Nature vs. Nurture

[IHrtHalucingens]

Lately i have been thinking about the whole nature vs nurture question in terms of drug use. As with any psychological theory either side can be argued and the answersare highly dependant on certain circumstances or situations, but i'd just like to see what other people think about the subject.


Is drug use influenced more by:


A) Nature-Are people genetically predisposed to use drugs, maybe by expressing a gene for curiosity or somehting of the sort.


B) Nurture-Maybe your parents are too lenient about following rules so you grow up with less respect for laws, or maybe your parents raised you with too many rules and too strict consequences so you feel the need to rebel and use drugs? One must also consider the use of drugs as a way to escape troubles in your life. Maybe you were abused as a child or made fun of and have low self esteem like many anti-drug advocates say isa bigcause fordrug use.


C) Both-Maybeits a combonation of both nature and nurture that brings one to using drugs.


I don't know its just somethingthat i often think about, trying to figure out whyone does whatone does.And by no means are my examples the only possible variations justsituations tohelp along the thought process. i'd be very interested to hear what others have to say aboutit, and their reasoning behind it.

[IHrtHalucingens]

I can find many ways to support either case, however im leaning towards nurture. I think that gentetics play a huge role in every part of your life but in the end the choice is a concious one thta you make for w/e your personal reasons are. I say this because i have many friends who have syblings that are heavy drug users but for w/e reason they will never touch a drug. I know people who have addicts for parents and see their problems and make the decision to follow a different path, even though an addictive personality is in their genes. Hitler even did experiments on this sort of thing, he would seperate twins at a very young age and raise them both in opposite environments, one in a loving home with a good family, and the other being tortured every day and living an unwelcolming environment.However cruel and inhumane these experiments may have been they were incredibly interesting. Even though the twins share the same DNA the one raised in the hostile environment grew up to be a violent malicious person where as the one raised in the hospitable environment grew to be a "normal" functioning member of society. So i don't know i'm a man of logic andbelieve things that have some proof to back them up, id have ot say its more nurture than nature.

[Solidly-here]

Human brains are hot-wired for Drugs to work . . . so Nature (at least).


Since the dawn of mankind, Psychedelics have been used to gain a Spiritual experience (see the truth, find God, heal the mind), so it's a choice for people to make: Be "normal" . . . or, "Spiritual." I don't know where this fits into your nature/nurture definition (maybe you need a third category).


Drugs use certainly can be an act of rebellion. It can be used as a medicine (alcohol or Pot before bedtime to go-to-sleep).


Amphetamine use (cramming for an exam)can just be used to get a better test score for a college student. Alcohol can be used in the form of theBlood of Christ (or a glass of wine with dinner). Potcan be just used as a social ice-breaker (smoke 'em if you got 'em).


Re-work your definition.Edited by: Solidly-here

[MrJim]

The nature-nuture debate has always been a favorite to psychologists - we learn more and more every day about how genetics influences almost everything we do and what actions we choose to follow through on. Identical twins are often studied in the course of the debate and one side can always successfully point out how similar they are, yet the other side has just as much success pointing out how different they are (even when raised in the same families).


What almost all people in the psychological field tend to agree on these days is that it is an interaction between nature and nurture which creates the personality traits studied. And the nurture side is far more subtle and mysterious (psych's hate that word) than we understand. Just by the fact that two identical twins live in the same house doesn't mean that they live the same life - One might wake up a few minutes earlier than the other, creating unique experiences. One might take dance and one might take judo - all of these events, no matter how insignificant, play a role in shaping a mind.


And it is that mind shaping which ultimately leads these people in the directions they choose. Of course our minds are hard wired to react with drugs - our minds and our glands produce them, but the nurture may play the biggest role in whether someone picks up and carries an addiction that they are predisposed to in their genes. It takes both the predisposition and the mental urge to create an addiction, although sometimes the mental urge alone is enough.


The predisposition withouta mental urge doesn't create it.

[Jatelka]

Originally Posted by Solidly-here

Human brains are hot-wired for Drugs to work . . . so Nature (at least).

Not just human brains. Many animals preferentially seek out fermenting fruit (to the exclusion of other types of fruit).

[Nagognog2]

Birds as well. My family had a parrot that loved Scotch. He would fluff up his feathers and make cooing sounds with his eyes dilating and constricting when he saw a shotglass of it on the table. Then he'd fly to it and proceed to drink his fill. Then he'd strut about the table until he fell off the edge and landed on the floor. Then he'd try to fly. Hit the walls and windows. He loved it! That bird was a lush.

[Chaote]

I was reading about how children are predispositioned to addiction because of their parents, if an adopted childs birth parentsare addicts it was more likely for them to be addicts apposed to their adoptive parents being addicts and their real parents being straight