Nature versus nurture is a debate about how children learn and develop. Are we predetermined to act a certain way based upon our genetic makeup or does our environment completely determine who we become?
It is generally accepted that traits like eye color, height, and hair color are determined by a person’s genes and inherited from their parents. But how much does heredity influence things like intelligence, personality, aggression, shyness, and other non-physical traits?
The Nature Theory: Genetics
Those that support the nature theory believe that heredity determines not only a child’s physical traits but everything else as well. Children are born with a set of traits that is predetermined and not influenced by the environment around them. Heredity alone determines the type of person that we become.
The topics below as well as others support this theory:
Criminal Behavior: Some scientists support the nature theory as additional evidence indicates that some people are more inclined to commit criminal acts. “In Iowa, the first adoption study was conducted that looked at the genetics of criminal behavior. The researchers found that as compared to the control group, the adopted individuals, which were born to incarcerated female offenders, had a higher rate of criminal convictions as adults. (Tehrani & Mednick, 2000).
Another study in Sweden also showed that if a biological background existed for criminality, then there was an increased risk of criminal behavior in the adopted children.”
Divorce: A study done at Boston University compared marriage and divorce rates in identical and non-identical male twins. They found that “identical twins, who share the same genes, were more likely to follow the same patterns of divorce than non-identical twins, who only share about half their genes.” They believe that this suggests that genetics greatly influences the possibility of divorce.
Twins: Numerous researchers have studied the personalities of twins, both those raised together and those raised apart. If genetics didn’t play a part twins raised together would be exactly the same, and they aren’t. Likewise twins raised apart would be completely different. Researchers have found that even though they were raised apart they are very similar in many aspects of their personalities. Supporting the idea that genetics plays a role in determining personality and behavior.
But what about all of those children whose parents committed criminal acts but haven’t committed those same acts themselves? If genetics determines personality why aren’t twins exactly alike instead of only similar. If divorce is determined by genetics why don’t all children of divorced parents get divorced?
For the other side of the debate read my upcoming blog about how Nurture or Environment influences a person’s personality.