How do nature and nurture work together
How does the Nature-Nurture Issue Work Together in the Developmental Process?
The nature vs. nurture debate has been going on since the late 1860’s. It was originally thought of by Francis Galton who is a cousin to Charles Darwin. The idea is that both nature and nurture affect behavior and personalities. Nature refers to the aspects of heredity and genes that are influenced and nurture refers to the way we are in an environment, how we are raised and treated and any experiences we may live through (Cherry, 2018). Even though in the past is has been thought of one being superior or more active than the other. Psychologist today have found ways in which they know both are equally effective. First, however, understanding the debate is crucial, knowing which side affects development more is important, and lastly knowing how they both come together affect and/or influence certain behaviors and personalities. Although all that information will be important the main focus will be on answering the question: How does the nature-nurture issue work together in the developmental process?
Understanding each side of the Debate
As you now know that nature vs nurture debate as existed for over 150 years. There have been ideas believed to be seen around Plato and Descartes’ time period similar to those of the nature vs nurture debate. They take concern on either the nature or the nurture portion of the argument as the right side to the debate. However, it’s main concern is seeing how genetics and external factor influence a person’s behavior, personality and psychopathology. The approaches to psychology can be tied to the nature vs nurture debate. Nature can be connected to a biological approach as for nurture it can be tied to a more behaviorist approach. You would most often find a cognitive approach to psychology to be in the middle of nature and nurture. Could that show a significance to both sides working together? The nature approach shows a more biological view as mentioned before. Supporters of the nature side of the debate believe that from birth we are wired with what our functions are such as the way we act, a mental stability, and of course our physical features like hair and eye color. The supporters of the extreme nature side are called nativits. (Mcleod, 2018). Nativists believe that a evolution has evolved and so how the species of humans. Genetic mutation are created to help us survive and they are passed down generation after generation adding new ones and blocking out old ones. The extreme nurture supporters are called empiricists and they believe that every person is born with a blank slate and as we learn things and gain experience that is what our personality and behavior consists of. (Mcleod, 2018). In connection to the developmental process, empiricists believe that parenting is a very important factor to adding on to your blank slate. Understanding each side of the debate can be the similar part of understanding the actual debate.
Understanding the debate can be made difficult. The debate of nature vs nurture is not simple to answer or argue for which side is best. There are multiple questions and questions that build off of each other when trying to resolve the debate. Even though there has been an agreement to the debate that both are equally important it still refuses to die down (M, S., & M, B, 2010). Although (previously mentioned) the easier part of the debate might be to understand the arguments for both side, there is still trouble in trying to resolve questions about each side. For example, “…what exactly is a gene, and what does it do? What do we mean by environment?” (M, S., & M, B, 2010). The two sides are both now simplified and better understood but what do nature and nurture actually influence?
What do they influence?
Nature is seen as the influence of genetics in a person’s psychopathology, behavior, and personality. In the developmental process, nature plays a very important role on the development of the fetus and a baby as it grows into its toddler years and so on. Nature, or genetics, can be seen as with a role of heredity and maturation, which can be seen as sex characteristics and a kid gets older. (Feldman, 2017, pg. 327–328). Genes help determine the way we may respond to different environments and situations. Everyone has their own unique genetic makeup and that is why we all react differently in stressful and non-stressful situations. The nature side also defines the upper limits to which a person can grow both physically and mentally. However, if we reach that certain potential, each and everyone of us has, can be determined by the environment we live and grow up in. A good example of feature being shown is, “If Albert Einstein had received no intellectual stimulation as a child and had not been sent to school, it is unlikely that he would have reached his genetic potential.” (Feldman, 2017, pg. 328). Nurture, or the environment, “…assumes that correlations between environmental factors and psychological outcomes are caused environmentally.” (Mcleod, 2018). Just as exclaimed earlier, the environment we grow up in can be very impactful in our lives. It can stop us from reaching our full potentials. Another aspect of the environment is that if a action is learned and is done repeatedly to the point of being an instinct it could become a natural action a person does. An example of how nurture can be portrayed, in a household, is of an adolescent being neglected by their parents. This neglected child would soon begin to feel alone and worthless, leading to low self-esteem in their future. Both Nature and nurture portray different ideas to how a human develops and although there has been a long argument over if nature or nurture are more important. Psychologists today can safely say that both are equally important and there is an interactionist point of view now, that pulls everything together to form a single idea.
How they work together
As we have become more advanced we have started to realize that in reality nature and nurture don’t work against each other but instead work together. Recent research and discoveries have shown to prove that nature and nurture are actually working together. Matt Ridley found that genes actually influence human behavior and that human behavior influenced genes and that genes are designed to be influenced by nurture. (M, S., & M, B. 2010). It is very interesting and amazing how genetics can be influenced by the environment. Also other important data has been found by other scientists that shows an acknowledgement of the environment showing a form of influence of genetics that can be passed down to generations.(Society for Neuroscience, 2010). That information can affect the following generations offspring and impact their development differently. It could even make the offspring stronger and more adaptive to harsher environments. Some of the research that was found is “Cocaine-induced changes in the brain may be inheritable. Sons of male rats exposed to cocaine are resistant to the rewarding effects of the drug” and “Motherhood protects female mice against some of the negative effects of stress.” (Society of Neuroscience, 2010). With the cocaine inherited changes it goes to show that the environment and outside forces can alter genes that can be passed down to offspring and affect them as well. It goes to show that nurture really does influence nature and nature can influence nurture. However, there is always the question of “how much.” There can still be arguments as to whether nature or nurture are more influential. There can how much nurture is actually influencing the behaviors of a child of a drug addict. Whether or not their household is safe or if the neighborhood they live in is appropriate for a child to grow up in.
Conclusion
In conclusion, although having been seen as drastically different and psychologists having taken extreme views to prove whether nature or nurture where more influential, there have been many recent studies showing new connections between the two. We have seen that they both work together to influence each other. Nurture affects the genes of a person through forms of heredity. As seen in the rat cocaine experiment, genes can get altered due to inherited nurture effects. Due to the studies and proven facts that both nature and nurture work together there have been new views. These views have created interactionist and they are best suited for taking on the nature vs nurture issue.
References
Cherry, K. (2018, November 21). The Age Old Debate of Nature vs. Nurture. Retrieved April 4, 2019, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-nature-versus-nurture-2795392
Feldman, R. S. (2015). Essentials of Understanding Psychology. Chapter 9. (11th ed., Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill Education.
Mcleod, S. (2018, December 20). Nature vs. Nurture in Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html
M, S., & M, B. (2010, September 18). Goodbye nature vs. nurture debate. New Scientists, p. 03. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
National Research Council (US) and Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. (1970, January 01). Rethinking Nature and Nurture. Retrieved April 4, 2019, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK225550/
Society for Neuroscience. (2011, November 14). Nature and nurture work together to shape the brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 4, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111114112013.htm
Steinberg, D. (2006, October). Determining Nature Vs. Nurture. Scientific American Mind, pp. 12–14. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
