“Nature Versus Nurture” : The Lesson of Natural Succession in Heredity and Variation

Abstract

The nature versus nurture debate involves the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities (nativism) in relationship to personal experiences (nurture) in determining individual differences in physical and behavioural traits. The interactions of genes with the environment, called gene-environment interaction, are another component of the nature-nurture debate. Measurements of the degree to which a trait is influenced by genes versus environment will depend on the particular environment and genes examined. Most scientist in the 20^th century believed that nature and nurture combine in a complex mixture to produce human behaviour. In many cases, it has been found that genes may have a substantial contribution, including psychological traits such as intelligence and personality. Yet these traits may be largely influenced by environment in other circumstances, such as environmental deprivation. Heritability quantifies the extent to which variation among individuals in a trait is due to variation in the genes those individuals carry. It is quite interesting that a compromise was made and Biodeterminism and environmentalism have combined to become interactionism.