Nature vs Nurture debate: Aggression levels present in sports competitions

I'm currently studying Alevel psychology and a recent debate we have been looking at is the idea that we are who we are due to nature or nurture. Nature meaning that we are us due to our genetic makeup that is inherited from our parents, nurture meaning that we are us due to the environmental conditions surrounding us. We were asked to write about any scenario surrounding the idea that our behavior is inflicted due to nature vs nurture, hence why I've developed the idea to yet again turn my written school work into a blog post. The following passage you will read is merely based upon theory and no physical evidence of any experiment, this is simply something different that I thought would look nice upon my site, it may not prove to be at all accurate. I hope you enjoy!

The initial scenario

Picture this scenario, you have trained with a coach for a sporting competition and prior to the competition , you feel incredibly motivated and have an idea of where you would like to place. After losing in the competition, the adrenaline rush prior to the competition and afterwards causes you to experience feelings of anger. Lets consider the factors of nature vs nurture and whether they correlate with these angry feelings.

Nature debate

In this setting, the idea of nature may come into consideration when looking over the genetics of athletes with more or less aggression physically and emotionally present. This can be configured through measuring the aggression levels of the parents of the athletes who show more feelings of anger to motivate themselves prior to competing and after if they experience anger if they lose a competition. These aggression levels could be measured through giving tasks to the parents that involve high amounts of adrenaline being produced and then deliberately introducing the fixed result of the parents losing. This can be compared to see whether the athletes are likely to have inherited more anger issues due to their genetics. Then when given the opportunity to, will these aggressive feelings be revealed in times when adrenaline is boosted.

Nature debate: limitations

Some limitations of the nature debate being fully supportive are:

• Are levels of aggression only genetically passed down from parent to child?
• Would siblings present similar levels of aggression or are they each individually triggered by different circumstances, not revolving around the aspect of losing a competition? 
• Does your ability to naturally be able to be good at a sport impact these levels? or are athletes who have worked harder to be talented more likely to feel higher levels of aggression?

Nurture debate

The idea of nurture may arise within conditions surrounding sports competitions and the overall environment, due to the situation inflicting the behavior shown. A general sports competition will be likely to contain a reasonably sized audience to competitors ratio, some which will be in support of the athlete, others not so supportive. Other factors such as the participants feelings surrounding the other competitors and the audience come into play, which can depend upon nurture. The levels of adrenaline and aggression present in the athlete can depend upon how much the athlete is able to boost themselves up before competing, do they make themselves angry to perform better? How much do they want to succeed? Then, depending upon environment factors (Where they placed, the effort they put in and the excitement of others who won), after such a large adrenaline rush, does nurture prove that the anger shown when losing is simply due to what happens there and then? The training environment surrounding the athletes prior to the competition may inflict the uproar of anger experienced when losing a competition. For example, are their training sessions loud and are pushy coaches and parents claiming that the athlete 'will beat everyone they're against', is there pressure present to win for the sake of the club and not for personal benefits?

Nurture debate: limitations

Some limitations of the nurture debate being fully supportive are:

• Has the athlete been involved in competitions before? How large and important were they?
• How much coaching has the athlete received within a pushy or loud environment? Does this promote more aggression when the athlete doesn't live up to the coaches expectations?
• How much pressure is put upon the athlete from their coach and parents that they should or will win? Does the athlete only compete to live up to these standards?
• Are the athletes raging with hormones if in their peak of teenage years? Is anger more likely to arise due to this?

What would society choose?

Society may not side with neither nature or nurture as they may have impacts upon each other in order to provoke the initial behavior change when faced with a result of loss. For example, training sessions may promote the athlete to be loud and angry when training gets tough, but without any genetics that show their parents had issues with abrupt anger and the controlling of this, what does this intend to prove?

My personal experience

My personal experience with aggression and sport within Olympic Weightlifting is that prior to an attempt at a personal best, I often boost myself up and try to make myself angry before attempting the lift. If I succeed at the lift, my response is something like 'Great, now volume'. If I fail the lift, there is a good chance you don't want to be the cause for my failure as sometimes (especially after multiple attempts) I can become really angry with myself for not successfully getting the lift or even if my technique is looking awful. Here are some factors about me:

• My parents don't have explicit issues with the control of their anger.
• I don't regularly lift within loud conditions, at least less than once a month.
• Conditions surrounding me only become loud and pushy when I myself am wanting a personal best, nobody else will decide for me when I want to attempt a personal best, that is my decision.
• My coach is not pushy, I configure my own training programs.
• I am a teenager, currently towards the end of the peak of 'raging hormone' years.
• There are rarely other people within my weight category, meaning that the competition is mainly between myself and the barbell.
• I am not naturally good at Olympic Weightlifting, I have had to try my uttermost hardest to be where I am today at this strength level. My coordination levels have often been awful.

So without my opinion, what do you think? Nature, nurture or both? Thank you for reading this post, it has been enlightening to write a post that is fresh and that can be built upon.