The nature versus nurture theory in psychology has been a debate for the past years since it was found by psychologist Sir Francis Galton in 1869 (Capps, 2016). Various doctors, psychologists, scientists, and researchers are still arguing about this theory and how it works. According to Kong et al. (2018) nature is referred to as the genetic tendencies such as intelligence and their effect on the characters of human beings while nurture points out the state of influence that one has achieved from the environment.
Identical Twin Scenario
The study on identical twins is the most common perspective used by researchers to conduct their studies about humans and their behaviors through nature and nurture debate. Due to the twins’ similarity, scientists use them to help identify and analyze what affects a person most between the environment and his genes (Capps, 2016). The studies are also conducted to understand how the identity of twins varies during their different stages of development.
The research is usually done through the analysis of different contexts such as;
a. Cognitive development
Identical twins are some of the humans that can be used as a clone for another due to their similarities in the gene. Scientists, therefore, use the IQ testing to test the intelligence ability between the twins. The use of IQ testing method can only be used to measure the ability of an individual to reason and solve problems. Apart from the IQ testing method, scientists, through different studies believe that the genes and environment work co-relatively to help in the cognitive development of an individual (Montag, et al., 2016).
b. Physical Development
Developing physically relates to the functioning of the brain and the nervous system with an inclusion of behavior, need for food and drinks and the muscle development. Twins usually have the same genes but conducted research shows that identical twins always do not portray the same behavior and physical appearance. Factors answerable to such situations would include the type of diet and environment used by each twin. The urge for them to appear individual arises thus making them perform most of their activities differently (Capps, 2016).
c. Social-Emotional Development
Various discoveries have been made using different studies to show a distinction between the emotions of identical twins. The studies outlined that the twins’ attitude and their personal traits were affected by their genes. The type of environment they lived in only affected their ways of making decisions (Montag, et al., 2016).
d. Human development stages
The identical twins are expected to start experiencing the human development stages together. The twins start developing from the process of fertilization, the split off of the ovum, the formation of the zygote to the fetus and to birth. During the infancy stage, the twins are normally taken care of by their parents. The parents tend to make them similar through treating them the same way. Their behaviors and characteristics start looking different at this small age due to their perception of reasoning (Kong, et al., 2018).
Conclusion
Nature and nurture debate seem to go hand in hand, but they work differently. It is quite challenging to work and notice a major difference between the two usually in the twins’ perspective comparison. As more studies are being conducted, it is advisable that most of the people learn between the two terms of debate and look at the potential ways of classifying different characteristics according to gene and environment.
References
Capps, D. (2016). Imagining Hope: William F. Lynch’s Psychology of Hope. Pastoral Psychology, 65(2), 143-165.
Kong, A., Thorleifsson, G., Frigge, M. L., Vilhjalmsson, B. J., Young, A. I., Thorgeirsson, T. E., ... " Gudbjartsson, D. F. (2018). The nature of nurture: Effects of parental genotypes. Science, 359(6374), 424-428.
Montag, C., Hahn, E., Reuter, M., Spinath, F. M., Davis, K., " Panksepp, J. (2016). The role of nature and nurture for individual differences in primary emotional systems: evidence from a twin study. PloS one, 11(3), e0151405.
