Nature vs. Nurture Controversy
Uploaded by cherry610 on Mar 06, 2000
There is a big controversy between whether inherited genes or the environment influences and effects our personality, development, behavior, intelligence and ability. This controversy is most often recognized as the nature verses nurture conflict. Some people believe that it is strictly genes that effect our ways of life, others believe that it is the environment that effects us, and some believe that both of these influence us. Either way, social scientists have been struggling for centuries deciding whether our personalities are born or made. Tests are done often on identical twins that were separated to see how they are influenced. In the past twenty years, it has been discovered that there is a genetic component to about every human trait and behavior. However, genetic influence on traits and behavior is partial because genetics account on average for half of the variation of most traits. Urie Bronfrenbrenner, who studies genetics, said, "It is not nature vs. nurture, but the interaction of nature and nurture that drives development." Researchers are finding that the balance between genetic and environmental influences for certain traits change as people get older. Also, people may react to us in a certain way because of a genetically influenced personality and, we may choose certain experiences because they fit best with our instinctive preferences. This means that our experiences may be influenced by our genetic tendencies. One way researchers study the development of traits and behaviors is by measuring the influence of genetics through out ones life span, and it is found to be that the genetic influence on certain trait increase as people age. A research was done to see whether a trait would show up in a child if it was environmentally influenced or genetically influenced. A child was given more negative attention than another was, and it increased the chances of the child having depressive symptoms and anti-social behavior. But these symptoms disappeared when accounted for genetic influences and how parents treat their children. There are three types of gene/environment relations. The first one is called a passive correlation. It is to be explained as, for example, if a musical ability was genetic, and a child was passed a musical ability trait, than the child would most likely have musically inclined parents. Their parents then would provide them with the genes and environment to promote the development of that ability. The second one is called evocative....