Nature and Nurture - Essay Sample

Introduction

"It is not nature or nurture. Nor is its nature and nurture... Life emerges only from the interaction between the two: there are no genetic factors that can be studied independently of the environment, and there are no environmental factors that function independently of the genome. Phenotype emerges only from the interaction of gene and environment" (Meaney, 2001). Nature refers to all factors that are genetical and hereditary which influence who people are it revolves around personality traits and our appearance physically. Nurture refers to the elements of the environment which have an impact on the development of human beings from experiences at childhood culture surrounding people and social relationship. The debate over nature and nurture have been a continuous matter of discussion until today. Life is the inherent characteristic of a person or a specific thing while character refers to a combination of factors in the environment that have influenced the behaviour and qualities that are expressed by a living organism (DeLisi, Wright, Vaughn, & Beaver, 2010). This paper will address the debate that has been existing between the fundamental heritable issues and the concerns associated with the atmosphere when it comes to the development of human beings and the inherited genetic issues that influence social development.

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The two features of nature and nurture are crucial in the growth of a person. Environment plays an active part in affecting the innate of a person whereas upbringing affects the environmental experience of the person.it is, therefore, hard to underrate the impact of nature at the expense of nurture or undervalue nurture at the cost of quality. Some of the development of human dependence on nature while others depend on upbringing. The inherited disorders include down syndrome, haemophilia, sickle cell anaemia among others.

"The environment and genetics are intrinsically connected features, and as a result, it is quite difficult to understand genetic characteristic without referring to nature and vice versa" (Bouchard, Malina and Perusse 1997). The development of human beings requires an individual to have a proper understanding of the two concepts nurture and nature.

Psychologists have made claims that there is an error when a person asks if nature or nurture is the determiner of the form of a particular character because nature and nurture have interaction during human development. Some claim that the question of how much this factor influence human development is essential to ask.several research has been made on twins who were separated a short period after their birth disclosed that genetics is vital in the growth of various temperament traits, sexual alignment, and religiosity. The link amongst Siamese twin is greatly influenced by genetics.Another study suggested that genetics have a role that is important in personality improvement while environmental impact on growth was little when the twins were brought up together and did not have an effect when they were brought at different areas. Charles Darwin states that human development involves a combination of both.

Genetics has an essential aspect in the development of health conditions of the mind which include bipolar, depression and schizophrenia. The development of genetic factors cannot be entirely dependant on the genes only, for example, identical twins usually have their genes shared yet if one of the twins develops schizophrenia the probability of the other twin getting the condition is 50%. The gene may lead to a predisposition for a particular disease, but the development of the illness depends on nurture. Freud in his personality theory states that our childhood experiences have a more significant impact in shaping adult livelihood, the family is an essential element of upbringing.

Nature and nurture cannot be separated; for instance, some genetic aspects require activation of inputs from the environment a good example is the development of vision .an individual event of the sight is majorly dependents on the introduction to optical inducements (Eagly & Wood, 2013). On the same note, some responses from the atmosphere may not be of great importance to the genes; for instance, some lifelong smokers may not experience an illness that is related to smoking.

The physical make up of a person can be the same as that of the parent; for instance, the eye could be that of the mother while the hair colour that of the father. However, the individual's personality can be different and have no connection be the parents (Haldane, 1946).The surrounding where a person has been brought up may influence the way the person does his or her activities.accoprding to nativists there are certain physical traits which are determined biologically through inheritance if genes these characteristics include curly or straight hair, the colour of the eyes and skin pigmentation to mention few.

On the other hand, are researchers who are empiricists or the environmentalists whose their underlying assumption is that the mind of any person when born is a blank slate or tabula rasa and what fills the soul is as a result of experience or what the individual gets from his or her surrounding.the difference in behaviour and physiological traits of a person that develops as one grows is as a result of learning. For instance, Bandura social learning theory proposes that aggression is learned through observing and imitating different aspects from the surroundings. Similarly, Skinner believed that the language that an individual speaks is learned from others through techniques of shaping behaviour.

Conclusion

In conclusion,the debate of nature versus nurture continues to arouse different suggests and findings from various researchers.there are many ideas on both sides of the discussion .so rather than asking whether nature or nurture has an influence on the physiological characteristics it is better to weigh and ask which of the two aspects have more control over the concerned area. Nature and nurture are interrelated when human development is concerned and a such there is no transparent and more straightforward way of unravelling these qualitative differences and influences that reciprocate on social manners.

References

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DeLisi, M., Wright, J. P., Vaughn, M. G., & Beaver, K. M. (2010). Nature and nurture by definition mean both: A response to Males. Journal of adolescent research, 25(1), 24-30.Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0743558409353063

Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (2013). Nature-nurture debates: 25 years of challenges in understanding the psychology of gender. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(3), 340-357.Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691613484767

Haldane, J. B. (1946). The interaction of nature and nurture. Annals of Eugenics, 13(1), 197-205. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aeCOAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=interaction+of+nature+and+nurture&ots=58dGUPjyER&sig=pyRNDB1hXQhaSzP4gD2XbkOSyTU

Meaney, M. J. (2001). Nature, nurture, and the disunity of knowledge. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 935(1), 50-61.Retrieved from https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb03470.x

Miller, G. W., & Jones, D. P. (2013). The nature of nurture: refining the definition of the exposome. Toxicological Sciences, 137(1), 1-2.Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article-abstract/137/1/1/1647257

Rappaport, S. M., & Smith, M. T. (2010). Environment and disease risks. Science, 330(6003), 460-461.Retrieved from http://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6003/460.short

Sameroff, A. (2010). A unified theory of development: A dialectic integration of nature and nurture. Child development, 81(1), 6-22.Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01378.x

Singh, I. (2012). Human development, nature and nurture: Working beyond the divide. Bio Societies, 7(3), 308-321.Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/biosoc.2012.20