The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest issues in psychology. The debate revolves around the relative contributions of genetic inheritance and environmental factors to human development. Some philosophers or writers suggest that certain things are in-born or simply occur naturally regardless of environmental influences. Other well-known philosophers and psychologist believe in what is known as tabula rasa; which means that the mind begins as a blank slate. In other words, everything that we are and all of our knowledge is determined by our experiences.
Social skills is a very important skill to have, and personally, I think it becomes more important every day. This is something heavily effected by one's environment. The most extreme case is represented by feral children. A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and the child has no or little experience of human care and loving or social behavior. Feral children lack the basic social skills which are normally learned in a process called enculturation, or "the process by which an individual learns the traditional content of a culture and assimilates its practices and values."(Merriam- Webster) For example, they may be unable to learn to use a toilet, have trouble learning to walk upright and display a complete lack of interest in human activity around them. .
There are few cases of feral children who have been able to fully compensate for the neglect they have suffered. Aleksandr Kogan's article, "Is Your Personality in Your Genes?," discusses how genes can affect one's personality, and argues that there are too many other factors that take a toll on one's personality to just base one's personality on their genes. He reports, "Our genes are foundations for who we are. But this is a far cry from declaring a particular gene is responsible for a particular personality trait.
