Nature versus nurture.

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Nature versus nurture.

A long time ago the great resonance was caused by discussions about what is more important for the formation of human abilities - nature (heredity) or nurture (environment). Despite the fact that this problem has existed for many years, it is still actual.

The general direction of the discussions was set by Galton who formulated the problem of nature and nurture. His own opinion was absolutely unequivocal. He was sure that heredity determines the development of mental and physical abilities, and the limits of this development are different for different people. The social position of a person, in his opinion, reflects the level of his abilities. Galton was criticized by a lot of experts because he didn’t take into account the living conditions of ordinary people which interfered with the development of their abilities - although, according to Galton himself, he had taken this into account. According to Galton, nature is something that is influenced by genetic heredity and other biological factors (like a preset). Nurture is usually seen as an influence of external factors after conception, for example, the product of exposure, experience and learning. (Galton, 1875)

The opinion that people acquire all or almost all of their behavioral traits from “nurture” was called tabula rasa (“blank slate”) by John Locke in 1690 (Locke, 1690). "Blank slate" suggests that human behavioral traits develop almost exclusively under the influence of the environment, this concept has been widely distributed for most of the 20th century. These two conflicting approaches to the development of human potential formed the basis of the ideological debate over research programs throughout the second half of the 20th century. Since it was established that both factors “nature” and “nurture” made the significant contribution and often in an inextricable form, such views were considered as naive or outdated by most researchers of human development by the 2000s (Ridley, 2003).

Let's try to consider the relationship or discrepancy between “nature” and “nurture” in some areas of research. Close feedbacks were found in which "nature" and "nurture" constantly influence each other, for example, during self-domestication (Self-domestication is the process of adaptation of wild animals to life with humans without direct human breeding of these animals). Ecologists and behavioral geneticists believe that nurture has a significant impact on nature (Normile, 2016). Similarly, in other areas the dividing line between the inherited and acquired trait becomes unclear as in epigenetics or fetal development. That is why it is not surprising that this dispute is still open (David, 2015).

Several studies done on twins separated shortly after birth reveal that genetics do play a significant role in the development of certain personality characteristics, sexual orientation, and religiosity. One study suggested that environment had little effect on personality when twins were raised together, though it did have an effect when they were raised apart.

To understand yourself and be able to predict human behavior, it is useful and necessary to study the nature of human actions and thoughts. It is especially important to know the impact of nature and nurture on a person to a psychologist. Psychologist must understand what actions are performed due to gene failures, and which ones are due to insufficient nurture.

This information should be applied in raising children. Galton suggested that human society could be improved by “better breeding” in 1883. And in the 1920s the American Eugenic Society advocated the sterilization of men and women in psychiatric hospitals.

The fact that both of them play a role in the development of the human personality is undeniable but we still don’t know the degree of their influence. Therefore, instead of asking whether psychological traits influence nature or nurture, the question was reformulated as follows: “how much?”.

Reference list.

1. David, S. (2015). The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics .

2. Galton, F. (1875). The history of twins, as a criterion of the relative powers of nature and nurture.

3. Locke, J. (1690). An Essay concerning Human Understanding.

4. Normile, D. (2016). Nature From Nurture.

5. Ridley, M.(2003). Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, & What Makes Us Human.

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