Preview

Nature vs. Nurture

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
808 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nature vs. Nurture
Article: Genetic modeling of childhood social development and personality in twins and siblings with schizophrenia
Aurthors: M. M. Picchioni1,2*, M. Walshe1, T. Toulopoulou1, C. McDonald3, M. Taylor4, S. Waters-Metenier1,
E. Bramon1, A. Regojo1, R. M. Murray1 and F. Rijsdijk5 Nature vs. nurture is a topic that has been debated for centuries. Pro-nature goes with the theory that genetics and biological inheritance determine behavior, while pro-nurture perspective follows the theory that the environment in which one is raised in and experiences determine behavior. Nature and nurture together shape development. Although the two differ, they do work hand in hand in the sense that the characteristics we possess as individuals are created through the joint force of nature and nurture. This article focuses on nature versus nurture, to gene and environment interaction in schizophrenia.
The study of nature and nurture in the development of behavioral traits begun around 1865 from Francis Galton, and has grown significantly since then. Genetic research has overall shown genetic influence in psychological areas such as mental illness, cognitive disabilities, personality, drug use and abuse. Areas such as self-esteem, interests, attitudes, and school achievements have showed stronger genetic influence. A recent poll found that more than 90% of parents and teachers reported genetics as being as important as the environment for mental illness, personality, learning difficulties, and intelligence. Genetics and environment influence individuals’ characteristics and each account for about half of the variance.
Schizophrenia was thought to be caused by the environment up to the 1960s, having poor parenting be the blame for this mental disorder. This fact sheds light on what we discussed in class about the early theories on nature versus nurture. Early scientists used to generalize one factor or the other as the prime influence. Twin and family studies explore the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Psychosis and schizophrenia are mental disorders that research has said to be abnormalities in brain function or abnormalities in the neurotransmission of the brain (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Psychosis is a symptom that involves “loss of contact with normal reality” (Hansell & Damour, 2008, p. 459). Schizophrenia is the most frequent place in which psychosis is present. Schizophrenia is a frightening disorder, but it is also a disorder which is highly misunderstood by the general public. Genetic factors also play a large role in the development of schizophrenia. The evidence of this mental disorder being genetic was conducted in a research involving family studies, twin studies, and adoption studies. The result reflected that if a biological relative had the mental disorder, there was a 46% to 48% (Hansell & Damour, 2008, p. 481) chance that the disorder would occur in another biological relative. The environmental factors also play a role in the development of the disorder.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Schizophrenia is a complex and puzzling illness. Even the experts in the field are not exactly sure what causes it. Some doctors think that the brain may not be able to process information correctly; and it is believed that genetic factors appear to play a role, as people who have family members with schizophrenia may be more likely to get the disease themselves. Some researchers believe that events in a person's environment may trigger schizophrenia. For example, problems during intrauterine development (infection) and birth may increase the risk for developing schizophrenia later in life; and psychological and social factors may also play some role in its development. However, the level of social and familial support appears to influence the course of illness and may be protective against relapse. (Schizophrenia, 1996-2006).…

    • 1660 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One biological explanation for schizophrenia is genetics. This theory states that a person’s genes determine whether they develop schizophrenia or not. Family studies, twin studies and adoption studies have explored the roles of genes in the development of sz. Gottesman conducted a family study and he identified that the closer someone is genetically to a person with sz, the more likely to develop sz. For example, Mz twins have a concordance rate of 48%, Dz is 17%, siblings are 9% and parents is 6%. Therefore the likelihood of suffering from a disorder increases by the closeness of you to the person genetically.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This research shows that there is a definite correlation between genetics and the risk of developing schizophrenia.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first explanation for schizophrenia is genetic factor. Researchers have done many studies in different kind of ways in order to study genetic inheritability disorder, such as schizophrenia. The studies include family studies, twin studies and adoption studies. Family studies would investigate individuals who have schizophrenia and determine if their biological relatives are also affected more often than non-biological relatives. The most famous schizophrenic’s family study was conducted by Gottesman, 1991. They found that schizophrenia is more common among biological relatives, also the closer the degree of genetic relatedness, the greater the risk of getting schizophrenia. For example, the concordance rate of children with two schizophrenic parents is 46%, whereas the concordance rate of children of one schizophrenic parent is 13%. Twin studies give an opportunity for researchers to investigate the contribution of genetic and environmental influences. Joseph 2004 has calculated that the concordance rate for monozygotic twins, who come from the same egg of biological mother, is 40.4%, whereas the concordance rate for dizygotic twins is only 7.4%. These suggest that the greater the similarity is because of genetic factors. Adoption studies help to avoid the problem of mixing genetic and environmental influences together. The most methodological sound adoption study to date was conducted by Tienari et al. 2000. They found that 11 out…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It has been showed that schizophrenia has a tendency to run in different families. This implies that genes play a role. The closer the genetic relationship the more likely the people are to share the disorder. Gottesman (1991) showed that when both parents are schizophrenic, there is a 46% chance of the child also getting it, however, if only one parent had it, it dropped to 16% and dropped to a further 1% when the sibling of the child had schizophrenia. This suggests that a genetic factor is involved. Gottesman also looked at schizophrenics whose father had an identical twin. He found that there was a 17% of being schizophrenic when the father was but he also found that there was also 17% chance of developing the disease when the father’s twin had schizophrenia but the father didn’t.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psy Paper Schizophrenia

