Nature or Environment?

By far the most common argument in psychology and parenting is whether children~s actions are based on nature or their environment. Every morning show seems to have tips for parents on dealing with their children, and most of the experts suggest that maybe it~s not the children but the parents who are doing things wrong.

On one hand, people from the nature perspective argues that children are born just the way they are. Some experiences might have an effect on them but the way people are born defines the way the will be during the rest of their lives. No outside changes or events can modify the way people were born.

Strict environmentalists would say that children are born as a blank slate and that the environment decides exclusively what type of person they will become. No one is born with certain tendencies, but their entire life is decided by the things that happen to them. This type of idea encourages feelings of dependency on the environment; many people end up feeling that they have no control of their lives, but that the things that happen determine their attitudes.

Generally, TV shows are full of environmentalists and they argue that a children is similar to a blank slate where the environment simply writes. Children are born with certain tendencies but the environment has a major part in leading their attitudes. A child~s health and happiness is mainly determined by the parents. They are responsible for educating their child. A child should feel that sometimes, although he cannot control every single aspect of his life, he can choose the way in which he will react. Of course, parents are responsible for helping their child to feel that way.

Despite this argument about nature and nurture is an old one, there is not a possible answer yet. No one really knows, and will never know, if a person is born with certain characteristics or if it is the environment the one that decides them. Those that are in the middle of the two postures would say that children are born with certain characteristics, but that these are then transformed by the environment they live in. These are things that parents should have in mind because they are the ones that create the environment for their children.

Trevor Miieu is the owner of Environment Go which is a youth environmental group. For more information, go to: http://www.environmentgo.com