Nature & Nurture

The debate about what plays the main role in personality development has existed for many years in psychology. There two sides of opinions of experts on this matter. One is about the dominance of inherited genetic characteristics, in other words about nature, like a treasure from writing a movie reviewof the universe from the material world of kingdoms. According to another opinion, acquired characteristics impacted by the environment and personal experience, or nurture, are more significant. This so-called Nature Vs Nurture debate is one of the oldest ones in psychology that involves psychologists, philosophers, theorists, and theologians. It was framed by Francis Galton in the 19th center. Until today, it is unclear whether internal or external factors or their combination, have more influence on a person's behavior and individuality.
The experts who consider nature to be the most essential factor influencing human behavior and personality development are called nativists. Those are such philosophers as Descartes and Plato. They thought that inborn things could not be impacted by external influences. Indeed, some characteristics and behavior features are innate. For instance, a person's height, weight, vulnerability to certain illnesses such as cancer, and life expectancy are usually linked with genes. Thus, nativists see all characteristics as a product of evolution and genetic code. Even the behavior that changes during a person's life and maturation is considered to be pre-programmed similarly to bodily changes that occur during puberty.
On the other hand, empiricists are psychologists and philosophers that consider nurture to be the defining factor in human development. For example, John Locke coined the term tabula rasa or blank slate, suggesting that a person's mind was gradually filled by environmental factors and personal experiences. According to empiricists, learning and upbringing are key factors in a child's development. For example, if an attachment is formed in a child, it is a response to the attention and love he or she has received (McLeod, 2007). In the meantime, cognitive development is greatly affected by the external world, and language is an attempt to imitate other people's speech.
Nativists usually consider intelligence to be a genetic factor and encourage marriages and reproduction between intelligent people. An American psychologist Arthur Jensen researched the IQ scores of African-Americans and whites in his study Psychological Research on Race Differences. He considered that cognitive ability was essentially an inherited trait. In his study, he discovered that nativists see African-Americans as less intelligent people since their average IQ scores are lower than those of whites. Oliver Davis, in his turn, highlights the importance of a person's environment, in which he or she lives presenting his study Visual Analysis of Geocoded Twin Data Puts Nature and Nurture on the Map. Having researched families from different social layers, he found out that social environments, health care, and education had a huge influence on the way a person behaved. Davis claims that genes cannot determine a person's destiny and the way he or she develops.
Jensen's study is controversial since many African-Americans are intelligent people occupying high positions. Therefore, IQ is not the result of only genetic code, but also social inequalities. The latter was studied by Davis, and this may seem more logical than seeing all people belonging to a race as more or less intelligent. However, Davi's study also has certain limitations. For example, twins are usually brought up in the same environment, but they develop as completely different persons.
Today, most experts consider that biological and environmental factors influence human development creating a unique combination for each individual. The nature Vs Nurture debate led to the creation of numerous approaches in psychology that study personality and behavior from different angles. Together, they may give a thorough description of human development under the influence of multiple internal and external factors.