Nurture and Nature

The debate has ended and instead of nature vs nurture it has become nature and nurture.

Around the 17th century, some philosophers started to suggest that all knowledge comes from experience. A bit later, Charles Darwin then came forward with his theory of Evolution, highlighting inherited traits. 

In psychology, human behaviour, personality and abilities are shaped by genetics (nature) or environment (nurture). Without going into the details of the debate, a modern perspective states that it’s both.  Contemporary psychology sees the debate as outdated in its right vs wrong dimension or binary form. Genes and environment constantly influence each other. E.g. epigenetics show how genes can be switched on or off by environmental factors. 

The natural urge to protect self image and keep self-esteem high 

Things happen to us and instinctively, and the easiest way out, is to look at circumstances around us that have caused it.
This is perfect normal behaviour for a human being: 

Self-serving bias: introduced in the 1970’s and further developed by Edward E. Jones and Richard E. Nisbett, both psychologists. It describes the urge of people to address successes in life to internal reasons like talent and perseverance. When it comes to failures, often external factors like luck or the circumstances, are the main reason why it didn’t work out as expected. We need this mechanism to protect our self-image and boost our confidence.  In general, it helps us to minimize emotional suffering and solve cognitive dissonance. 

Attribution Theory: The attribution theory was introduced in 1958 by Fritz Heider, psychologist, in his book Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Heider stated that people are constantly trying to explain their behaviour  and the behaviour of others by addressing reasons for that behaviour to either internal (personal) or external (situational) factors. The theory is later being further developed by other psychologists. The theory helps to explain why people attribute success to themselves (internal, I made it happen) and failure to reasons outside of them (external; bad luck).  

So, people have the natural urge to protect their self image and keep their self-esteem high. 

For things that go wrong; they gain back a feeling of control since it wasn’t their fault, it doesn’t question their ability and offers some comfort in a way. For the successes, they believe their talent and perseverance made the difference; and that just strengthens their self-image. 

So, now that we know a bit more about the way we help to build our self-image and protect our confidence; it does put the following statements in perspective. There is no good or bad in this, this is how it works for us.