Page 15 - Advanced Biblical Counseling Student Textbook

Study Section 3: Nature vs. Nurture

So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he
created them. Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
(ESV)
3.1 Connect

Does your appearance look like your family members? Have you ever wondered why you
struggled with something that a sibling excelled in? Are you different or like your father figure in
how you handle anger or frustration? When you think about who you are, what parts of your
personality were there from birth and which were learned as you grew up? These questions are
part of the nature-nurture debate in psychology.

3.2 Objectives
1. The student should be able to describe nature and nurture.

2. The student should be able to identify nature and nurture characteristics in themselves.

3. The student should be able to articulate how God is in both nature and nurture.

3.3 Psychology’s Biggest Question

During its short history, psychology has wrestled with some big issues. The biggest and most
persistent is the nature-nurture issue – the controversy over the relative contributions of
biology and experience. The origins of this debate are ancient.

Nature is what we are born with. These are genetic traits like eye,
skin and hair color. Nature gives us our gender, how tall we will be,
our bone structure, the shape of our face. Sometimes nature gives us
inherited diseases. Nature makes up all the parts of us that we were born
with. From a biblical perspective, our sin nature is an inherited trait that
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goes all the way back to Adam. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin
came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and
so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Nurture is influenced by external factors after we were conceived. Nurture includes life experiences and
behaviors we learned during life. This includes skills we acquire as we grow. Nurture is also influenced
by the people around us like our family, friends, teachers and the society we live in. There is debate over
how much nature and nurture influence psychological traits. For example, is your personality based in
nature or nurture? What about your moods and temperament? Does someone’s level of anger come
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from inherited traits or is it a learned behavior?

15 Myers, 2009
16 Ibid.

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