Assignment #6-Emma Shadwick- Nature v Nurture

The most interesting concept I’ve ever learned about was in my AP psychology class. It was also one of the hardest concepts I’ve ever had to learn. It is the nature versus nurture debate. Basically, psychologists have debated that behavior can be mostly attributed to nature or nurture or a combination of both. Nature involves an individuals genetic predisposition and its impact on their traits. Nurture describes the influence of learning from other influences and one’s environment. I think that nurture has a bigger impact on an individual’s behavior. This is because  usually there is a correlation between environmental factors and psychological outcomes. For example, a stressful environment may lead to increased anxiety which leads to disorganized behavior. This does not exactly align with the general conclusion of the nature versus nurture debate. The general conclusion is that nurture works on what nature endows. This means that humans are capable of learning and adapting, so both may occur at the same time. Another interesting element of nature versus nurture twin studies. This was a very interesting topic for me because I am a twin. Twin studies used to be the only way to compare the influence of genes against the environment on personality and behavior. However, recent advances in genetics have revealed other methods.