Samuel M Goldberg

May 27, 2020

PSY 101: General Psychology
Writing Assignment #1: Nature vs. Nurture
I agree with the assigned reading that “we should indulge our fascination with nature–nurture while
resisting the temptation to oversimplify it”(Turkheimer, 2020b). In my opinion, to say that either genes
or environmental factors are more influential on human beings would be an oversimplification. Instead
we should recognize that “each of us represents a unique interaction between our genetic makeup and
our environment” (OpenStax College, 2014).

Our genes are the sequences of DNA that control or partially control our traits (OpenStax College, 2014)
“by directing the synthesis of proteins”(The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019). Our genes are a
physical part of us, and each individual has their own, unchanging, set of genes called a genotype. This
genotype is “determined by the interaction of genetic material supplied by the parents” (OpenStax
College, 2014). Currently available evidence shows that all traits have “some footing in genetics”
(Turkheimer, 2020b).

This does not mean that genes are the only or most important factor. Our environment, “the complex of
physical, chemical, and biotic factors that act upon an organism” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 2019), is also significant. Our “genes and environments always combine to produce behavior,
and the real science is in the discovery of how they combine for a given behavior” (Turkheimer, 2020a).

The field of epigenetics lends credibility to this perspective. It “looks beyond the genotype itself and
studies how the same genotype can be expressed in different ways” (OpenStax College, 2014).
Epigenetics “provides a framework for understanding how the expression of genes is influenced by
experiences and the environment to produce individual differences” (Weaver, 2020). It seems to me
that these gene-environment interactions are especially important in early childhood when “brain
development is more rapid” … “with more than 700 neural connections created each second” (Weaver,
2020). These complex interactions “serve to increase the number of possible contacts between
neurons” (Weaver, 2020) thus forming the basis for an adults “mature neural networks that support
emotional, cognitive, and social behavior” (Weaver, 2020).

Personally, I find the range of reaction perspective to be the most intuitive way to understand the
nature vs. nurture question. “Range of reaction asserts that our genes set the boundaries within which
we can operate, and our environment interacts with the genes to determine where in that range we will
fall.” (OpenStax College, 2014). The text sets up the concept of genetic environment correlation and
epigenetics as being at odds with the range of reactions perspective, but I don’t see them as being
mutually exclusive. Genetic environment correlation simply asserts that genes and environment “also
influence one another bidirectionally” (OpenStax College, 2014) and epigenetics deals with the way
“gene expression is often influenced by environmental context” (OpenStax College, 2014). Neither of
these things mean that there is not a boundary to our potential traits set by our genes.

I think Karl Marx summed up a similar perspective quite well. He was also discussing the interaction
between predetermined material realities, the apparent reality of human free will, and unique
environmental factors.
 Samuel M Goldberg
May 27, 2020
PSY 101: General Psychology
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under
self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted
from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the
living. (Marx, 1852)
 Samuel M Goldberg
May 27, 2020
PSY 101: General Psychology
References
Marx, K. (1852). 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Marxist Internet Archive.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm

OpenStax College. (2014). Human Genetics. In Introduction to Psychology. OpenStax College.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ulster-intropsychmaster/chapter/human-genetics/

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). Gene. In Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia

Britannica, inc. https://www.britannica.com/science/gene

Turkheimer, E. (2020a). The Nature-Nurture Question. In Introduction to Psychology. Lumen Learning.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ulster-intropsychmaster/chapter/the-nature-nurture-

question/

Turkheimer, E. (2020b). What Have We Learned About Nature–Nurture? In Introduction to Psychology.

Lumen Learning. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ulster-

intropsychmaster/chapter/what-have-we-learned-about-nature-nurture/

Weaver, I. (2020). Introduction to Epigenetics. In Introduction to Psychology. Lumen Learning.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ulster-intropsychmaster/chapter/introduction-to-

epigenetics/