Introduction and Problem Statement

According to latest published data, there are over 7 billion people living in the world today.
People of different genders, skin tones and most importantly with differing personal opinion
about matters. What one person may perceive as right maybe wrong in another persons eyes and
even of a moral gray area to yet someone else.
While we owe our characteristics to our DNA; the very instructions that makes each of us
biologically unique, each of us were taught different values and have undergone a different
upbringing. Just how much of our thinking do we owe to our genes? How much of is it
nurture?
If we could find out the behavior of the human mind and how it reacts to certain situations the
benefits could be innumerable, we could potentially diagnose psychotic illnesses like
schizophrenia before they stem. The appropriate parenting method for every individual child can
be determined rather than go the usual trial and error path.
In light to previous research done, I will attempt to explore in this article if a persons mental
predisposition is determined by their genes or by social factors.
Lines of Research
The usual lines of research that shine light on this avenue are studies that explore genes x
environment via identical twins or adoption studies using biologically related children. Also
some research uses animal models to determine the importance of nurturing.
Study via closely related individuals/adoption
A study conducted in France that disproves the notion that intelligence is a hereditary factor; 20
children that were abandoned because than parents could not afford to keep them and were
adopted into higher-middle class families. Each of these children had at least one biological
sibling or half-sibling who remained with their biological parents and were raised in that
impoverished environment. The children were tested a few years later and by average the
children who were adopted had a 14% higher IQ by average than the children who remained with
their biological parents. While the more educated environment maybe a factor in this it was
considered negligible by the researchers as it was too early into the childhood for education to be
a major factor.
Study via Animals
A study that utilized animals compared between mothers that licked more often during the
offspring childhood and mothers that licked less often. The study found that the offspring that
were licked more often were more likely to be less timid and ventured outside the nest earlier
than pups that were licked less often.
To exert more control over genetics and prove that nurturing had its effectiveness, offspring
from less nurturing mothers were fostered to more nurturing mothers and the researchers had a
homogenous result as the previous trial
Implications and Conclusion
The major handicap of research into this field is that due to different temperaments between
children, it is impossible to directly measure parenting quality and its parenting influence on a
child, for example two different children brought up in similar environments may respond
differently to the same parenting tactics or may require different amounts of the same parenting
techniques to provide the same outcome. Also opportunities available to children may vary with
such variable data it is difficult to apply the right degree of control into studies.
Another major implication is that no extensively controlled rearing have been conducted with
human children. While such a study could provide newer insights to the matter it is highly
unethical to raise human children in such a closed environment.
While there is no definite say that genes does not inhibit our cognitive functions in anyway
without further more controlled studies, it is safe to say that current research disproves previous
theories that children are either born with their mental predisposition and proves that parenting
and other social factors play a vital role in the proper development in cognitive function.

References
Schiff, M., Duyme, M., Dumaret, A & Tomkiewitz, S. (1982) Cognition
Caldji, C., Tannenbaum,. B et. al (1998) Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Caspi, A., & Elder, G. (1988) International Behavioral Development
Maxson, Stephen, C. Handbook of Psychology
http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/haimowitz.html

Biology Research Article:


Nuture Vs. Nature; Are our mental capacities in our
genes or does it lie elsewhere?












Mohamed Shabin
11B
S140593