The Nature Versus Nurture Debate
The Nature versus Nurture Debate What makes you who you are? This question is the essence behind the nature versus nurture debate. It is also a question that has plagued scientists for centuries, and philosophers before that. Recently, the debate has raged over which of two major factors has the biggest impact on one’s development. With advancements in genetics, such as the mapping of the human genome, scientists have a better understanding of what traits are inherited. Obviously, certain physical characteristics, such as hair, eye, and skin color, are defined by genes passed on from one’s parents. However, the line is not so clear when it comes to psychological conditions, behavior, and intelligence. The environment in which a child is raised also includes a number of influences, such as their parents (or lack thereof), relatives, socioeconomic status, and resources. The debate had centered on how much of those characteristics are determined by genetics or from one’s environment. Advances in modern science suggest neither nature nor nurture is exclusively responsible in favor of an interactive relationship between our genes and environmental influences. While this proposed compromise would be immensely complex, where one helps to shape the other in ways scientists have yet to completely understand, it would essentially end the debate once and for all. The term “nature versus nurture” was coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1871, but the debate actually dates back to ancient Greek literature and philosophers who questioned the nature of fate versus free will (Lewis). Galton referred to the phrase as a “convenient jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of which personality is composed” (M. S., M. B.). The mindset of this phrasing stuck with the debate, carrying the notion of two separate and opposing scientific views, and extending his influence long after his controversial work had been published. Many of the
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