Originally Posted by squeeeb

i'm not trying to be an annoying nitpicky cockbite here, i just want some clarification.

do you mean how much do you change once you are already an adult, or do you mean from childhood on?

from childhood on, i think its both nature and nurture. you are genetically predisposed to a certain amount of personality, perhaps depression caused by chemical imbalance, a natural aptitude for learning and reasoning, causing you to act rationally or not.

but along with that, you have outside influences which cause you to behave in certain ways that you take to adulthood. for example: look at most people who packrat, or are constantly buying tons of shit. you find out many of them either grew up poor, or lost a bunch of shit and became poor when they were young, and psychologically they will never go through that again.

so the person you are right now was shaped and formed by nurture, but nature helped guide that shaping.

two adults go through the same tragic horrible event (prisoner of war/disaster survivor/audience member on springer). one is disturbed, ruined, says it broke him and he will never be the same again. the other comes out a "survivor" and is stronger for it, has a deeper appreciation for the world around him. one guy took it as negative, the other used it to become positive. why? it was how they were brought up, their "nurture"and the experiences they had growing up affected them in part by their genetic makeup, their "nature."

i think once we are adults, we are pretty much set in our ways and changing is extremely difficult. you can change, but it takes a pretty significant amount of energy.