TEST YOUR UNDERSTANDING

Complete the sentence.

ANSWER: With regard to the nurture-nature, continuity-discontinuity and change-stability

controversies, the wiser stand is to try not to establish a black and white Pigeonholing mentality. All
these perceived dilemmas are complex and cannot be judged by a set of rules. In reality, all nature,
nurture, continuity, discontinuity, change and stability can coexist. It is not a choice of nature or
nurture; it is more on the correlation of the two. The nature vs. nurture debate seeks to understand
how our personalities and traits are produced by our genetic makeup and biological factors, and how
they are shaped by our environment, including our parents, peers, and culture. For instance, why do
biological children sometimes act like their parents? Is it because of genetic similarity, or the result of
the early childhood environment and what children learn from their parents? This debate continues as
to the relative contributions of each.

Development lists seeks to understand the influence of genetics (nature) and environment (nurture) on
human development. We are all born with specific genetic traits inherited from our parents, such as eye
color, height, and certain personality traits. Beyond our basic genotype, however, there is a deep
interaction between our genes and our environment: our unique experiences in our environment
influence whether and how particular traits are expressed, and at the same time, our genes influence
how we interact with our environment..