By: Kaleigh Nobbe, Clinical Intern
It’s a question that we’ve heard repeated time and time again, and it continues to be asked: nature or nurture?
There are those who are more emotionally sensitive – quick to react or cry or anger – or maybe they’re slow to react. Perhaps a person is indecisive. Is someone born this way or were they made into what we see before us? Rarely have I heard someone ask how both factors contribute to the way in which a person interacts with their life. Biosocial theory offers some explanation as how both nature and nurture influence who a person may become.
Biologically, a person’s development can be influenced by genetics, hormones, internal processes, organs, etc. Each of these elements has an influence on the body from conception to death, responding to and shaping how the person interacts with their world. Socially, we look at relationships and interactions within the social contexts such as families, neighborhoods, schools, or any place that has norms for how people interact with that environment. The social aspect can even have an impact on the biological factor if the norms and constructs, for example if the environment exposes a person to environmental contaminants.
A biosocial perspective draws on models and methods from the biological, medical, behavioral, and social sciences. It demonstrates the biological and the social as reciprocated forces, and blurs boundaries between what happens inside the body and outside of the body. It implies that attempts to understand one without the other are incomplete. As the biological and social influence one another, we see the patterns that are developed in a person’s life – helpful or unhelpful. There may be more to creating change than thinking “just stop.”
To learn more about how your biology or environment
may be contributing to the patterns you see in your life,
reach out to Owens & Associates at 847-854-4333 for a free 15-minute consultation.