Analyzing the key elements of the nature-nurture controversy - Essay Example

These factors involve various dimensions including physical environments such as prenatal nutrition, social environments such as the media among others. The nature versus nurture debate is an argument concerned with the innate qualities of an individual versus the personal experiences used to determine or create differences in individuals, in their behavioral and physical traits. Psychologically, nativism has the implication that some skills or abilities are usually hard wired in a person’s brain at the time of birth.

On the other hand, Empiricism or behaviorism implies that theoretical knowledge that state categorically that an individual’s knowledge can only come through sensory experience. In this regard, certain scientific researchers have indicated that children become the product of the environments that they live in, or they acquire knowledge to do the things they do by nurturing. Others argue that, people behave in certain ways through hereditary and this constitute to nature. Most theorists are also in an agreement that, nature and nurture are both intertwined, and they have an influence in most human aspects such as emotion, cognition among others.

The questions behind the human development as well as the factors that influence it have taken central importance in psychology ever since the beginning of the discipline. The argument that human development comprises of these two factors has been argued for a long time by both philosophers and psychologists. Revolutionary ideas that came in the nineteenth century and their upheavals such as industrialization, Darwinism, and the abolition of slavery created an incitement to the conflicting interpretations that existed about the world and human life.

In straightening out the effects of environment and genes to individual, behavioral geneticists usually perform the twin and adoption studies. Such studies aim at decomposing the variance that exists in a population into environmental and genetic components. By the use of the comparison of the correlation in an exceptional dimension like the intelligence test (IQ) scores in identical twins and the fraternal twins, it possible for researchers to theoretically work out the comparative influences of both nature and nurture on this particular dimension.

Sandra Scarr, for example, reported a correlation for the IQ test scores for identical twins of 0.86 and for the fraternal twins of 0.55 she indicated that, identical twins had scores that are close to one another as compared to those of the fraternal twins. This is an indication of hereditary. Contrary, where the IQ scores are 100 percent determined genetically, the identical twins’ correlation would be 1.00 according to this example, heredity seems to have a significant role. This does not mean that it is certainly the determinants in IQ tests.

Researchers also do monitor concordance rates, in addition to the heritability estimates. Concordance rates are the ones at which the development of a characteristic occurs in both twins (Novel guide, 2011). In this study, the lack or availability of a specific mental condition is usually considered being an excellent example. Under situations that both twins showed some clinical depression in all pairs that were examined in the study, this would give a concordance rate of 100 percent in such a case.

Contrary, if, in every pair, there was one individual who had the clinical depress