Characteristics we are born with have much more influence on our personality

IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Research indicates that the characteristics we are born with have much more influence on our personality and development than any experiences we may have in our life.

Which do you consider to be the major influence?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Model Answer 1:
The characteristics we are born with and the characteristics we acquire throughout our lives are both important while determining our overall behaviours and characteristics. In my opinion both has equal influences on our personal development and defining who we really are.

The nature and nurture are the two factors that contribute in making an individual. The inherited characteristics can’t be denied as it determines the basic formation of human; like how we look, how we think etc. These characteristics are often shaped by the later experiences and development we face in our lives. This is how a modest son of a very rude people can be an exemplary personality in our society. And on the contrary an honest father might have a dishonest son.

The by-born physiognomies are something we will have to bear in our entire life. But, there is always a chance that we would become different in many perspectives from our ancestors because we have different experience in our lives and we were raised in different societies. As human we will always be afraid of darkness and imaginary ghosts as we have got these things in our gene from the ancient people. Someone who has never seen a ghost will be afraid of it at some time in his life. On the contrary, we have the perfect opportunity to build ourselves in the way we want through education, experience, social structure and our determination.

There is no definitive way of determining which of the two factors influences us most as there are always the exceptions on either way to discard any hypothesis. For instance, if nature and genetic code was the most important factor to determine our characteristics, we would always have been like our ancestors. In another way, if the experience and surrounding environment was the determining factor, then all of the students in a class would perform equally as they would get the same facility to perform well. But neither one is a universal fact.

Model Answer 2:
Scientific studies show that inborn traits have a deeper impact on our personality as compared to the experiences gain from our daily life. While the argument has merits, I believe that the situations we face during the course of our life have a stronger effect on our personality and temperament.