NATURE vs. NURTURE

Nature vs. Nurture: Heredity and Environment



Nature vs. Nurture: Heredity and Environment

Introduction

It is sure that every person has a personality distinct from others, but the question arises, why is that so? Does DNA or upbringing affect personality and characteristics of an individual? This paper seeks to address these questions on the basis of available evidences. The subject of this paper is to study genetics and environment both, and the interaction among them, contributing in the development of personality characteristics, behaviors, psychological well being and cognition. Genetic researchers have compared identical twins fraternal twins (DZ, dizygotic) and (MZ, monozygotic) to explore the concern.

History of Nature and Nurture

Over the decades since the inception in the year 1865, the implication of genetic research towards the concerns of the individual has encountered lows and highs. To study human behavior genetic research was slowly although progressively developed the importance of the environment as well as genetics. Genetic research as proved the power of genes in a number of psychological research areas including personality, cognitive abilities and disabilities, personality characteristics and use and abuse of drug (Plomin et al. 2001, pp, 230). Some of the areas displaying heritability may be unexpectedly surprising, for example, academic achievement, attitudes and interests.

A number of studies have resulted in the acceptance of roles of environment and genes in the etiology of personality characteristics. The contribution of genetics has also been acknowledged. For example, a current survey has found that above 90% of teachers and parents stated that genetics is as vital as the environment for personality characteristics, psychological disorders, learning disabilities and intelligence (Walker and Plomin forthcoming).

Prior to, shifting from nurture to nature, it is vital to highlight that the study also offers the evidences that the environment is also playing a vital role in developing personality characteristics. It is also noticeable that teachers and parents responded that both nature and nurture contribute to about half of the variance.

Nevertheless, it suggests that genetics demonstrates half of the variance in personality characteristics and the other half is explained by environmental factors. Moreover, two important genetic researches include nurture rather than nature: known as non-shared environment, nature of nurture.

Non-Shared Environment

Genetically sensitive designs of environmental studies have discovered that the surroundings that affect personality development operate by bringing up siblings differently (Plomin and Daniels 1987). For instance, children developing in same adoptive families who are genetically unlike hardly resemble to each other for psychopathology, cognitive abilities, and personality characteristics after adolescence. These influences of the environment are termed as non-shared since they are not collective for the kids developing in the same family. Collected over time, minor variations in the experience may cause high distinctiveness in results. It is a significant challenge for scientists to discover and identify these non-shared environmental factors for the future research.

The Nature of Nurture

A number of adoption and twin researches have proved that the factor of heritability subsequently impact measures of environments behaviorally relevant for instance, social ...