Nature vs.

Nurture
Issues in Understanding the Self 
Your physical features can be identified as identical to that of your parents, like your eyes from
your father, and the hair color from your mother. However, your personality and talents may
have come not from your father or mother. The environment where you grew up may have a
lasting effect or influence on that way you talk, behave and respond to the things around you.
Many scholars in different fields and across generations have attempted to explain and
thoroughly expound on several issues and controversies about the nature, existence, and
dimensionality of self.

The Argument Continues: Nature or Nurture?

One of the oldest arguments in the history of psychology is the Nature vs Nurture
debate. Each of these sides have good points that it's really hard to decide whether a
person's development is predisposed in his DNA, or a majority of it is influenced by this
life experiences and his environment. As of now, we know that both nature and nurture
play important roles in human development, but we have not known yet whether we are
developed majorly because of nature or due to nurture.

What is Nature?
Biological sciences explained that our traits are passed on to humanity from one
generation to another, and these transmitted traits served as a blueprint of our self and
make us predispose to certain self-expressions (e.g., attitude, behavior, tendencies,
etc.).  Here, the self is being studied structurally and functionally, from the molecular
level to the entirety of human physiological systems. Genetics for example contributed
so much information about the descriptions of the self. This field of biology primarily
deals with the study of heredity (transmission of traits and characteristics from
generation to another) as a process, as well as on the characterizations (similarities and
differences) of organisms.
The coding of genes in each cell in us humans determine the different traits that we
have, more dominantly on the physical attributes like eye color, hair color, ear size,
height, and other traits. However, it is still not known whether the more abstract
attributes like personality, intelligence, sexual orientation, likes and dislikes are gene-
coded in our DNA, too.
Today, developmental psychologists rarely take such polarized positions (either/or) with
regard to most aspects of development; instead, they investigate the relationship
between innate and environmental influences.  They will often use the biopsychosocial
model to frame their research: this model states that biological, psychological, and
social (socio-economical, socio-environmental, and cultural) factors all play a significant
role in human development.
We are all born with specific genetic traits inherited from our parents, such as eye color,
height, and certain personality traits. Beyond our basic genotype,  however, there is a
deep interaction between our genes and our environment: our unique experiences in
our environment influence whether and how particular traits are expressed, and at the
same time, our genes influence how we interact with our environment (Diamond, 2009;
Lobo, 2008). There is a reciprocal interaction between nature and nurture as they both
shape who we become, but the debate continues as to the relative contributions of
each.
Heredity refers to the origin of differences among people; it is a concept in biology that
describes how much of the variation of a trait in a population  is due to genetic
differences in that population. Individual development, even of highly heritable traits
such as eye color, depends not only on heritability but on a range of environmental
factors, such as the other genes present in the organism and the temperature and
oxygen levels during development. Environmental inputs can affect the expression of
genes, a relationship called gene-environment interaction. Genes and the
environment work together, communicating back and forth to create traits.
On the other hand, the behavioral genes are somewhat proven to exist when we take a
look at fraternal twins. When fraternal twins are reared apart, they show the same
similarities in behavior and response as if they have been reared together. 

What is Nurture?
The nurture theory holds that genetic influence over abstract traits may exist; however,
the environmental factors are the real origins of our behavior. This includes the use of
conditioning in order to induce a new behavior to a child, or alter an unlikely behavior
being shown by the child. According to John Watson, one of the strongest psychologists
who propose environmental learning as a dominating side in the nature vs nurture
debate, once said that he can be able to train a baby randomly chosen in a group of 12
infants, to become any type of specialist Watson wants. He stated that he could train
him to be such regardless of the child's potentialities, talents and race.
Although it is true that fraternal twins raised apart have remarkable similarities in most
respects, still the intervention of the environment have caused several differences in the
way they behave.
In the end, we are still left with the confusing question: Are we born this way, or do we
behave according to our life experiences? The nature vs nurture debate goes on and
on, but still, it is a fact that we have traits that are predetermined by our genes, but we
can still choose who we want to be as we travel through our lifetime.
On the other hand, Social Sciences argue though that the self should be principally
viewed as an outcome of various nurturing factors in the context of one’s social life.
Social Sciences have provided manifold of insights and explanations about the self both
on the micro and macro level of one’s social life. Different fields of social science
stresses how group life (formal and informal) affects individuals’ behavior and attitude,
and emphasizes on the impact of various social institutions to the self-construal of an
individual.
According to Lynch, in  context, nature refers to biological/genetic predispositions’
impact on human traits, and nurture describes the influence of learning and other
influences from one’s environment. The debate over whether the strengths and
weaknesses of people are the result of nature or nurture has, and somewhat continues
to rage on between scholars and lay people alike. This debate has had significant social
implications, particularly concerning what are thought to determine people’s ability to
learn/intelligence.
While arguments about the predominance of either nature or nurture are still
unresolved, we could settle for an eclectic standpoint on this issue. We can safely
assume that our self is BOTH a product of NATURE and NURTURE.
Reference : Macayan, Jonathan V., Pinugu, Jasmine Nadja J., Castillo, John
Christopher D. (2018). Understanding the Self: An Outcome-Based Modular
Courseware.  C & E Publishing, Co. (Links to an external site.)
Reference  : https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-nature-versus-nurture-279539