Nature Vs Nurture In Child Development

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Genetic, mental and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence are discussed in the development of a child. Genes are said to have a greater influence on a child’s development which creates the debate nature vs nurture.
We all naturally inherit genes which influence who we are (how we look and our character). It is natural for us to perceive that those who are born will automatically learn to walk, understand the language, copy others and be able to use simple tools (i.e. spoons, forks, pencils crayons) and be able to interpret how others perceive the world around them. (Genetic Determinism.)
In contrast, Nurture denotes to the external factors which have an influence on who we are (our environment). …show more content…

It is the genetic makeup in which the information encoded in individual genes which a person inherits from both parents at the beginning and carries throughout life. The DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a chemical structure that is present in the chromosomes of the genes. It holds the genetic code or instructions that make up all life. Things like gender, eye colour, risks for certain diseases, exceptional talents and height are inherited in a person. Thus the theory of nature states that these biological genetic qualities that people have inherited will eventually appear as they develop. A study was carried out known as, ‘A parent-off spring adoption study’, by Robert Plomin et al where children resemble their parents in intellectual abilities from infancy to adolescence. Adoptive children resemble their adoptive parents slightly in early childhood, but no resemblance at all later on in childhood and adolescence. Therefore, adoptive children become more like their biological …show more content…

Identical twins that come from a single fertilised egg cell in which they are the same sex and share the same genes are known as Monozygotic. Fraternal twins who come from two separately fertilized egg cells and share 50% of genes in common are known as Dizygotic. Therefore, why study twins in psychology for knowing how a child develops? Twin studies are very important as they are considered as being reared in very similar environments, but fraternal and identical twin differ in genetic similarity with 100% vs 50%. It can be argued that if fraternal are more similar than identical, this could be due to heredity. Heritability-.. ..Studying twins is essential as researchers can understand the genetic similarity of non-adopted twins vs adopted twins. Family resemblance for twins shows they can be different even though they have the same upbringing due to genes. There are biological differences. Intelligence is a key feature for a child’s development especially with twins. Results from Chipuer et al study is the IQ correlation between identical twins reared together is .086 and between fraternal twins reared together is 0.60. Whereas IQ of siblings reared together 0.47 and for cousins 0.15. However, Plomin and Spinath conducted a study of correlations between intelligence scores of more than 13000 twin pairs. The average correlation was 0.86 for

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