Born with it or learned behavior?

I think certain traits you are born with And there are things that happen to you that can mold your personality.Not all murderers have spiteful hearts and not all people with spiteful hearts murder. I think it all depends on how much a person can take what happened to them and their point of view of life.so everything goes into forming a person's personality.

Yes you are very much right... I am born with a talent to adapt to new things, to change according to situation. That is a born gift :) Some people, that i have seen never change. They are born with such a personality that they think they are right and never change their attitude/behavior/habits :)

I think it's a combination. We can't do much about our genes as they are what they are but we learn from our environment. I was adopted and my husband always tells me I do things like my adopted mom. Am built like her and also looked somewhat like her. But in self defense, I can say I did not pick up her personal habits and that's a very good thing. She had issues that I was smart enough to stay from all my life.

This is a Good Question! I believe in reincarnation, or life after life. According to this Theory, we have all the knowledge in the universe available to us, (we have already learned all there is to know) but in order to return to this world and a new life we must accept to forget. (If everyone remembered everything, life on this planet would not work) But we do retain our personality. This can be checked by watching a new baby, and noticing that even at a few weeks of age he has a personality of his own. He has definite likes and dislikes, and doesn't hesitate to let his mother know. An interesting note~ we come here not to learn, but to Remember! To Check this out read,"Conversations with God," by Neale Donald Walsch.

Its your environment around you that affects you. Imagine giving birth to identical twins but get seperated at birth. They will devolope different characteristics about themselves.

I think genetics control certain actions and tendencies, but life's experiences are what ultimately decide the path you take and the human you are. I believe that as long as you try to progress humankind, you are a success. Great topic btw...

Well for starters I'm a VERY FIRM believer that we ALL have the ability to kill...Each and every one of us...yet we arent all bitter ppl...sometimes something happens that just "flips the switch" in us ya know....that being said...I think we are born with our basic personality traits but they become more defined and complex depending on our lives and personal experiences....For example here is a simple explaination.... I AM wihtout a doubt a Virgo through and through with a touch of Libra tossed in (born that way) BUT some of those Virgo traits have been modified becuase of things that have happened in my life (environment).. Make sense?

I believe, like you, that we are influenced by both - our genetics as well as our upbringing (which who brought us up would be influenced by the same genetics anyhow) our genetics may give us certain tendancies or predispose us in some ways - but our conditioning can teach us to over-come or enhance these dispositions.

I think it's a combination of both jill. After researching my ancestry for 40 years, learning some of the things I have about my ancestors, I am convinced much of who we are, including the things we like and are good at, are things that are passed down from generation to generation. Many times, we don't know why we are attacted to something like art or cooking or even gardening, but we later realize, for instance, we might enjoy gardening because our ancestors were farmers. We might enjoy cooking because our great, great grandmother was a terrific cook or other circumstances like that. As for acts of murder and things like that, it could very well be part of a generational thing, along with other varying factors in one's life. That's just my opinion.

I think it is a fifty fifty proposition with personalities. I do believe that there are two basic personalities the risk takers and the careful, sensible non risk takers. There are game players and non gameplayers. I think that part of our personalities are from our genes and the other part is from our invironment when we were growing up. Both are part of our basic personality but we can change those habits and parts with work if we want to. I am part of the risk taker and game player group. My whole family with the exception of my daughter are game players. We love to play cards, computer games, gamble and get involved in sometimes risky endeavors. My daughter was born into the same invironment as the rest of us but moved away from our family at a very early age...19. She has been able to stay away from those risky, addictive activities. So therefore I think that it is a fifty fifty proposition. Many of my family are heavy drinkers and gamblers or other addictive activities and it goes all the way back in my genealogy. I think that genes are part of the situation. I am a game player but not a drinker and right now I am trying to stay away from gambling as a source of entertainment. I now have been trying to concentrate on scrapbooking and genealogy. I find that those two activities can become addictive also but they won't hurt me financially or emotionally. That is just my opinion.

I know this has been said a thousand times, but it is definitely a combination of genetics and upbringing, and personal experiences within, and separate from, the family environment. It can't be all genetics and upbringing because if that were the case, siblings, who have the same parents and were raised in the same environment, would be very similar. This is sometimes the case, but not always. I know people who are great- help others, kind, generous, and they have siblings who are mean, vindictive, hurtful, selfish. How do you explain those differences? It could be because of different circumstances within the family (oldest-, middle- or youngest- child syndrome?), or experiences outside the family, such as with friends or at school. It could be that one got the mean gene and the other got the nice gene. Who knows?

I believe that it's a combination of the two but for the most part, we are born with it in tact. Having a rough childhood could make a person iritable or being abused in a relationship could make a person not trust people. My personality is different from most of my close family members. They are out-spoken and I'm not, they would fight and I choose not to fight. A couple of them are a little rough around the edges but I'm smooth all around :)and I believe on that aspect, I was born like that. Yeah, it's a little or a lot of both depending on the person.

I don't think we are born with our personalitites in tact. I think that part of who we become comes from our background,our experiences, and upbringing.

I think that you're exactly right, and it's a mixture. Like, in your example of a murderer, I think that they weren't born with a spiteful heart, but something triggered that spiteful, murderous trait within them. I think that the way you deal with things shows your personality and that you are born with your personality in tact, it's just shaped by different experiences we all during life.

well i think its all Circumstances...

Basically all are softnatured,and do have the soft nature qualities when we are young.It is only when we start to mingle with the society, and the way we build the relationship with others counts a lot. Also the circumstances that we are in, insinuates a behavior. As an example, one may be gripped in a credit crunch situation, and one come across a unclaimed treasure worth millions of dollars, the behavior to steal the treaure will grip them, and therfore a situation makes a personality to acquire a behavior. Take care friend, of what i have expressed above is only my opinion on human traits and actions.

I think maybe you are right. I do think that we are born with certain traits that remain throughout our lives. I have always been a quiet person while my brother has always been very sociable and boisterous. I also think that things that happen in our lives also have a big part of they types of people we are. very interresting topic!

I think a lot of who we our as people, our personalties is in our basic make-up, when I look at myself and my brother, he has always been quite and shy even though if something upsets him he can get angry but I am completely different, outgoing, he would say loud and love meeting new people. We were bought up in the same household and so had similar lives growing up. We were also close in age, the only difference being he was male, I was female. I think some people if treated badly as children can then become nasty when they grow up but others treated badly become even more caring and understanding towards others being mistreated, so definately a bit a both. I do not believe murderers are born with evil in them so their early environment must have a lot to do with it, maybe getting mixed up with the wrong crowd and getting in too deep, leading into other crime and then eventually they kill someone. Don't think anyone really knows the answer to this. Good question though Jill. Ellie :D

Behaviour are demonstable actions from the day we are born, throughout our lives till the day that we pass away. These are influenced by the genes, the parents at home , the teachers at school, and RELIGION has a very important part. We are influenced by friends and enemies, by collagues and bosses at work. We as part of a family are affected by our children and grandchildren. The country we live in has an important part to play in what we become. Not forgetting to mention the educational standards.

I think we learn what we live and if our family is dysfunctional in any way.Hopefully when we watch other folks behaviour (particularly they we admire)we can mould ourselves into something better. Having said that though, we can't go through life blaming our upbringing on what we are and what we do. We must take responsibility for ourselves and to find true happiness I think we have to be the best we can be so that we feel good about ourselves and therefore can like ourselves also others