Nature or Nurture

One of the most intriguing debates of the twentieth century is that of the origin of behaviourial psychology . The issue that has its roots in biology and psychology is popularly framed as the "nature versus nurture" Consensus on the topic has differs from one to the other as the supposed cause of our actions. These changes are due to the internal dynamic and external influences in the development of a human being. Nature Theory think that people behave as they do because of their genetic disposition.

Physical qualities like eye, hair, or skin color, body structure, diseases and characteristics like interest, personality, temperament and sexual habits are also encoded in the genes. Human behavior is less controlled by the environment of free will then by the genes that they carry. Whatever incidents occur and traits that are practiced generation after generation get imprinted on the genes and are passed on to some extent to the next generation. The Nurture Theory agreed that genetic tendencies do exist, but they ultimately do not matter because the environmental factors and their upbringing conclude people’s behaviour. A gene may increase the inclination towards a particular behaviour but it does not make people do things unless a stimulus environment is provided. People are most likely to behave according to their upbringing and environmental influence.

Issues like criminal behavior, infidelity, sexual preferences have been ascribed by Nature theorists to genetic traits. However, Bandura’s social learning theory has shown that people learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. “Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” Social learning theory explains the interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences. Historical developments have a significant impact on the way the nature-nurture debate developed.

Darwinism is based on genetic determinism and natural selection. Extending Darwin's theory of evolution, the debate swung in favor of "nurture", with American psychologists taking up a rhetoric of environmental influences on behavior, emphasizing the learning process. In turn, the European school of ethology arose in opposition to the environmentalists, focusing on innate behavior or genetic origins. Hence, how far are human behaviors, ideas, and feelings innate and how far are they all learned?

What is the basis of our security?

What is the basis of our security? When we start thinking about that question, we may give many answers: success, money, friends, property, popularity, family, connections, insurance, and so on. We may not always think that any of these forms the basis of our security, but our actions or feelings may tell us otherwise. When we start losing our money, our friends, or our popularity, our anxiety often reveals how deeply our sense of security is rooted in these things.

A spiritual life is a life in which our security is based not in any created things, good as they may be, but in God, who is everlasting love. We probably will never be completely free from our attachment to the temporal world, but if we want to live in that world in a truly free way, we'd better not belong to it. "You cannot be the slave both of God and of money" (Luke 16:13).