Academic analysis of why nature and nurture won’t go away.

     The debate about nature and nurture compares an individual’s natural (innate) qualities, and behavioral traits which are acquired from environmental setup to develop an individual’s intelligence and personality. The influences of environmental and hereditary factors affect the social advancement and development of individuals.  Behavioral traits are acquired from environmental influences while innate traits, like the properties of the brain are hereditary. Although nurture concerns environmental factors, behavioral genetics can distinguish family factors. For example, the genes that makes siblings similar or those that make siblings uniquely different.

Pinters’argument.

Pinter argues that, nature is constituted by hereditary traits; the concept of nature is based on the set of hereditary skills and characteristics which are passed through genes in the family lineage. These genes are transferred from parents to children. While, nurturing is comprised of environmental and acquired traits, which are mostly referred to as, the parental care to their children. Furthermore, nurturing includes developmental influences such as, prenatal, peer experience, parental care, media, and socio -economic situations among other influences. The influences of hereditary factors and environmental factors can be explained by a study of identical twins, reared differently. The twins share the same genes, but are reared in different places. The twins will have the same hereditary factors such as, intelligence, but will have different acquired traits such as, behavior. Nature is emphasized in organisms’ biological factors such as, genes.  During development, activation of genes occurs on the basis of hormones and enzymes. The interaction of hereditary factors and environmental factors affects a persons’ development. Nature and nurture can not be separated, this is because, but different genes can have varied effects in various environments. Some environments may cancel or reverse the effects of a set of genes during development.  Gene factors may crucially depend on the environment, and therefore heredity factors do not cause any constraints to behavior.  An example to illustrate this point is where; different species of corn may grow to different heights even though they were equally irrigated, while on the other hand, a taller species of the same corn may grow shorter when it is not properly irrigated. This explains why behavior is not determined by genes.

It is also necessary to understand the importance of the effects of genes to the environment, although, certain environmental factors may nullify the effects of genetics. Studies that measure the similarities between genetics and environment show that, numerous effects are manifested in behavior, intelligence and personality on different environmental set-ups. Extreme environments may disrupt heredity traits. Genes related to human nature include; heredity, evolution and development units. While environmental factors include the aspects of the surrounding that constitute the inputs and adoption traits, which humans acquire. Organisms can be affected in numerous ways such as, a specific genetic reaction might occur when there is an interaction between the organism and its social environment.

Psychologists’ views.

Psychologists in the past decades argued that cognitive ability determined individual differences; they explained that, traits are influenced by role models and parenting practices.  This is not true because, it is a comparison between parents and children, forgetting genetic relations between them. Things that happen to parents do not necessary happen to their children.    Personality is shaped by both genes and family upbringing, while behavioral traits are determined by the environment. Families that share the same environment have minimal effects on intelligence and personality. Behaviors like, smoking and alcoholism portrays how individuals were treated in childhood development. Immigrant children may acquire new language accent because of the new environmental setup.

They argue that, people from the same culture may have different traits which are attributed to genetic differences. Individuals sharing more genes have similar personalities and intelligence. Genes make individuals different from their neighbors and friends. Behavioral genetics provide a distinction on how the environment affects individuals. Shared environments like, home and parental care makes individuals have similar behavioral traits, but individuals from different environmental setup, have different behavioral traits.

  Person claim

In my own view, I agree with Pinters that, the expression of genes may be affected by environmental inputs; this explains how the environment can affect the disposition of genes.  Gene- environment correlation is another complication about nature-nurture. This correlation shows that certain individuals with certain genotypes most likely find themselves in certain environmental setting. Studies show that higher correlation exist between identical twins reared together and identical twins reared apart. Similar personality and intelligence factors are found across families’ cultures and norms. Shared family environment has a zero impact on an adopted child as compared to the family siblings. This is because personality traits are determined by how individuals react to situations. Human life has important aspects of learning and culture in all aspects. There are complex natural mechanisms that facilitate the process of learning, acquiring and adoption of traits in human nature. The innate brain mechanism has the ability to acquire nature and nurture in the process of development

Logos and pathos

Nature and nurture has been recently used in criminal defense. This is where lawyers defend the offenders, arguing that criminal activity can be caused by individuals’ genes and not by their choice. Evidence about genetic defense includes the discovery of the Brunner syndrome. This suggests that offenders cannot be liable for their genes, but will be responsible for their actions. If an offender has a single gene for aggression, then the genetic defense can be accorded to him.

Dominance of environmental and genetic conditions can occur in rare cases, for example, a mute child affected by genetic mutation, regardless of the environment cannot speak any language. An individual with heredity terminal disease may not die of the disease, but may die in unrelated circumstance like an accident (an environmental event).

The complex interaction of nature and nurture can only be understood by identifying there correlation and associated influences. Although, it has been proven that nature and nurture are inseparable and cannot be alternated, several questions have been raised concerning non-genetic influences to an individual’s intelligence and personality.

                      CITED WORK

Pinker, Steven. Why nature and nurture won’t go away. Daedalus 133(2004):5-17.web.21 sept 2012.