nature versus nurture
The dubious history of the heredity environment controversy can be easily traced as far back as the start of the present century with at least some historical evidence placing the roots of this dispute in the time of John Locke. This controversy has continued despite continual reiteration that the critical question is not how much of a trait is due to heredity and how much is due to environment, but rather how environment transact to influence development. This paper will focus on the nature/nurture controversy and the extent to which an individual's intellectual level is determined either by inborn intelligence or by environmental factors. Psychologists and biologists striving to determine how heredity and environment influence the development of intelligence have actively pursed the relative powers of nature and nurture. Before we can go on to discuss the relationships between intelligence and the controversy that exists between the different schools of thought r!egarding inherited or environmental issues we must have an understanding of what intelligence really is. Of all the words used in pressed day psychology, intelligence is one of the most difficult to define and is also one of the most
controversial. There is however, a general agreement that intelligence refers to the overall faculties of the mind which concern themselves with the sorting of information in the brain after it has been received by the senses, the perceiving of relationships between this new data and information which is already in memory, and the capacity to make rapid and appropriate decisions as a result of the previous processes. The intellectual faculties of the brain are dynamic and interactive and relate to the capacity of the central nervous system to respond speedily and appropriately in a rapidly changing and potentially threatening environment. Raymond J. Corsini provides us with a somewhat more simplistic definition of the term intelligence. Accor! if adopted by a more intelligent and stimulating family, and it have been found that Negro children born into backward rural families improve steadily if they move to the city. But the amount of improvement is always limited by the mental capacity that was there a t birth. Freeman. The Minnesota Adoption Studies of 1974 included the Transracial Adoption Study to test he hypotheses that black and interracial children that are reared by white parents would perform on IQ tests and school achievement measures as well as other adopted children. Results were that black and interracial scored as well as adoptees in other studies. The high IQ scores of the black and interracial children showed that genetic racial differences do not account for a moor portion of the IQ performance difference between racial groups. The study also found that black and interracial children reared in the culture of the tests and the school perform as well as other adopted children in similar families. ! Marie Dkoday and Harold Shell's report of a longitudinal adoption study of IQ is one of the most frequently cited articles in developmental psychology. The IQ scores of adopted children tested four times between infancy have gained an understanding of the importance of genetic constitution, the significance of which in the formation of intelligence and individuality is clearly demonstrated. The studies have also provided ample evidence to support the importance of environment influences in individual development. Clearly, the studies demonstrate that the contribution of nature and nurture may no longer be set in opposition for each is conceivable as one factor, or as a set of factors in a complex situation. Indeed, one has no meaning without the other, both nature and nurture are inextricable related in intellectual development. Thus, instead of writing nature and nurture we should write nature/nurture for the two sets of facts exist as integrals in a single process of development. The two are mutually inclusive, since innate tendencies are capable of expression on in terms of environments, and environmental influences can only act together with the genetic bases of individuality.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Adoption Project, John Locke, IQ RACE, Japanese Chinese, According Layer, TWIN STUDIES, Harold Shell's, Raymond Corsini, Bouchard McGud, Adoption Study, adopted children, iq scores, environmental factors, nature nurture, home environment, black interracial, identical twins, twins reared, black interracial children, biological parents, biological mothers, twins reared apart, twins alike iq, intelligence test scores, fraternal twins alike,
Approximate Word count = 2235
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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