The Argument Of Nature Vs. Nurture

Psychologists have debated the argument of nature vs. nurture for years on end. Although more evidence is being discovered, the topic is still very arguable. The debate started back in 1869, when Francis Galton was the first to use the phrase, “Nature vs. Nurture” (ORIGINS). The debate circles around whether people are who they are from their genes, or if their environment impacts their actions and personality. Most psychologists believe it is a one or the other decision, however there are still a few who believe both are right.

Nature is defined as, “our genes” (Definition); it is what we are born knowing. On the other hand, nurture is defined as our “environment and experiences” (Definition). Clearly things like eye color, height, and other physical traits are solely connected with your genes.

The argument lies on whether things like personality, sexuality, intelligence, and others are from genes, or stem from our environment or experiences that we have had.

Two highly debatable arguments are if people are born criminals or not, and are people born gay or does their environment affect their sexuality?

Homosexuality has always sparked debates within psychology. Up until recently, there was no evidence to support nature’s role in it. In 1957, Karen Hooker went through with the first psychological test that tested for biological determinism (Heffner). Hooker was mainly testing to find the correlation between homosexuality, psychological development, and illness. “The results of Hooker’s experiment yielded no significant differences…because both groups’ answers scored very similarly, she concluded a zero correlation between social determinism of sexuality.”(Heffner). In 1973, the APA took out homosexuality from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychological Disorders due to Hooker’s findings (Heffner). After the results of Hooker’s experiment confirmed that sexuality is not sexually determined, D.F. Swaab conducted the next notable experiment that would be the

first to, “…document a physiological difference in the anatomical structure of a gay man’s brain.” (Heffner). In 1990, Swaab’s experiment, which consisted of him examining the post-mortem brains of homosexual males, showed that the hypothalamus in homosexual men were structurally different than those of heterosexual men (Heffner). He also found that the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus was twice its size in the homosexual compared to the heterosexual. Laura S. Allen conducted this same experiment at the same time, and found the same results. Allen also found that a part of the hypothalamus (anterior commissure) was also significantly larger than of those in heterosexuals. In the 1990’s Dean Hamer did a study to see if the X chromosome was related to homosexuality. “He took 40 DNA samples from homosexual men…he found that there was a ‘remarkable concordance’ for 5 genetic markers on section of the X-Chromosome called Xq28.” (Heffner). This was known as the “gay gene study”. Although Hamer made it clear with his results that people are born gay, people are still skeptical and continue to argue over it.
Nurture vs nature will always play a huge part in psychology, as it has for many years. But if it wasn’t for this argument, psychologists would never have been pushed to investigate and experiment either side, and we wouldn’t have the knowledge we have today. Like the information of the gay gene, and all of the facts that support nature’s role in homosexuality. However, no matter how much evidence is present the argument is never ending.