Nature vs. Nurture

I recently wrote about the causes of emotional disorders and found out a great deal of information. I now want to answer the other questions I had from my first post so that I can move onto the “main topic” of discovering how teachers can best support students with emotional disorders in a positive and effective manner. Before I do so, I think it is crucial for me to mention the idea of “nature vs. nature” in relation to emotional disorders. A friend of mine asked me a question that really got me thinking about how this can affect my blog. Emotional disorders can be a sensitive topic and tricky to explain because everyone has their own views about psychology. There are so many different “levels” (in relation to the severity of the disorder) of emotional disorders as well, which is unique to each individual. Also, even if two children have the exact same disorder, the causes of the disorder and how the two students behave could be completely different. Here is an example: Amy and John are both in second grade. Amy and John both suffer from anxiety. Amy started suffering from anxiety after her dad moved out of the house and her parents are now going through a divorce. John’s parents are happily married, yet he started suffering from anxiety a week after he started second grade and his parents and teachers are not sure why. Amy has been acting out the entire year, while John rarely misbehaves but is becoming more and more withdrawn from the rest of the students.

The point of writing this make-believe scenario (although it could be completely realistic) is to show how everyone is different and has had different life experiences which can cause their disorder to be mild or severe, easy to treat or difficult to treat, etc, based on whether the cause is known or unknown. Some people may argue that John’s genetics is what caused his anxiety (nature) because his parents and teachers are unable to determine why his anxiety started, and that Amy’s anxiety was environmentally related and was caused because of her home life (nurture). I have always believed that nature and nature both influence children and adults psyche, yet there is no solid proof that validates my belief 100%. There is also no factual evidence to support that solely genetics or solely environmental factors influence the psyche of a person. Therefore, some of the information I state in my blogs may lean towards one side or the other depending on the topic area, but I am in no way taking sides or saying that one belief is right and the other wrong – I am simply doing my best to state the facts and will then build my posts from those. J