the fear of death, which seems natural to everyone, is canceled out in crusades, suicides, and suicide bombings.

2- You are made of 25,000 to 30,000 genes. They are simply twice the number on a fruit fly. Chimpanzees share 95% of their genetic characteristics. However, they do not share even 10% of your behaviors.

3- People do not differ in behaviors as they differ in skin pigments. Extroverts, introverts, optimists, pessimists, criminals, liberals, etc. They are found in all societies and cultures. Even identical twins (with 100% similar genes) and identical twins (with 50% similar genes) behave differently in most cases.

4- No genome scientist has linked genes or a set of genes with any type of behavior.

5- There are a good number of living and fossil organisms that suggest intermediate stages of physical evolution. However, such intermediate stages are not available for personality evolution.

Nature VS Nurturing Theories and Physics

Discoveries in physics have always provided new meat for nature vs. nurture theories. Newton’s and Einstein’s conclusions helped people to believe that future events can be predicted with the help of true knowledge of matter and natural laws. This led psychologists to suggest that their future behaviors may be predetermined. The whole mechanism of psychometry follows this hypothesis.

However, quantum physics has completely changed the situation. The evidence shows that two (almost) simultaneous measurements of observables cannot be made correctly. For example:

1- Position and momentum of a particle

2- Position and direction of a particle

3- Time and frequency of a sound wave

4- Wavelength and magnitude of a sound wave

The list goes on…

Quantum physics has shaken determinism. So much so that scientists have as their motto the “Heisenberg uncertainty principle” which challenges that any physical event can be accurately predicted in time and space.

Do you think the particles are too small to affect large events?

reconsider.

What if Hitler had died in his youth of cancer, which can occur with a slight genetic mutation?

Nature VS Nurturing Theories and Reality

“What was the first cause?” Aristotle had asked centuries before

It has been proven that the universe is not the result of an infinite series of cooperating causes and events. There was a first event; the big bang just 13.7 billion years ago. What was its cause?

There can only be two answers:

1- There was no preceding cause, or

2- There was a first cause

When you affirm the first statement, you agree that there may be other events that have no prior causes. The birth of personality is one of them.

However, if you agree with the second statement, then you are siding with the spiritual school of thought.

What about the environment?

It plays a very important role in making their behaviors. However, any behavior you acquire is modifiable. Secondly, it is not only the environment that influences you, the opposite is also true. You can count hundreds of names that influenced their environments, cultures, and societies.

The best advice is to believe in your personality. Use your free will to develop and refine your behaviors. Use all the abilities to collect small successes daily to build a bigger one in the future. Your way of thinking and style of doing will determine your destiny.

In the meantime, let nature’s advice versus nurture theories continue their confusing debates.