Nature vs. Nurture

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to highlight the significance of nature and nurture to determine the behavior and personality traits of an individual. The classical study of identical twins identifies the reasons of similarities between the behavioral patterns of these twins who were adopted by two different families. This shows the role of genetics in defining a personality. A high heritability score for intelligence indicated a powerful influence of heredity on intelligence. However, the behavior list theorist has a different perspective about the determination of the behavior. Identical twin exposed to the same environment exhibit a completely different behavior. Non blood relatives also tend to show similar patterns of behavior even though they are not genetically related. The debate over nature vs. nurture has been in light since the past 4 decades yet there is no conclusion to it. Since the evidence of both the theories tend to prove each other wrong from time to time.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION1

DISCUSSION`1

IDENTICAL TWINS1

CONCLUSION4

REFERENCES5

Nature vs. Nurture

Introduction

The conflict between nature and nurture has been going on since many centuries and still exist today. The debate between Nature and nurture caters to the value of an individual's inborn qualities in contrast to the personal experiences, in order to determine the differences in physical behavioral traits of an individual. Nature can be described as your genes which dominates your personality and behavior. On the other hand, nurture emphasizes on your upbringing and childhood experiences that were either good or bad. The question to be asked is that what makes us who we really are: life experiences or our DNA? (Richman, 2007). This debate has gained a lot of attention due to the diverse knowledge gained about inheritance and genetics. The study of twins helps us in determining the influence of nature and nurture in two identical genes exposed to a different environment.

Discussion

Identical Twins

The classical twin model has been used as a benchmark to determine the causes of the variations in a behavior or personality. By comparing two twins who share the same genetics yet exposed to different environmental factors. There are three mechanisms through which genes have an impact on the environment. These include passive genetic influence in which parent's genes influence their behavior that in turn effects the environment in which the child is being brought up. This means that if the parents have an intellectual background then the child will be raised in a cerebral environment (Sternberg, 2011). The second mechanism refers to an active genetic influence in which there is an influence on the child's experiences due to their genes. This creates an environment to reinforce their inherited traits as the two different twins may generate their own environment yet similar to each others. Modern day molecular genetics allow the advance study of the entire human genome (Sternberg, 2011).

A real life example can be taken from New York City where two girls were adopted as infants by two different affectionate families (Richman, 2007). After many years, both of them became aware about ...