The influences of Nature and Nurture on Human Development
For a long time now, there has been a controversy on nurture versus nature in development of humans. I do not expect the debate to stop any time soon based on the fact that nobody has been able to come up with a solid answer for it. As a result, I intend to carry out an extensive research on the same and offer my opinion.
To begin with, nature means is concerned with traits that are genetically inherited while nurture means environmental issues that impact human development (Kail, & Cavanaugh, 2013). These two features are very significant and influential in a person’s development. Nature on the other hand plays a crucial role in affecting the innate of an individual and nurture, affects environmental experiences of the person.
With the above in mind, it is therefore not impossible to underrate the impact of nurture and nature’s expense and vice versa. This is the case based on some human development features that depend on nature while others rely on nurture. According to Bouchard, Malina, and Perusse (1997), the environment and genetics are intrinsically connected features and as a result, it is quite difficult to understand genetic characteristics without referring to nature and vice versa.
This is quite true because development of humans is an aspect that is multifaceted and calls for proper understanding of the two features. Knowledge is indeed in one way undermining the influence of the other feature on development of humans. Through genetics, learning, remembering and imitation, culture absorption and expression of instincts is enhanced in the human mind.
Taking a closer look at all the features, one will realize that they all originate from one’s environment. For instance, for a person to imitate, he or she should be living in an environment that she or he emulates. For one to absorb culture, he or she should also be living in a specific cultural environment.
Nature in these cases enables a person to grow through learning, remembering, instincts expression and imitation 
and the factors come from the environment within. This also means that for an individual to grow, nurture and nature are very essential and are inseparable and also play very unique roles. It also means that each of the aspects plays a role that the other cannot play (Sigelman, & Rider, 2011).
For instance, nurture offers genes that enhance human mind development but nature offers the brain. Nature on the hand which is a biological aspect in this case does not offer culture but nurture offers it. From the understanding above, genes do not help a person to inherit some traits from the parents but they are usually active in the entire life of a person. Therefore, they help a person to adopt into an environment that contributes to his or her development.
Nurture at the same time does not exist before birth and it comes into existence once people encounter the environment to grow their minds thus, nurture influences development of humans. From the perspective above, we are all different and unique from the other despite the fact that we live in the same environment.
Our personalities and interests are quite different even though we share same cultural practices. This is the case based on the fact that our genes are different. Things for identical twins can be different because of disparity in their genes (Bouchard, Malina & Perusse, 1997). In this relevance, nature affects human development in one way or the other but not completely.
Identical twins may have almost same behaviors but when separated from one another, their behavior becomes slightly different. This means that nurture originates from the environment and it impacts human development just as nature does. A language acquisition evaluation between females and males also indicates that the two are different when it comes to language proficiency.
Females acquire proficiency in languages more than males do. Males on the other hand have spatial skills compared to females (Sigelman, & Rider, 2011). While this may seem farfetched from the subject, the role of nature in human development is very clear. It also indicates that nature is a significant feature in human growth. In regards to nurture, people living in the same place share same cultural practices relating to their beliefs and upbringing.
We on the same note have different cultures across the globe even though we share some nature aspects for instance fear of strangers and preferring sweet tastes among others. The disparity in cultural practices means that nurture impacts development of humans in one way or the other. Human development for this reason is therefore highly dependent on nature and nurture.
With reference to old age on the other hand in human development, there are specialists that analyze the issue of successfully aging arguing that there is a clock, innate, known as biological clock that determines the time a person dies. The specialists claim that once the clock expires, the person dies.
Other experts however evaluate the same subject and claim that the clock does not exist. The experts claim that the type of food that a person east often determines the time he or she dies. According to these specialists, foods with high calorie content accelerate growth rate and death (Kail, & Cavanaugh, 2013). In reference to the two types of experts, one can therefore identify two types of arguments. One group favors natural debate while the other favors environmental debate. The first group of experts also argues in nature’s favor while the second is in favor of nurture.
Despite the disparity among human development researchers, my view is that nurture and nature contribute towards human growth. This means that growth changes in humans is as a result of complex issues processes between nature and nurture. In this relevance, we can only have nurture and nature in the development of humans as opposed to nurture vs nature.
For this reason, nature impacts nurture and vice versa. Nature for instance offers the brain that helps people to learn from experience. Experiences in return, which are vital part of nurture, affect the brain by impacting their neural links thus; there may be disparities in human development (Sigelman, & Rider, 2011). In my opinion, there should be no debate on human development in regards to nurture and nature because the two aspects impact human development. This further means that some features of human development are largely dependent on nature and others on nurture.
From the reading in the first chapter, I have been able to understand the differences between nurture and nature. It helps me in accepting the fact that the two impact development of humans in one way or the other even though one may seem to take control over the other. It also enables me to appreciate that the influences of each aspect are quite different despite the fact that they intertwine with the other. The first chapter for this reason has been quite instrumental to me in answering this enquiry.
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References
Bouchard, C., Malina, R., & Perusse, L. (1997). Genetics of fitness and physical performance. Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics.
Kail, R., & Cavanaugh, J. (2013). Human development: A life-span view. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Sigelman, C., & Rider, E. (2011). Life-span human development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.