Academic Analysis of Why Nature and Nurture Won’t Go Away

Number of sources: 1

Topic: Academic Analysis of Why Nature and Nurture Won’t Go Away

Type of document: Essay

Academic Level:Undergraduate

Number of Pages: 4 (Double Spaced)

Category: English

Language Style: English (U.S.)

Writing Style: MLA

Order Instructions:

Okay, now the serious writing begins, but do not toss aside the valuable lessons in summarizing and exemplifying you?ve recently completed. You will find it impossible to perform a strong Academic Analysis if you do not fully and accurately understand the text you are analyzing; for a fair number of us, recent performance indicates, writing an accurate summary remains a challenging task. As well, you cannot effectively support an Academic Analysis without clear and specific examples. Some of us learned of late that vague and general claims come more quickly to our pen tips. First, read ?Why Nature and Nurture Won?t Go Away? by Steven Pinker (found online; just Google by name and title). Then, taking into account thesis, audience, exigence and support in his essay (and yours!), analyze his argument. At this point in the semester you are not to argue your view on the issue (if you even have one yet); you are only to take apart his argument and see how it is put together. You should, however, have a view (claim) about how well he presents his argument (i.e. this should be an evaluative analysis not just a summary analysis). You?re aiming for at least 1000 words. Analyze how Logos and Pathos are used in his essay. Analyze these two parts of his essay using specific examples from his essay. There should be an intro (with a thesis statement) paragraph, body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. The conclusion should NOT summarize the essay. Leave the readers with something to think about but don’t go off on a new tangent. Your essay should read like an essay with its own thesis and support, and its own sense of audience and exigence. DO NOT CITE ANY SOURCES. NONE SHOULD BE NEEDED FOR THIS ESSAY

========

Academic analysis of why nature and nurture won’t go away

The debate about nature and nurture compares an individual’s natural (innate) qualities, and behavioral traits which are acquired from environmental setup to develop an individual’s personality. The influences of environmental and hereditary factors affect the social advancement and development.  Behavioral traits are acquired from environmental influences while innate traits, like the properties of the brain are heredity. Although nurture concerns environmental factors, behavioral genetics can distinguish family factors. For example, the genes that make siblings similar or the hose that make siblings uniquely different. Nature is constituted by hereditary factors while nurture is comprised of environmental and acquired traits.

The contribution of hereditary factors and environmental influences can be explained by a study of identical twins, reared differently. The twins share the same genes, but are reared in different places. The twins will have the same hereditary factors such as, intelligence, but will have different acquired traits such as behavior.

Nature is emphasized in organisms’ biological factors such as, genes.  During development, activation of genes occurs on the basis of hormones and enzymes. The interaction of hereditary factors and environmental factors affects a persons’ development. Nature and nurture are not alternatives, but different genes can have varied effects in various environments. Some environments may cancel or reverse the effects of a set of genes during development. The genes are expressed in respect to the environmental factors, which explains why there is no distinction between genes and environment.

Genes may crucially depend on the environment and therefore heredity factors do not cause any constraints to behavior.  An example to illustrate this point is where; different species of corn may grow to different heights even though they were equally irrigated, while on the other hand, a taller species of the same corn may grow shorter when it is not properly irrigated. This explains why behavior is not determined by genes.

It is also necessary to understand the importance of the effects of genes to the environment, although, certain environments may nullify the effects of genetics. Studies that measure the similarities between genetics and environment show that, numerous effects are manifested in behavior, intelligence and personality on different environmental set-ups. Extreme environments may disrupt heredity traits. The distinction between nature and nurture is meaningless because, environments affect genes and the vice-versa is also true.

Genes related to human nature include; heredity, evolution and development units. While environmental factors include the aspects of the surrounding that constitute the inputs and adoption traits, which humans acquire. Organisms can be affected in numerous ways such as, a specific genetic reaction might occur when there is an interaction between the organism and its social environment.

In the past decades, psychologists focused on cognitive ability to determine individual differences, they argued that, traits are influenced by role models and parenting practices.  This is not true because, it is a comparison between parents and children, forgetting genetic relations between them. Things that happen to parents do not necessary happen to their children.    Personality is shaped by both genes and family upbringing, while behavioral traits are determined by the environment.