Page 12 - Biblical Counseling II

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)

Connect…

Does your appearance look similar to that of your family members? Have you ever wondered why you
struggled with something that a sibling excelled in? Are you different or similar to 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.

The Lesson ...

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, and the shape of our face. Sometimes nature gives us inherited
diseases. Nature makes up all the parts of us that we were born with
(Myers, 2009).

Let’s take my family as an example. My husband, Andrew, is very tall (6
feet, 6 inches or 1.98 meters), and I am also tall. We both have many tall
relatives in our families. As a result, our 16-year-old daughter is 6 feet tall
(or 1.82 meters). Our son is 13 years old, and he is already almost 6 feet tall. There are other examples of
nature with our children. My husband and I both wear glasses or contacts. Both of our children need to wear
glasses. All four of us have blue eyes. My husband had blond hair as a child, and our children do too. These
are examples of nature.

Nurture is influenced by external factors after we are 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 on nature or
nurture? What about your moods and temperament? Does someone’s level of anger come from inherited
traits or is it a learned behavior? (Myers, 2009).

To use my children as an example again, Cailey and Nate are very smart and are excellent students. I believe
nature gave them their intellectual abilities. However, nurture helped them develop into good students. If
they were born naturally smart but were never able to go to school, would they have developed intelligence
on their own? What about athletic abilities? If someone is a good athlete, how much is nature, and how

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