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Got a question


To all of you, but especially those who have spent quite an amount of time studying psychology.

Is man a product of nature or nurture? Put differently, does a man become or he is?

About makagutu

As Onyango Makagutu I am Kenyan, as far as I am a man, I am a citizen of the world

536 thoughts on “Got a question”

  1. shelldigger says:
    July 9, 2014 at 08:32

    I am way late to the party, as usual, but I have some insight to this as I was raised as a step child and have raised a few of my own.

    Let me start with, you cannot get away from the genetics. There are tendencies exhibited by kids that have not had time enough to aquire them from the exposure to the parent that is not in the picture. It may be a way of walking, or a preference to certain ways of doing things, or an attitude thing say self destructive behavior, It can manifest in many ways. I have seen it too many times.

    Then there is the nurture part, where you try to instill in them that certain ways of doing things can be detrimental to themselves or others. All you can do is try to shine the light for them, illuminate the way, but they still must walk the path for themselves.

    If you haven’t reached them by the time they are mid teens, you are too late. You probably never will, they will have to learn everything the hard way. All you can do as a parent is try to guide them, they have to do the living on their own.

    So, to answer your question…both.

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  2. carolngige (@ncarolynew) says:
    July 9, 2014 at 13:11

    Deep conversation……… awesome.

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  3. N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ says:
    July 9, 2014 at 20:33

    Noel, I think you will find this article interesting. Excerpt from:

    The Third Factor: Beyond Nature and Nurture

    “These findings suggest there is more to our uniqueness than our genes and upbringing, that even if we were just one of thousands of clones we would still all end up different in some ways. Where does this leave the nature versus nurture debate? It is clear some traits, such as hair colour, are mostly down to genes, whereas others, such as language, are due to the environment. But you could argue there’s a third factor – call it chance or serendipity – in the form of random events occurring in our bodies or the environment.

    What’s more, many aspects of our bodies and behaviours seem to be the result of complex interactions between genes and the environment, mediated by epigenetics and with a large dash of chance thrown in. In these cases it seems pointless arguing about nature versus nurture. ”The debate is outdated,” says epigeneticist Manel Esteller, of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain. ”It doesn’t make sense any more.”

    http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/the-third-factor-beyond-nature-and-nurture-20130921-2u77p.html

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  4. inspiredbythedivine1 says:
    July 10, 2014 at 23:41

    A bit more on the Robbins book review. His review is an attempt at self aggrandizement. He’s a writer who wants to peddle his awful writings so he writes bashing reviews of other people’s work and attempts to sound smart. He doesn’t. And his own work is so awful, he should not be bashing others. He shows an extreme nativity to what christianity is, was, and wishes to be. He’s a fool in a fool’s world. Mind, I’m reviewing the reviewer of the book in the link you left here, not the book. His review is irrelevant tripe showcasing the workings a lazy, uneducated, archaically naive mind. And, he knows nothing about the science or the scientists he sites in his sophomorically mundane review. Amen.

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  5. Aquileana says:
    July 17, 2014 at 05:42

    Maybe product of both, being nurture truly important, I guess…

    “A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts”.

    “Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.

    (Quotes from: “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen, 1902)

    Best regards, Aquileana 😀

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  6. Some questions to ponder | Random thoughts says:
    November 7, 2014 at 17:42

    […] had an interesting discussion here about […]

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  7. Nancy Oyula says:
    December 2, 2014 at 11:33

    I got this link from your 7/11/14 post. Interesting question you posed there. I feel a man is a product of nurture.

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