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Foster Home Research Paper

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Foster Home Research Paper
Nature versus Nurture: Foster Homes and Orphanages

Psych 500

July 5, 2010

For decades, nature versus nurture debate has been an ongoing argument among experts studying life span development. Those who believe that nature is the determining factor of development argue that genes determine an individual 's personality, attitudes, and behavior. The other side of the debate among experts is that nurture or experiences and environment have the most influence on development. Santrock states, "nature refers to an organism 's biological inheritance, nurture to its environmental experiences" (Santrock, 2007, p. 17). This paper will take the debate a little further by examining whether nature or nurture has more of an influence on children raised …show more content…
Foster care should be a temporary move until the child 's biological parents or relatives can take care of him or her. Many children, though, will be in the foster system for more than seven years and these children need a permanent home, such as an orphanage in which there is stability and they are no separation from siblings. It may start out with a child being placed with another relative and when that relative can no longer care for the child then another relative may take over or the child is placed in a home of strangers (a foster home). These children also have to change schools repeatedly, sometimes putting them behind peers in classroom situations, and retarding their development. What is this doing to the child; not knowing who loves them, the disruption of moving, learning new rules and regulations at each home, having no personal possessions, and quite often separated from their siblings, never knowing when they will see them again or …show more content…
Genetic traits such as schizophrenia, alcoholism, and depression can affect the behavior of children as they grow older. Some of these traits will reveal themselves later in life and nurturing cannot always deter the behavior these traits bring about. Nurturing, though, can help a child to develop skills that will help him or her cope with everyday life. Nurturing can help a child to develop at the same rate as those children who remain in the home with his or her biological parents.

So the debate continues regarding whether nature or nurture has more of an influence on child development. Personal experience has taught me that though I may have traits from my biological parents, nurturing given to me at the orphanage helped me to grow into the type of person I am today.
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