NATURE VS NURTURE

CONTROVERSY
By Aarti Bh atia
• The nature-nurture debate is concerned with the relative contribution that both influences make to
human behavior, such as personality, cognitive traits, temperament and psychopathology.
•
NATIVISM( EXTREME NATURE POSITION)

• It has long been known that certain physical

characteristics are biologically determined by
genetic inheritance.
• Color of eyes, straight or curly hair,
pigmentation of the skin and certain diseases
(such as Huntingdon’s chorea) are all a
function of the genes we inherit.
• These facts have led many to speculate as to
whether psychological characteristics such as
behavioral tendencies, personality attributes,
and mental abilities are also “wired in” before
we are even born.
• Those who adopt an extreme hereditary position are known as nativists. Their basic assumption
is that the characteristics of the human species as a whole are a product of evolution and that
individual differences are due to each person’s unique genetic code.
• In general, the earlier a particular ability appears, the more likely it is to be under the influence
of genetic factors. Estimates of genetic influence are called heritability.
• Characteristics and differences that are not observable at birth, but which emerge later in life,
are regarded as the product of maturation. That is to say, we all have an inner “biological clock”
which switches on (or off) types of behavior in a pre-programmed way.
• The classic example of the way this affects our physical development are the bodily changes that
occur in early adolescence at puberty.
EMPIRICISM( EXTREME
NURTURE )

• At the other end of the spectrum are the environmentalists –

also known as empiricists. Their basic assumption is that at
birth the human mind is a blank slate and that this is
gradually “filled” as a result of ex perience (e.g., Behaviorism).
• From this point of view, psychological characteristics and
behavioral differences that emerge through infancy and
childhood are the results of learning
• For example, Bandura's (1977) social learning theory states that aggression is learned from the
environment through observation and imitation. This is seen in his famous Bobo doll
experiment (Bandura, 1961).
• Also, Skinner (1957) believed that language is learnt from other people via behavior shaping
techniques.
• Freud (1905) stated that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives,
shaping our personality. He thought that parenting is of primary importance to a child's
development, and the family as the most important feature of nurture was a common theme
throughout twentieth-century psychology (which was dominated by environmentalists theories).
BEHAVIOURAL GENETICS

• Researchers in the field of behavioral genetics study variation in behavior as it is affected by

genes, which are the units of heredity passed down from parents to offspring .
• “We now know that DNA differences are the major systematic source of psychological differences
between us. Environmental effects are important but what we have learned in recent years is that
they are mostly random – unsystematic and unstable – which means that we cannot do much
about them.”
• Behavioral genetics has enabled psychology to quantify the relative contribution of nature and
nurture with regard to specific psychological traits. One way to do this is to study relatives who
share the same genes (nature) but a different environment (nurture). Adoption acts as a natural
experiment which allows researchers to do this.
• Empirical studies have consistently shown that adoptive children show greater resemblance to
their biological parents, rather than their adoptive, or environmental parents
• Another way of studying heredity is by comparing the behavior of twins, who can either be
identical (sharing the same genes) or non-identical (sharing 50% of genes). Like adoption studies,
twin studies support the first rule of behavior genetics; that psychological traits are extremely
heritable, about 50% on average.
• The Twins in Early Development Study (TEDS) revealed correlations between twins on a range of
behavioral traits, such as personality (empathy and hyperactivity) and components of reading such
as phonetics
POLYGENIC INHERITANCE

• Rather than the presence or absence of single genes being the determining factor that accounts for
psychological traits, behavioral genetics has demonstrated that multiple genes – often thousands,
collectively contribute to specific behaviors.
• Thus, psychological traits follow a polygenic mode of inheritance (as opposed to being determined
by a single gene). Depression is a good example of a polygenic trait, which is thought to be
influenced by around 1000 genes.
• This means a person with a lower number of these genes (under 500) would have a lower risk of
experiencing depression than someone with a higher number.
THE NATURE OF NURTURE

• Nurture assumes that correlations between environmental factors and psychological outcomes are
caused environmentally. For example, how much parents read with their children and how well
children learn to read appear to be related. Other examples include environmental stress and its
effect on depression.
• However, behavioral genetics argues that what look like environmental effects are to a large
extent really a reflection of genetic differences
• People select, modify and create environments correlated with their genetic disposition. This
means that what sometimes appears to be an environmental influence (nurture) is a genetic
influence (nature).
• So, children that are genetically predisposed to be competent readers, will be happy to listen to
their parents read them stories, and be more likely to encourage this interaction.
INTERACTION EFFECTS

• However, in recent years there has been a growing realization that the question of “how much”
behavior is due to heredity and “how much” to the environment may itself be the wrong question.
• Take intelligence as an example. Like almost all types of human behavior, it is a complex, many-
sided phenomenon which reveals itself (or not!) in a great variety of ways .
• The “how much” question assumes that psychological traits can all be expressed numerically and
that the issue can be resolved in a quantitative manner.
• Heritability statistics revealed by behavioral genetic studies have been criticized as meaningless,
mainly because biologists have established that genes cannot influence development independently
of environmental factors; genetic and nongenetic factors always cooperate to build traits. The
reality is that nature and culture interact in a host of qualitatively different ways
• Instead of defending extreme nativist or
nurturist views, most psychological
researchers are now interested in
investigating how nature and nurture
interact.
• For example, in psychopathology, this means
that both a genetic predisposition and an
appropriate environmental trigger are
required for a mental disorder to develop. For
example, epigenetics state that environmental
influences affect the expression of genes.
• Epigenetics is the term used to describe inheritance by mechanisms other than through the DNA
sequence of genes. For example, features of a person's physical and social environment can effect
which genes are switched-on, or “expressed”, rather than the DNA sequence of the genes
themselves.
• One such example is what is known as the Dutch Hunger Winter, during last year of the Second
World War. What they found was that children who were in the womb during the famine
experienced a life-long increase in their chances of developing various health problems compared to
children conceived after the famine.
• Epigenetic effects can sometimes be passed from one generation to the next, although the effects
only seem to last for a few generations. There is some evidence that the effects of the Dutch
Hunger Winter affected grandchildren of women who were pregnant during the famine.
• Therefore, it makes more sense to say that the difference between two people’s behavior is mostly
due to hereditary factors or mostly due to environmental factors.
• This realization is especially important given the recent advances in genetics, such as polygenic
testing. The Human Genome Project, for example, has stimulated enormous interest in tracing
types of behavior to particular strands of DNA located on specific chromosomes.
• If these advances are not to be abused, then there will need to be a more general understanding of
the fact that biology interacts with both the cultural context and the personal choices that people
make about how they want to live their lives.
• There is no neat and simple way of unraveling these qualitatively different and reciprocal
influences on human behavior.