Nature Vs Nurture Research Paper

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Sophie Stahura
10/6/2015
Nature or Nurture?
The everlasting biologist and psychologist question “Nature versus Nurture” has been asked and pondered countless times. How much of a role does genetics, experience and influence play in the life of a human being? When looking at psychological studies, one can conclude that although genetics have a large effect on who someone is, psychological and social-cultural influences shape more of who an individual is through how one interacts with their environment.
Genetics create the basic plan of a person through gene evolution, hormones and brain but do not shape how grow mentally. For example, the average woman enters puberty about a year earlier than the average man, and her life span is 5 years longer. …show more content…
She also has twice the risk of developing depression and anxiety and 10 times the risk of developing an eating disorder. However, the average man is 4 times more likely to die by suicide or to develop an alcohol use disorder. His “more likely” list includes autism spectrum disorder, color-blindness, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). And as an adult, he is more at risk for antisocial personality disorder. Male or female, each has its own share of risks. However, unlike gender differences, in personality measures, shared environmental influences from the womb onward typically account for less than 10 percent of children’s differences. In the words of behavior geneticists Robert Plomin and Denise Daniels (1987; Plomin, 2011), “Two children in the same family are [apart from their shared genes] as different from one another as are pairs of children selected randomly from the population.” This study proves that nature does not encompass most of what …show more content…
For example, Mark Rosenzweig, David Krech, and their colleagues (1962) raised rats either alone in an empty environment, or with other rats in an enriched environment with toys. In 14 of 16 repetitions of this basic experiment, rats in the enriched environment developed significantly more cerebral cortex than did those in the impoverished environment. Rosenzweig was so surprised by this discovery and the effects were so great that, when looking at rats, one could tell from their activity and curiosity whether their environment had been impoverished or enriched (Renner & Rosenzweig, 1987; Rosenzweig, 1984). After 60 days in the enriched environment, the rats’ brain weights increased 7 to 10 percent (Kolb & Whishaw, 1998). Rosenzweig and Krech successfully show the public that environment plays a major role in brain
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