Environmental Effects On Children

[Jack]

Ever notice how the way that someone is raised effects the kind of person that they become? Rednecks are raised in the country, high maintenance girls are raised in highly urban/high class suburban areas and rappers are raised in an all black neighborhood usually. But what if it were to get switched up? For instance, would a black person raised by an all white family adopt the speech habits and interests of a typical white person these days? Or is the same true reversed?

Eminem

Eminem, the popular white rapper grew up in Detroit, a state who's population is 82% black. How do you think growing up around other black males with a popular interest effected his interest in rap music? It is a widely shared opinion that black males typically express an interest in rap after all. He even admits to growing up in a community where rap battles often took place. If he had been raised by a loving, wealthy family in a high end, mostly white neighborhood, would he have turned out any differently?

What if the environment doesn't effect a child's personality's growth at all though? What if it's decided by genetics instead? What if it is decided that a musician is going to be a musician before he even comes out of the womb? But then again maybe the kind of person that you become depends upon both the manner of growth/surroundings AND genetics.

Take a look at the environment and manner in which you yourself were raised and think about how it's effected you as a person. How has it changed you? And would you have turned out being a different kind of person in any aspect had you been raised in a completely different way?

Cheers.
-Jack

[kami-sama]

Admittedly its affect everyone.You learn how to act by looking at others, if all your friends drink, you will drink too, if you parents and friends are snob, then the same to you. There is no escape from that. If you change you living place, your attitude will change too, after all, were just animals.

[xX Kai Xx]

See this is a tough one. I started life as a spoiled rich baby i mean from birth till around 10. from then on my parents divorced and my dad lost his job, my mother wasnt able to find work for a bit and i started hanging out on the "wrong side of the tracks" but it never felt right i tried to fit in and be all getto i mean i was able to look the part but i never truly was that way. Now i dunno how they felt truly on the inside because they didint talk about feelings i mean thats gay right? hahahaha anyway i dont necessarily believe its the environment as much as its the teachings and upbringing that counts i was taught how to speak and act in polite society and i guess it stuck, so maybe it is sum what genetic because i grew up in both situations and turned out to be a pretty normal person with normal values and actions. s i believe that its bullshit to say i grew up with shitty people being all ghetto so i am. you are what you choose to be and act how u choose being ghetto is a choice, as is being posh.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by xX Kai Xx

i grew up in both situations and turned out to be a pretty normal person with normal values and actions.

Sure, you may say that but what officially constitutes being "normal"?
It seems that there are only stereotypes in this day and age, yet society tries to come up with so many labels for people and their lifestyles and most want to believe so badly that they live up to that one label that makes them feel like they belong. Normal.

Besides we're all a little weird... No matter who you are.

-Jack

[xX Kai Xx]

Originally Posted by Jack

Sure, you may say that but what officially constitutes being "normal"?
It seems that there are only stereotypes in this day and age, yet society tries to come up with so many labels for people and their lifestyles and most want to believe so badly that they live up to that one label that makes them feel like they belong. Normal.

Besides we're all a little weird... No matter who you are.

-Jack

By "normal" i mean that i dress in a subtle way and try not to scream for attention as in when i walk through the mall people dont gauk and i guess im more of a chamelion seeing as how i look "normal" like a sears catalog guy hahaha but sumtimes i guess i look like a "skater" or a "punk" but i duno i think as you get older being "loud" in you dress is wel it gets old. I never once said my thoughts are normal it just depends on who im talking to weather or not i let them in. but i think screaming for attention in the way you dress is, childish and we all need to grow up at sum point. (and i know its a bit garbled but as i said in anther post i cant express myself as well in writing as i can when speaking, dang i need to work on that.)

[sasnin14]

This is a really hard question... sense i think that it depends on all kind of details. It depends in the environment they live in, like me, my neighborhood is kind of bad, and i feel like i act like everybody else...so i'm guessing that to be bad too >.> It depends to a lot on the family members, i say family members cuz i don't think is just parents. The aunts, uncles cousins, grandparents etc. are as important as the parents. Like me, even though i'm halfway across the world away from my family(my parents are wit me) they affect me in every kind of way, when my aunt is sick it affects me(she almost dyed the day after x-mas)i'll be concerned about her and it changes my attitude and that affects who i'm around etc. It also depends on who u hang around wit, the friends r really important, one of my friends almost made me f*** this one dude that i didn't even know, but my best-friend got me into conscious and made me realize that i shouldn't YET. but i'm going to say that it all comes down to u, who u r inside. EX. my dad had a reputation of being the one that beat the hell out of everybody. My mom the same, would mostly fight boys, but she told me she loved fighting gurls cuz they had long hair..and she would swing them around. And so on and so forth, but u know what? i'm not at all like that, u would have to get me to a point were i got no more verbal opinion or get me super mad for me to fight u. So yes, i think that environment does effect ppl act, sense is what they know, and sense it's humans' way of thinking that what they know or think is right, then they'll keep acting that way. (and so now i realize, that being away from ur childhood, can bring u good things, cuz u'll see another face of life)

