Nature through nurture

An age-old debate about the primary and fundamental influence on human development and behavior is called the nature versus nurture debate. As our textbook states, however, “neither biology nor culture wholly determines human behavior" (Giddens et al. 59). In my opinion, the answer to this question is not nature or nurture, but nature through nurture as the primary influence on human behavior and development. I believe that a person's nature influences how they respond in certain situations. The child’s experience and interpretation of the nurturing he or she receives is dependent on the child's nature. In other worlds, our nature mediates our reaction to the nurturing we receive.

As an example, let's take the subjects of gender identity and gender socialization. It's obvious that men and women are objectively different. We can see this is true with only elementary knowledge of biology and anatomy. Men and women have different organs used for different purposes. Our biology also affects our behavior in many ways. One example is that higher testosterone levels in men linked to higher aggression levels. Another example is provided by sociobiologists who argue that women who, because of their biology, must invest more bodily capital in order to reproduce naturally seek nurturing, stable partners. Both our anatomy and certain tendencies in our behavior are defined by nature.

Given one’s biology and nature, how does gender socialization occur? Our textbook presents the theories of Sigmund Freud, Nancy Chodorow and Carol Gilligan on this topic. While the three theories present different viewpoints, all acknowledge the role of nature in defining gender. The fact that a child is a boy or a girl affects the way that he or she experiences the nurturing of mother and father. For example, Freud argues that a boy understands his father’s presence as a threat and thus reacts to his presence with fear and suppresses his natural desire for his mother. A girl would not react to the presence of her father in this way. In a similar way, Chodorow argues that the boy, because is different (by nature) from his mother experiences the need to “break” from her and thus becomes more independent than a girl, who experiences greater continuity with her mother when acquiring her sense of self. In both cases, the nature/biology of the child as boy or girl is fundamental to their experience of the environment around them and the nurturing they receive.