In general, what characteristics are people born with and what characteristics do they develop through experience with family, friends and society?

For example, some people are born to be silent while others are born to be talkative. However, the society (friends, family, etc.) is the thing that changes or adds to the nature of people, the way they behave and believe. If a soldier is born to be debilitated and another is born to be strong, they will have different behaviour during a war although they are living in the same situation. The one who is debilitated will be very debilitated if the war becomes tougher; however, the strong soldier will be less debilitated. Research has shown that a particular gene plays a central role in determining whether a person will suffer debilitation or not. Still, it cannot happen that a person is only living with characteristics that he or she is born with and not accept the influence of society.”

What has the greatest influence on the characteristics of youth? Is it family, friends, the media, or other parts of society? How?

This is like evaluating the good and bad things that happen to people in their lives. If someone meets many right things and few wrong things, they will go on the right track. For example, if parents want their kids to grow to be good, try to create an environment that is good for the kids. By doing so, although the kids have received some influence from their friends, they will still take family as their first priority. Still, the problem in the society is that parents always care more about business than their kids and they have less time even to talk with their children.”

How can we make the best out of what we are born with and where we live?

The means of influence on individuals are media, family, friends, siblings, relatives, community, as well as husbands and wives. They are staying around that person and they could be both a means of help or destruction for the characteristics of individuals. However, media and friends have the greatest influence on youth. Media influences the way people behave. You may see a wine advertisement saying it is healthy that has made the youth believe and drink it while in reality, it is the cause of wasting money, having traffic accidents, disease, or domestic violence. Friends have influence by the time a person grows to be an adult when their parents take less care of them. At that time, that person tries to follow what they are doing to adapt to the group they are in.“

Do you feel like your personality and preferences are something you were born with or something that you have learned throughout your life? Why?

I would say we get it from our families the most because we are born into our families and we must adapt to our families. This continues for me even until the present time. ”

Which characteristics of yours are learned and which ones were you born with?

Talking about that, when I was in high school, I was a silent person and rarely talked with boys because I felt that a girl was looked down on if she talked a lot with boys. However, when I entered university, that characteristic changed since I felt lonely and a classmate explained to me why she loved to go out with boys. She said going out with the boys is not really bad since we can understand a person who is not us and we can know a lot about the world outside. Since the majority of my class was boys, I could not avoid talking with them.

Are there characteristics that you wish you could change but cannot? What are they?

It is related to the above point that I have mentioned about my view on a girl who talks a lot or goes out with boys. Still, there are some points that we cannot change due to shyness. At least, it is much less than at previous times, although I am not sure what I could have benefited if I had changed sooner.

Where do you fall on the nature vs. nurture debate? Make your position known at angkorone.com/lift

Join Us...

on angkorone.com/lift to share your advice on staying healthy with thousands of other Cambodians. The best comments will be published in our next issue of Lift.