Nature vs. nurture?

remind me why we're choosing one over another

are you talking about homos

Ramzi = walking psych textbook.

i am nurture for people, nature for dogs

Ask TOMBOT

Really pushing the nature argument seems kinda right-wing to me.

it's obv both, duh

So you've been brought up to believe.

Fatalism/determinism = nature.

nature vs. torture

Serutan vs. Serutun

don't blame the parents vs blame the parents

I did some research on this topic a few years ago, and one of the more interesting studies was a new zealand birth cohort study of violent behavior. the birth cohort sample was large, about 500 men. conclusion was that a traumatic childhood increased the risk of adult violent behavior, but only among individuals low in a gene (MAOA) linked to impulse control (or as the behavioral scientists like to refer to it, neural hyperactivity to threat).

to oversimplify the conclusion:
low MAOA, good childhood = nonviolent adult
low MAOA, bad childhood = violent adult
high MAOA, good childhood = nonviolent adult
high MAOA, bad childhood = nonviolent adult

the study is dry + statistical and I can't find the layperson's articles on it, but here's an excerpt and link anyway:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/297/5582/851

Childhood maltreatment is a universal risk factor for antisocial behavior. Boys who experience abuse--and, more generally, those exposed to erratic, coercive, and punitive parenting--are at risk of developing conduct disorder, antisocial personality symptoms, and of becoming violent offenders (1, 2). The earlier children experience maltreatment, the more likely they are to develop these problems (3). But there are large differences between children in their response to maltreatment. Although maltreatment increases the risk of later criminality by about 50%, most maltreated children do not become delinquents or adult criminals (4). The reason for this variability in response is largely unknown, but it may be that vulnerability to adversities is conditional, depending on genetic susceptibility factors (5, 6). In this study, individual differences at a functional polymorphism in the promoter of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene were used to characterize genetic susceptibility to maltreatment and to test whether the MAOA gene modifies the influence of maltreatment on children's development of antisocial behavior.

been meaning to go back and see if anyone's repeated the study. it's singularity at the time made it an interesting data point but far from a bankable theory, though I see now it's been cited in a shitlod of subsequent papers.

or shitload, as it were

synthesis of seemingly incongruent ideas is a good way to make theoretical breakthroughs. the nature/nuture debate is overdue for this treatment.

</ hegel>

now let's get back to spitzer heartz hookerz

i'm off to smack some unruly children

plz test their maoa levels first

well, with myself, i generally go back to: ohhh, this is happening b/c of this thing that happened to me when i was 11. that's always my first thing.