Nature vs Nurture
The debate over what was more important in shaping the human personality, nature or nurture, has been going on since the 1600's. The whole debate began with a man named Richard Mulcaster. Mulcaster began this war with the writing of his book, Nature Makes the Boy Toward, and Nurture Sees Him Forward (1612). He wasn't the only one who brought the question to the attention of the public. Shakespeare, himself, incorporated this theme into his play "The Tempest." "A devil, a born devil, on whose nature/ nurture can never stick" (Fulkerson 1). Shakespeare was saying that a devil's innate existence could never be influenced by his surroundings. Charles Darwin, a evolutionary scientist, had a cousin, Francis Galton, who was the first thought to use the phrase "Nature vs. Nurture." (Fulkerson 1 1839) If one supports the nature side of the debate, they believe that no matter what kind of environment an individual is in they will turn out the same. Moreover, the nature side believes that people are born with everything they are going to need in life. Conversely, the nurture side of the debate states that people are born with blank slates and their experiences throughout their life and the environment in which they are raised shape
Berkowitz points out that often the environment for identical twins has a greater similarity than the environment for fraternal twins. "For example, parents often dress them identically and involve them in the same activities; in addition, identical twins often have an extraordinarily close relationship with one another" (Berkowitz 8). Berkowitz continues by pointing out that the studies on twins who are raised together are not as valid in determining the genetic basis for a particular behavior as the studies on twins who were raised apart. When the twins are raised together, it is difficult to separate whether a behavior is genetically based or whether the behavior has been learned by both twins as a result of the similar interactions with their environment. For example, two identical twins grew up and as adults lived in different cities. Each one obtained a dog without the other one knowing and named the dog Max. Would it be because there was a genetic reason or was it because they both remembered playing with a childhood friend named Max? On the other hand, if the identical twins raised together have any differences, they would be due to non-genetic factors. Berkowitz concluded that, "because studies of twins raised together are ambiguous, much of the weight of genetic causation of complex human mental characteristics sits on the shoulders of the relatively few studies of identical twins raised apart; about 300 pairs of such twins have now been studied (Powledge 1993). These cases appear to provide well-controlled accidental experiments that demonstrate the role of genes alone" (Berkowitz 9). Studies on twins also support the idea of genes as a factor in personality type, behavioral characteristics, and general intelligence (Berkowitz 7). Some twin studies involve investigations of the resemblance of identical twins, some focus on fraternal twin characteristics, and some compare the two types of twins. By comparing the two types of twins, scientists can learn what factors have been influenced by nature and what is the result of the twins' nurture (Cole 52). However, researchers have had difficulty separating the role of genetics and environment. Just as there is controversy about the role nature and nurture play in language development, there is also disagreement about the role of nature and nurture in the evolution of prosocial behavior such as altruism. Edward O. Wilson, a biologist, stated the problem and its possible solution as follows: Just as altruism is believed to be inborn, Martin Hoffman believed that empathy is an inborn trait. He described four stages of empathy. The first stage is when a newborn baby cries at the sound of another baby crying (emotional contagion) even though the baby doesn't know why the other individual is distressed. The baby's behavior shows that he has an innate sense that someone else is distressed and reacts as though he, "...were having those feelings himself" (Cole, 1993 384). The crying exhibited by the baby shows that his sympathetic reaction must be innate. The second stage is when the child is older and the child knows when he is upset or when someone else is upset. Now this child has the cognitive capacity to understand and perceive this emotion and realizes that the emotion is someone else's. In the third stage of empathy, the child can use language to comfort the upset person. Finally, the child understands the bigger picture and can feel empathy for a whole group or a particular situation. This behavior begins at an early age, and as individuals develop intellectually, the innate emotion becomes refined. Carolyn Zahn-Waxler and Marion Radke-Yarrow completed a study on three groups of toddlers who were 10 months, 15 months, and 20 months old over a nine-month period. Their findings were based on the mother's reports of their children's behavior. The ten month olds responded to someone in distress by crying. As the children approached one year
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Karen Wright, Cesare Lombros, Edward Wilson, Martin Hoffman, Patricia Kuhl, Nurture Fulkerson, Peter Eimas, Scott Waxler, Furthermore Kuhl, Irving Gottesman, twins raised, nature nurture, identical twins, studies twins, studies twins raised, prosocial behaviors, native language, cole 1993, genetic makeup, language child, criminal behavior, twins raised apart, identical twins raised, nature vs nurture, role nature nurture,
Approximate Word count = 3150
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)
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