week one

Over the years I have taken several psychology classes and one particular idea that has always interested me is the ongoing debate of 'nature vs. nurture'.  I have read case studies of twins separated at birth who meet years later only to find their lives are eerily similar, as well as studies regarding adopted children that show great similarities between adopted children and their biological parents, even thought the children may have never met their birth parents. (Flanagan, 2002)  These studies and others like them, make a great case for genetic or hereditary influences being the driving force in a person's development. There are valuable arguments presented for both nature and nurture, and in my mind they are equally important in making us the people we have become.

In my life I have had the opportunity to see 'nature vs. nurture' at work in several aspects, the most apparent being the case of my mother.  My mother was adopted at birth by an amazing family and had a wonderful childhood, and as the baby of the family and the only girl, her life was full of all the nurturing she could handle!  As an adult, she began to wonder about her background and health history and became interested in finding her birth family.  When she was in her forties, after the death of her mother, she decided the time was right to meet her birth family.  We met three of her sisters and her birth father at their home in Seattle and it was the best example of nature vs. nurture I could have asked for.  The genetic aspect was easily recognizable, as all four of the sisters looked very similar.  They are all very tall with similar builds, facial features, etc.  But one major difference was the three sister of my mother looked 'hard'.  I imagined it to be what my mother would have looked like if she had lived a hard, impoverished life, as opposed to the life of privledge she had been given.  Besides the family resemblance and the genetic predisposition to asthma she was given by her birth mother, that is where the similarities stopped.  My mother could not have been more different from her family.  In fact, I would go as far as to say polar opposites and it provided a very strong case for the idea of nurture being the major factor in determining my mothers personality and development.  She takes after her adopted parents in so many ways, it was amazing to see how much larger of a part nurture played in her make up than nature.

That being said, the case for nature has come to play in my life in the case of my Grandmother, Father and myself.  Growing up, there was a long standing family joke about my grandmothers high anxiety.  She worried about everything! She was constantly worrying about things she had no control over or things the rest of us thought were amazingly silly and trivial.  My father could not have been more different.  He never worried about anything.  He was a fly by the seat of your pants kind of guy who was constantly up to crazy shenanigans,  Peter Pan syndrome all the way.  Until he stopped drinking.  Then it became apparent that he was in fact, his mothers son.  The veil of alcohol was lifted, allowing his anxiety to take center stage and he could not have been more like my grandmother if he tried.  He worries about everything.  Things that make no sense, that he has no control of, things that should not even be on the radar.  Enter me.  When I hit my mid twenties, I started to worry.  First about money, housework, stress, the usual.  Then, little things that didn't really make sense...  Until I started to put together the correlation between Grandma, Dad and me.  We all have anxiety.  We all worry for no reason. We all need to be in control and yet have no control over this need.  Even though my parents have been divorced since I was a small child and I have always lived with my mother who is the driving nurturer in my life, nature plays a huge part in who I am and how I deal with things.

So in the closing of this weeks blog, basically there are arguments for and against nature vs. nurture all around us.  In my life, I have seen them both at work and they have both played equal parts in making me who I am.  I am a mini me to my mother, whose personality was developed by nurture.  I deal with things the way my father and grandmother do, a prime example of nature at work... They are both amazingly interesting concepts and I can't wait to find out more about them in this class!

References
Flanagan, C. (2002)  Nature vs. Nurture:why are siblings so different?  Psychology review.