Final Draft

Yanna Sanchez

Ms. Nargiza Matyakuboya

English 21003. Section M

28 November 2017

Final Draft

Is This Your Fault

or

Your Parents Fault?

Abstract

Studies conducted and observed on human behavior indicate that an individual’s identity is not completely dependent on their genetic code or their cultured environment but rather both aspects.  The latter studies dismantle the controversy on Nature vs. Nurture and unite these two components of information that forms an individual.  Studies are centered on monozygotic twins because they allow researchers the ability to precisely study what factors were affected by their genetics or environment.  Twin studies suggest that traits and disorders have a genetic component, however, any disparities between twins is an attribute of their environment.

Key Words

Nature Nurture Monozygotic Genotype Phenotype Empiricists Deoxyribonucleic Acid Functional Genomics

Is This Your Fault

or

Your Parents Fault?

            Charles Darwin publishes On the Origins of Species in 1859, “psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity gradation.”  Darwin states how human’s mental ability to acquire knowledge will continue to evolve and with it the understanding of human behavior.  Christian Spahn discusses in “Nature and Nurture” that the controversy should be interpreted that based on the evolution of humans, it is evident that humans have been equipped with necessary biological knowledge, but are “culturally processed” in human behavior (939).  Daniel Keating states in “Society and Early Child Development: Development Health Disparities in the Nature-and-Nurture Paradigm,” this understanding of how the individuals of society are attributed to their genes and environment is central to policy makers and corporations who must consider major issues that affect a diverse and majority of people.  Another reason why understanding the unity between the nature and nurture controversy is that to truly understand human behavior consideration for both aspects must be acknowledged for its role played in an individual’s identity.  Based on the latter understanding, psychologists can utilize such information to treat mental disorders such as depression and addiction that affect many individuals in society today.  Furthermore, one can state that an individual’s identity is composed of the inherited genetics, nature, and the individuals cultured environment, nurture, because nature requires nurture. 

            Deoxyribonucleic acid, commonly known as DNA, is the genetic code inherited from a biological set of parents and is needed for the formation of any organism.  Robert Plomin and John Crabbe explain in “DNA” that three billion nucleotide bases, organic molecules, of DNA make up the human genome, the genetic material of an organism.  Plomin and Crabbe continue on to explain that 99.9% of DNA sequences are the same for all people, however 0.1% of DNA sequences are responsible for the genetic differences among humans.  The studies conducted on proteins, gene products, and its investigation of their function at a cellular level is referred to as functional genomics.  Using functional genomics a higher level of analysis can be conducted to understand the relationship between genes and human behavior.  The latter field of study used in neuroscience, the study of nervous system, for example enables researchers to observe an organism’s behavior based on the identification of particular sequence of DNA (806).  Therefore, the advances in DNA research such as the Human Genome Project has enabled advancement in psychology, and understanding of the roles played by both, nature and nurture in an individual’s identity. 

Figure 1 Courtesy of Alexis Spillus Reunited Identical Twins Expose Social Experiment Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein a set of twins apart of Dr. Peter Neubauer’s experiment

            In Twins author Lawerance Wright discusses a study that began in 1960 on a pair of identical twins that were put up for adoption in New York City, for example the twins in Figure 1.  Dr. Peter Neubauer a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Director of Freud Archives at New York University Psychoanalytic Institute, acknowledged the great research possibility these twins provided and proposed to a scientific board to separate the twins and with hold knowledge of their twinship to the families and the twins.  “Twins reared apart are one of the most powerful tools that scholars have to analyze the relative contributions of heredity and environment to the makeup of individual human natures” (1).  Amy and Beth, the twins, were adopted into similar families both of Jewish background, a mother and father and a son almost exactly seven years older than the twins, and both the mothers stayed at home.  These similarities allowed the researchers to study the dynamic of the girls in similar homes.  However, Beth’s family was well off, while Amy’s was not.  The families were told that they were involved in a child development study and were urged to continue it.  As an infant Amy was described as “tense, demanding, she sucked her thumb, bit her nails, and clung to her blanket, and cried when left alone” (4).  Her mother described her as “problematic and stubborn outsider” (3).  Beth’s mother described her as being a “fun child,” however, Beth developed fundamentally the same tense, demanding, sucked her thumb, chewed on her nails, relied heavily on her comfort blanket and was afraid of being alone.  Therefore, regardless of their environment they presented with the same developmental qualities in their early childhood development.  However, as the girls grew older Amy continued to show a disconnection to her friends and her family, while Beth was on the surface more connected to her family and was more successful with her peers (5).  The general results of this study indicate that many aspects of an individual’s identity are due to inherited genes, but the social skills developed can be correlated to the individual’s environment.  Unfortunately, the specific details on the results of this study conducted by Dr. Peter Neubaur are locked away at the university’s archive until 2066. 