[Limabean]

If you ask me I say genetics has nothing to do with how you grow up. If I look at myself and then look at my mother and father I am nothing like them. They are disgusting people like in so many ways. Well genetics may have something to do with it if you think of it as like..your parents ugly-you ugly...then you might get picked on and become like a shy person or something. I do say that my surrounding have had a big effect on me. Like because my parents are so disgusting I can see how much I HATE disgusting things and why I hate them and if they were not around for me to see what they do i would probably like a lot more things then I do now. My parents also spoil me so if they were not around to do that I would probably be less needed and weirder looking.
(I like Eminem's music.)

[Katana]

I think a person's surroundings have a lot to do with how they turn out, but I am also very, very strong in my belief that a person's mentality has a lot to do with it, too. I think that this is proven when there are many outcomes to people from the same type of background. For example;

If you have two people who are raised in abusive families, one of them could turn out being suicidal and hateful, wanting nothing more than to crawl in a hole and cease to exist. But, the other could turn out wanting to prove that they're strong, and that they can survive through anything, and so try to better their life with their own hand, showing that nothing can bring them down.

Or...

You could have two people brought up in very wealthy, sophisticated families who care a lot and want only the best for their kids. One of them could turn out exactly like any other member of their family; happy and wealthy, with a spouse and children of their own. However, the other one could be feeling smothered by all the love and could think that they are being pressured into fulfilling loads of expectations, and so could end up feeling angry at their family, and never wanting to see them again.

Or...

Take two kids being bullied at school. One could end up as being shy, and without any self-esteem, self-concious and nervous most of the time, resulting more taunts and abuse from people who want to take advantage, but the other could take what happened, and let it go, turning it into an experience instead, and learning from it so that they can prevent any such things from happening again.

I'm not saying that those are the only outcomes to situations like those, but those are probably the most common ones. Probably. From what I've experienced, seen, and heard, I know that there are a lot more ways a person could turn out. These are just some examples.

So, I don't necessarily think it's the environment in which someone is brought up that determines how their personality turns out to be like, but more to do with how they are able to both mentally and physically handle the situations they face in the certain environments.

Looking at what a person turns out to be, whether they turn out to be in the entertainment industry, or the medical industry, etc... I think that, if you're talking about that sort of thing, it does depend a lot on their surroundings. For example, someone could want to become a doctor after witnessing someone near and dear to them die of a fatal illness. Or, someone could want to be a musician because they had a friend who was into music and so introduced them to that sort of scene. There are endless situations which can spark a person's interest in a certain subject. So, yeah, I think this does have a lot to do with environment.

But, yeah, personality-growth, in my opinion, is a matter of the mind, which is, pretty much, impossible to understand.

((Oh dear, I've written an essay... ^^; ))

x

[Kaseru]

I believe this could under the fact that we are the products of our environment. Whatever your environment is about you will most likely be just another person with that beliefs. Which is why there normally isn't any controversy unless somehow someone new moves into the community and then they become just another face in the crowd. Which brings the point of being able to get outside of that environment and study abroad. Being able to do that will allow you to learn other cultural "normalcy." For example, American has been know to slaughter cows in order to eat. But in another country cows are sacred and must never be killed just because of the use of food. To study abroad is the only way we as humans are able to get "outside of the box" and to finally once and for all change the environment we were grown up in.

Some environments are very conservative as in they don't believe in same sex marriage nor dating, whites people are the majority of the population, and of course being a republican. This environment is one of the worse because you are taught under strict values and are not able to see other points of views that are actually in the world. This view could be I suppose a "tunnel" view. All you can see is what you learned from growing up and when moving and realizing that there are so many more views out there then you will feel out of place and amazed at there is actually out there.

This is the same for all environments. Which brings me back to the point of saying, We are and will always be products of our environment unless we moves to a foreign place or if our family life changes drastically.

-Kase-

[zuluedison]

looking at it scientifically, genetics absolutely do have an effect on how you grow up.

every moment of your being is spent reacting to what is going on around you. Lets say your seritonin flow leve is lower than someone elses, then you will react to the situation differently than you would otherwise. Genes are not nescessarily obvious concrete things (such as hair color). you may be nothing like your parents but your genes have directly influenced that as well. You have reacted to things they have done and said, with the genes they gave you, affecting your decision.