How Nature and Nurture Affects Development
Human development is influenced by both the genetic make-up of the individual and environmental factors they are exposed to. Even then, biologist and psychologists have failed to agree which factor between these two is the dominant one. The biologists argue that genes are the most influential while psychologists claim that the environmental factors play the most significant role in human development (Sprouts, 2018).
According to the biologists, genes act independently in determining how we look and behave. They argue that events in our surrounding do not alter our genetic make-up. However, as Sprouts (2018) notes, they agree that the happenings in one’s environment can help to shape their appearance and conduct, although such changes cannot be passed on to their offspring.
On the other hand, psychologists hold that the environment plays the dominant role in influencing human development (Honeycutt, 2018). They assert that the external factors can cause alterations in the genetic codes, which changes are then expressed in the physical attributes of the person affected. Thus, they affirm that the environment ultimately dictates who we are.
The psychologists claim is supported by scientific evidence in that scientists have been able to trace changes in the outward appearance and behavior up to the genetic level. For example, researchers have realized that good motherly attributes in rats are not genetically based but are rather the product of exposure to good motherly care in the early days of the rat.
However, the current evidence is not enough for one to base such a claim on. This is because one cannot expressly relate experimental results with animals to humans, due to the fundamental biological differences between them. Also, there is contradictory evidence whereby exposure to certain conditions did not result in altered genes (Honeycutt, 2018). Nonetheless, it is true that both genetic and environmental factors influence development in human beings.
References
Honeycutt, H. (2019). Nature and Nurture as an Enduring Tension in the History of Psychology. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.
Sprouts Schools. (2018). Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/IhcgYgx7aAA.