            An interview conducted on a professor who teaches an Introduction into Psychology Course and wishes to remain anonymous, states that very few psychiatrists doubt the relevance of both roles of nature and nurture.  However, he claims that until the DNA structures responsible for the behavioral differences amongst people it will continue to be a controversy.  The anonymous professor and the authors, Plomin and Crabbe, both state that the pathways between genes and behavior will eventually lead to gene-based diagnoses and treatment programs (809). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRKbZtpBcgI - action=share This video, is a study conducted by Dr. Adam Matheny, Director of the Louisville Twin Study.  Dr. Matheny discusses

how basic building blocks of an individual’s identity are intelligence, personality, and temperament and twin studies enables researchers to observe the development.  Based on the boys, Eric and Cody, he states how Eric, the bigger twin, has always been ahead of Cody because in the womb Eric received most of the nutrition.  This is typically the case in most twins, one receives more nutrition than the other.  Dr. Matheny states how Eric tested with a higher IQ than Cody, however through constant stimulation at home and the institute, Cody’s score increased close to Eric’s score.  Therefore, Dr. Matheny concludes that only the abilities that an individual is born with can be actualized through schooling and training.  Dr. Matheny’s findings are in accordance with Susan S. Lang’s research in “Researchers Challenge Nature vs. Nurture Argument;” Lang states that abilities can only be observed when actualized.  “All heritability can tell you is what the environment is bringing to fruition.  You have no way of knowing the extent to which the un-actualized genetic potential remains dormant” (Lang).  Lang means that no one knows the exact potential of an individual’s ability until its nurtured by the individual’s environment.  Therefore, it is evident the importance of both inherited DNA and a stimulating environment. 

            Susan Dominus writes an article in The New York Times Magazine called “The Mixed-Up Brothers of Bogota” telling the story of the two set of twins that were switched at birth at a Colombian Hospital.  Figure 2 depicts the twins and the believed to be fraternal brother, they were raised with.  Jorge and Carlos Castro were raised as fraternal brothers in the city of Bogota by a single mother.  While William and Wilber Velasco were also raised as fraternal twins, but they were raised on the countryside and worked on the family farm.  Unlike the other studies discussed, this article details how these twins turned out when raised apart.  Dominus states how growing up the Castro twin’s mother instilled in them the value of an education.  Carlos and Jorge worked hard in school, however, Jorge was always copying off of Carlos’s homework or needing extra help.  This detail is important because although the exact results were not documented by researchers, it is evident how Carlos’s genes allowed him to be more perceptible to learning when compared to Jorge.  Although Jorge struggled in school he overcame those difficulties and became a pipe designer for an engineering company, and Carlos became a successful accountant.  On the other hand, Wilber, the twin raised in the country side, was forced to drop out of school and work on the family farm because they desperately needed the money.  However, Wilber has always resented his mother for not trying hard enough to get him back to school.  Therefore, it is evident how Wilber and Carlos, the identical twins, were so passionate about their education.  While Carlos had the resources to attend school, and Wilber did not, he still he was still passionate about wanting to be educated.  Therefore, although intelligence is an inherited trait, it can only be actualized through a proper environment. 

            However, Lang discusses how neither nature nor nurture is responsible for an individual’s personality.  “Rather, it is the number of enduring relationships and activities a child has in his or her immediate environment that drives effective human development” (Lang).  Lang discusses how an individual develops based on “proximal processes, that are mechanisms by which genetic potential gets actualized into behavior” (Lang).   Lang states that there is no way of knowing the extent to which the “un-actualized genetic potential remains dormant” (Lang).  However, based on the information provided Lang’s argument lacks the importance that a stimulating and proper environment will provide this discussion on the actualization of inherited talents and gifts.

            On the other hand, Mark Runco in “Nature vs. Nurture” discusses how there are empiricists that believe that all individuals are born with a tabula rasa, a blank slate, and their identity is acquired through experiences (445).  According to Runco, experience determines who humans are and what they can do (445).  However, based on the studies directed by Dr. Neubaur the results of the twins reared apart, that still exhibited the same traits indicated that genes are a major component of an individual’s identity. 

            Therefore, an individual’s identity is composed of inherited genes and a proper environment, dismantling the controversy between nature vs. nurture.  The benefactors of the true understanding of the controversy will be the people.  Policy makers will use this new found information to make better decisions concerning society. 

Work Cited

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