Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital – Educational Institution

Department of Graduate Studies

Masters of Science in Nursing

Course Title: PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION

Topic: FACTORS AFFECTING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: HEREDITY VS ENVIRONMENT
Reporter: KENNY JUN SERVAN

Influence of Heredity and Environment on Individual Development

Nature vs Nurture
• It concerns the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities versus personal
experiences in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral
trait.
• Also referred as Heredity vs Environment and Genetic Influence vs Situational Influence
• These statements reflect an enduring question that has intrigued and puzzled
developmental researchers about the root causes of human behavior that whether
behavior is produced by inherited genetic influence or is triggered by factors in the
environment.

Heredity / Nature
• Genetics, or the science of heredity is a discipline contributing specific details of the
impact of heredity on living beings.
• Baller and Charles have compiled some general statements about the inheritance of
character that are relevant to behavior of personality.
1. Tendency towards a certain structure
 A tendency towards a general body-type.
 Sex
 A tendency to achieve a certain body weight.
 Appearance (skin, hair texture and color, eye shape and color)
 Internal structure (the size of heart and lungs in proportion to the body)
2. Tendency to function in certain ways
 Sensory efficiency
(keenness of vision, range of hearing, sensitivity to touch and smell)
 Operation of the vital organs
 Functioning of the endocrine system and glandular secretions
(the thyroid glands control the metabolic rate, pituitary glands controlling growth)
 Natural response
(functioning of the nervous system, intelligence, predisposition to act slowly or
quickly)
 Predisposition to certain characteristics
The Nature side emphasizes how much of an organism reflects biological factors. Some
philosophers such as Plato and Socrates suggested that certain things are inborn or that they
simply occur naturally regardless of environmental influences.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION 1

HEREDITY VS ENVIRONMENT
Environmental Factors
• The nurture side, emphasizes how much of an organism reflects environmental factors.
• Thinkers such as Jolty Locke believed in what is known as TABULA RASA, which suggests
that the mind begins as a blank slate. According to this law, everything that we are and
all of our knowledge is determined by our experience.
• Psychologically, an individual’s environment is related to all those stimuli which he faces
from the moment of fertilization till death.
• Environment is generally divided into two categories; natural and social.
• Technically, environmental factors start exerting their influence through the uterine
environment.
• During the first month or so, varying cultural patterns can be seen to shape the physical
appearance of the child.
• As the child grows, he faces and deals with several environmental factors. The child
gradually grows in complexity, supporting or contracting various factors as the
environment.

NATURE AND NURTURE

• In reality, it is most likely an interaction of genes and environment, nature and nurture
that affect the development of a person.
• The individual’s personality is the product of both heredity and environment.
• A child’s development represents the interaction of Heredity and Environment.

Individual Differences
• Is the uneven rate of growth and development among individuals

Heredity determines the potential of child, while the Environment influences the extent to
which that potential is achieved.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION 2

HEREDITY VS ENVIRONMENT