Question

Write a 5 page paper on The Biological Basis of Human Behaviour - Nature vs Nurture, Chapter 4 of the textbook "Psychology 9th edition 2010 by D.G. Myers".

Answer 1

Nature and Nurture
Among oursimilarities, the most important—the behavioral hallmark of ourspecies—
is our enormous adaptive capacity. Some human traits, such as having two eyes, de-
velop the same in virtually every environment. But other traits are expressed only in
particular environments. Go barefoot for a summer and you will develop toughened,
callused feet—a biological adaptation to friction. Meanwhile, your shod neighbor will
remain a tenderfoot. The difference between the two of you is, of course, an effect of
environment. But it is also the product of a biological mechanism—adaptation. Our
shared biology enables our developed diversity (Buss, 1991).
An analogy may help: Genes and environment—nature and nurture—work to-
gether like two hands clapping. Genes not only code for particular proteins, they also
respond to environments. An African butterfly that is green in summer turns brown
in fall, thanks to a temperature-controlled genetic switch. The genes that produce
brown in one situation produce green in another. Thus, genes are self-regulating.
Rather than acting as blueprints that lead to the same result no matter the context,
genesreact. People with identical genes but differing experiencestherefore have simi-
lar though not identical minds. One twin may fall in love with someone quite differ-
ent from the co-twin’s love.
As we will see in Chapter 14, at least one known gene will, in response to major
life stresses, code for a protein that controls a neurotransmitter involved in depres-
sion. By itself, the gene doesn’t cause depression, but it is part of the recipe. Like-
wise, the breastfeeding boost to later intelligence that we noted in Chapter 1 turns
out to be true only for the 90 percent of infants with a gene that assists in breaking
down fatty acids present in human milk (Caspi et al., 2007). Studies of 1037 New
Zealand adults and 2232 English 12- and 13-year olds found no breastfeeding
boost among those not carrying the gene. As so often happens, nature and nurture
work together.
Thus, asking whether your personality is more a product of your genes or your en-
vironment is like asking whether the area of a field is more the result of its length or
its width. We could, however, ask whether the differing areas of various fields are
more the result of differences in their length or their width, and also whether person-
to-person personality differences are influenced more by nature or nurture. Human
differences result from both genetic and environmental influences. Thus (to give a
preview of a future chapter), eating disorders are genetically influenced: Some indi-
viduals are more at risk than others. But culture also bends the twig, for eating disor-
ders are primarily a contemporary Western cultural phenomenon.