How to write about Nature vs. Nurture? ?
The “nature versus nurture” debate is one that has been going on for centuries. Those in the “nature” camp believe that things like mental illness, personality, or criminal behavior have genetic and/or biological origins. They might, for example, assert that a teenager who belongs to a gang and totes a gun simply has “bad genes” (i.e., the reason he is a juvenile delinquent is because he inherited qualities that made him this way). Those in the “nurture” camp believe that a person is a product of his or her environment. A “nurture” proponent would say that the gang-banging teen engages in criminal behaviors because he lacks parental support, guidance, and supervision and he has been influenced by the high unemployment and high crime rates of his inner-city neighborhood. While you will still find people who firmly believe in either nature OR nurture, I think most people would agree that a person is the product of BOTH nature AND nurture. There are some qualities a person inherits. For e
