Nature vs Nurture
For many years now society and psychologists have been studying and debating a major issue. This issue is whether heredity or environment plays a greater role in the determining or shaping of an individuals behaviour. In other words this issue is known as the nature versus nurture debate. In this debate there are three main topics, intelligence, personality, and behaviour. From the evidence below it will reveal how heredity and environment affect each of these. My personal opinions are that this debate is not solved by one determining force but by a combination of the two. Both heredity and environment play an equal and crucial role in individual behaviours. In terms of heredity affecting intelligence, the question here is do genetic influences such as genes affect an individuals intellectual ability or IQ? This area of genetics is a very controversial one. Studies have shown that IQ testing of identical twins are virtually similar, even identical twins when being reared separately have similar IQ scores. Could this be from a similarity in being reared or the similarity of their genes? Fraternal twins who share half of each other's genes, are much less similar in IQ scores. There have also been studies conducted where
On the other hand environment also has its points of importance and the contribution in the role in intelligence. Our life experiences matter and makes a significant difference with intelligence. Factors such as the availability of education and nurturing in the home are a necessity that have an impact on the all round development of a persons intelligence. Much like a persons environment, intelligence is ever changing though time. We can come to the conclusion that education and nurturing is needed throughout a persons life starting from birth to adulthood. In childhood people learn their foundations of knowledge. For example beliefs, customs and activities that are influenced from parents and other adult figures all build on the child's foundation of knowledge. From the education standpoint children also learn the basic thinking functions, such as reading, mathematics, and interacting with others. Since environment can override some genetic foundations it could be said that intellect does not rely just on genetics as its sole factor. To look at this in another light, a student that has a natural aptitude for English is more likely to select English courses in high school and the future. In this situation both the natural English aptitude (genetics) and experiences of English (environment) shows that they work hand in hand with each other. Genetics gives us the ground basics to comprehend what the environment attempts to teach us. There are three main ways in which personality and behaviour are affected by heredity or biology. Firstly, human physiologies give certain abilities. For example language is made conceivable through the structure of jaws, mouths, and tongues which create vocalization. Human body parts such as fingers are flexible which helps create and manipulate tools and devices to our benefit. Without certain physiologies human achievement would be significantly lesser. These simple biological characteristics show that they are capable of creating certain behaviors. Environmental influences also play a role in human physiologies. A prime example of this is the sports and entertainment industries. It is not an uncommon occurrence for a person to artificially enhance their bodies with the use of sports enhancing drugs such as steroids, and other hormone substances that can change the body's biological make-up. Also, in the movie industry actors and actresses are known to enhance specific body parts by using many techniques such as implants, plastic surgery, and lyposuction. These surgical enhancements are not just restricted to the rich and famous, many average citizens are now following this trend of enhancing to conform to the differing cultures of society. Although in today's modern and accepting society, parents would like the family name to be extended for generations to come. Through these examples one can see the role that a nurturing environment like child rearing can play on family personalities and behaviours. Many couples today have many alternatives in the decisions of childbirth. Most couples today conceive naturally. Some couples may naturally be unable to conceive a child. Some use alternative methods such as artifici
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Approximate Word count = 2156
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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