Throughout the years the questions have been raised about the behavior patterns of mankind from our birth years to our late in life years. Do we get our behavior patterns from our physical and social environments and grow from there or do we get them from our genetic makeup from our parents? This has been a puzzling debate for years and years and no matter what new tests or experiments are conducted people will always lean in one opinion or another. Jon Rousseau believed that we are born with certain qualities, but society corrupts us (Nature) while John Locke believed that we were born as blank slates and experience will ultimately determine whom we are (Nurture).
I strongly feel as a human being we are the benefactors of both the nature and nurture characteristics. We for the most part are balanced by these, we have some genetic and social / physical patterns. William James felt that infants are basically helpless organisms, while John Watson described babies as living flesh capable only of simple responses. As newborns we come into a new world that is dark and noisy to us, being legally blind due to lack of cone cells and/or connections in the brain. At this point we are scared of what lies ahead of us. Coming into the new world gives us a fresh start or new clean slate to start out with in our young life. Immediately the surroundings have an effect on us, we are legally blind at first, but we will eventually develop eyesight to follow movement of symbolic gestures or objects. We are able to hear, but not understand. We will recognize our mother's voice from the beginning and tend to react to a female's voice first. Babies respond to voices and sounds and will react to new things with new stimuli as they grow each day. They learn to reach out, stick their tongues out, cry, and communicate by their eyes even if they can't talk yet. From early on there is the presence of both the genetic makeup of a baby with appearance, traits, and characteristics and also of the surroundings and environmental characteristics that they are developing.
