Just like how a seed does not randomly develop based on sunlight, water, and soil, environmental factors do not determine an individual’s personality but it only has a role to play in their life.
Lekha Ramyaa R
Psychologists throughout the world have been conducting incessant research in the area of behavioural sciences, striving towards the goal of understanding whether it is an individual’s nature or environmental factors that play an instrumental role in shaping one’s behaviour and personality. According to American Psychological Association, personality has been defined as ‘the individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.’ The debate in describing and defining the personality of an individual has been quite evident through the works of renowned Psychologists like Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Albert Bandura, and Carl Yung, who have given various perspectives to personality from the psychoanalytic, individual psychology, behavioural and humanistic schools of thought respectively. Having said that, there still lies a juxtaposition of nature and nurture.
An interview regarding the same was carried out with Mr. Karthekeyan ATS who has completed his B. Tech in textile engineering, additionally holds a PDM degree and is an MBA (HR and marketing) graduate from a renowned university at Chennai. His expertise lies in the area of human resources and is currently pursuing a job and research at Wellington, New Zealand. It was very interesting to note that he strongly affirms that nature and biological predisposition determines an individual’s personality. On posing various perspectives to him in the form of questions, he gave an insightful thought and was able to suggest convincing evidence to validate his statements.
The first question was ‘How do you believe that nature determines behaviour and personality keeping Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment in context?’ His response followed, “Bandura’s experiment was solely based on children, and as a developmental milestone it is quite natural for children to imitate behaviour and execute them based on the reinforcements or punishments they receive. The same will not be observed in adults.”
The second question was ‘our attitudes and beliefs are based on what we are exposed to in life, isn’t that an environmental factor that determines our personality?’ He gave a fascinating response saying, “Each individual uses his/her discretion to learn or unlearn and pick behaviours that are appropriate to him/her, so now, isn’t this one’s nature again?” He also gave an instance from his own life where he as an individual decided to opt out of a behaviour although he was exposed to it at a large extent.
The third question was based on a hypothetical situation, ‘what if an innocent is put behind bars, he is exposed to criminals to a great extent so will that not affect his behaviour and attitude?’ He said, “It’s not the situation where he is in, it is who he is. As he is not a criminal himself, the probability of him picking up bad qualities has a very slim chance, almost negligible.” He also cited the example of Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam who stood tall among his peers despite the tough situations and hardships that he faced in his life. Mr. Karthekeyan stated that this was purely based on his persona and nothing else.
Finally he concluded his case by stating that every individual is like a seed, which has its unique characteristics and chooses to grow in an environment that is conducive for his/her growth. Just like how a seed does not randomly develop based on sunlight, water, and soil, environmental factors do not determine an individual’s personality but it only has a role to play in their life.
This interview had eye-opening ideas which has immense potential in research. An experience based talk given by Mr. Karthekeyan has made it possible for commoners to understand what the nature/nurture debate is all about and would definitely pave way for more research into this field for academicians and researchers.
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