Nature Vs. Nurture Essay, Research Paper

David Reimer is a victim of a circumcision operation that went horribly wrong. Then the doctors decided to turn David into a female. The doctor decided that reassigning sex was easy. He figured that nurturing, not nature, determined psychological behavior. David is living proof of how wrong that assumption was. David grew up being raised as a female when he was born a male. Now David has encountered disastrous affects in his life because of that horrible decision. Nature versus nurture or genetics versus environment is an age-old problem debated by many philosophers and scientist threw out the years. This controversy is also a key problem in raising children.

Nature is the genetic factors that effect behaviorism. Certain genes are passed on from each generation that determine behavior. Genes also make important contributions to ones personality. Animal breeders long have known that it takes only a few generations of controlled mating to influence such behavioral traits as fierceness or tameness in dogs. In people, as many researchers have shown, genetic factors influence how outgoing, fearful, or aggressive we are. They also show how prone we are to developing mental disorders like depression, anxiety disorders, or schizophrenia. Dna is not the only thing that effects our personalities; environment also has a large effect on behavior.

Nurture is the environmental aspect that plays a role on developing behavior. Environment plays a big role on development. Developmental features such as peers, parents, and social interaction. Peers can effect behavior by leading children in the wrong direction. Parents can effect behavior by how much they pay attention to that child. For example, overprotective parenting leads to extremely shy children stated by anthropologist Judith Rich Harris. This type of behavior can impinge on the child for the rest of his life. Adoption can also have long term consequences like how an adopted child treat their children later in life. Neglect from either parent can also cause disastrous outcomes in the children’s life. The child can grow hating their mother therefore hating all women or vice versa.

The brain, and the way it works, has a key role in behavior. Both nature and nurture change and organize the brain s synaptic links. Synapses are the connection points between brain cells that allow the cells to communicate with each other. Synapses are responsible for much of the brain activity. The particular patterns of synapses in a person s brain, and the information that those connections encode, are the keys to who that person is. Humans are born with many synaptic links. Experience also creates or alters synaptic links.

I feel that nature and nurture equally contribute to behaviorism. Nature contributes the innate knowledge such as language and instincts. Nurture establishes right from wrong, goals, and moral concepts. Some scientist feel that it s either one or the other that ultimately effects behavior. I feel that nature and nurture have developed a codependency on each other, and that they both have to exist determining behavior together. I feel that if you just have one or the other your behavior will be irregular.