The following presents the topic of the ways that biological and environmental factors affect human development. A review of literature is used to discuss this nature versus nurture issue. This is followed by a summary and conclusions.
The nature versus nurture debate was initiated in the 19th century by Galton, who invented eugenics and selective breeding. This debate continued and dominated the 20th century (Hogenboom, 2003). Hogenboom further noted that this debate included two extreme views. Stalin presented one extreme in his communistic ideas that educational and the environment influenced human development and Hitler presented his alternate eugenic ideas about race superiority. The debate went on to enter the educational field with the question of whether children were blank slates that could be molded by the environment or whether their character and intelligence is inherited. Hogenboom stated that Ridley presented a view that synthesized these extremes noting that human development cannot only be ruled by genes in the DNA. In fact genes are regulated by promoter genes which are turned on and off by environmental factors. Thus, Ridley brought to light the notion that genes are enablers rather than constrainers (Hogenboom, 2003).
Biological and Environmental Processes of Human Development
Gottesman and Hanson (2005) stated that the nature versus nurture debate is of no meaning since biological and genetic processing interacts with the environment for human development. These authors stated that adaptation is the principal that organizes biological systems and this includes a response to molar and molecular environments. Thus, according to these authors, genetic and nervous systems are dynamic and not fixed in form and function, rendering them able to adapt to the environment. The new focus is on how biological and environmental factors influence each other.
Gottesman and Hanson...