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Is it possible to differentiate between culturally conditioned behaviour & innate behaviour?

Does anyone know if researchers can differentiate between learned and innate behaviour in cross cultural studies ? If a child does not 'fit in' to a cultural group that they were born into how is that explained by sociologists? Are the limitations of the culture perceived as too restrictive for that personality type? Thanks for the thoughtful and interesting response. You've got me thinking...what about introverted intuitives born into western culture...maybe their genetically determined personalities would feel a greater sense of belonging, acceptance and comfort in an eastern culture.

Public Comments

1. That's the "nature vs. nurture" debate. It's been going on for a very long time and it will hardly be resolved.Still, the primal cause of some behaviors can be debatable, but others clearly belong to one group. In general, what is in stake is to find universal behaviors, that is, some kind of response that you will always find regardless of the specific society you are studying. Common examples are crying when in pain and laughing when happy. Culturally conditioned behavior will be the opposite. That is, when confronted with the same stimulus people react differently conditioned by their specific culture. Common example is food. Some cultures find it disgusting to eat pork, others find it immoral to eat veal, and others think that tarantulas are really delicious. If a child does not fit in then, from a sociological point of view, there could be a very wide range of possible explanations. The only one that will not do is to believe that people are genetically determined to have a personality that will not fit into their own culture. I agree that once your full personality has expressed itself, you might feel more "at home" in a cultural setting that is not the original one you where born in. But that would be true in any case, whether personality is innate or learned. I don't think that in modern contexts (globalization) we should force ourselves to adapt to a culture that feels inadequate to us.