    • 2251 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The disruption of brain development resulting from a genetic predisposition and environmental stressors during prenatal development such as exposure to viruses, malnutrition before birth, problems during birth, and other psychosocial factors are contributors to schizophrenia (National Institute, n.d.). During early childhood and adolescence, environmental factors can further damage the brain and increase the risk of schizophrenia, or lessen the manifestation of genetic or neurodevelopmental defects reducing the risk of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has a strong genetic component corroborating studies of relatives with a history of this or other psychiatric diseases such as bipolar disorder, depression, schizoaffective disorder, etc. have a significantly high risk for developing schizophrenia. However, simple genetic transmission cannot be held liable as the only cause (National Institute, n.d.).…

    • 2251 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Outline and evaluate one or more biological explanations of schizophrenia (8 marks AO1/16 marks AO1)…

    • 1149 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first biological explanation I will look at is the genetic theory of Schizophrenia. There is a 1% chance of someone having schizophrenia in general, however this figure increases when certain relations have schizophrenia too. For example; If one parent has schizophrenia, the chances increase to 10%, if two parents have the illness, this increases again to 40% and if an monozygotic twin is born with schizophrenia, then it is 50% likely the other twin will have it too. However, this could be just because of the similar environment the children are reared in, rather than the genetics involved, it could just be the environment. Kendler et al. Stated that there is no way of telling wether schizophrenia is due to environmental factors, or as the biological theory states, genetics. He said as the blood tie increases, so does the similarity of the environment, and therefore it cannot be proven.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The biological approach to psychology which looks at physical aspects controlling behaviour such as the structures of the brain, gives evidence that both nature and nurture are involved in our behaviour. For instance a study which compared the incidence of schizophrenia in MZ and DZ twins (Gottesman and Shields (1966)) found a concordance rate of 40% for the MZs but only 9% for the DZs. As arguably the only material differences between these groups was the fact that MZs share 100% genetic material whereas DZs on average only share 50% of their genes, this gives strong evidence that schizophrenia has a genetic component. However it is notable that even the sharing of 100% of genes with an ill sibling did not confer a certainty of getting the disease which implies that in this case at least, there must be some environmental factors at work.…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The term ‘schizophrenia' covers a group of serious psychotic disorders characterised by a loss of contact with reality. It comes from two Greek words: schiz meaning ‘split' and phren meaning ‘mind'. DSM IV (1994) estimate that the occurrence rate of schizophrenia ranges from 0.2%-2.0% worldwide. There are two main explanations of schizophrenia: the biological explanations and the psychological explanations. In this essay I will critically consider the biological explanations. These include genetics, neurochemistry, brain structure and evolution.…

    • 1913 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder. Like many other illnesses, schizophrenia is believed to result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. All the tools of modern science are being used to search for the causes of this disorder.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Firstly, the Gottesman and Shields study, which supports the genetic approach, can be seen as less generalisable due to its limited sample and as the participants may not be reliable since they could be separated enough for them to not learn behaviours of other family members. Also, there is no evidence suggesting a 100% concordance rate, thus there must be some environmental factor involved. Hence, evaluating schizophrenia ignoring the environmental factors can be seen as reductionist and deterministic. Moreover, there is some confusion as to whether one or many genes are responsible for predisposing a person to schizophrenia. However, as the genetic approach adopts technological explanations such as using brain scan or genome, its explanation can be seen as more scientific than other approaches such as the cognitive explanation which focuses on the thinking processes which are quite subjective and difficult to be treated.…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There appears to be a tendency for schizophrenia to run in families. This suggests that genes and biological factors play a role in the explanation of schizophrenia.. The closer the genetic relationship the more likely the people are to share the disorder. Evidence from family studies by Gottesman showed that when both parent are schizophrenic then there is a 46% chance of the child getting it, however, if only one parent had it, it dropped to 16% and dropped to a further 1% when the sibling of the child had schizophrenia. This suggests that a genetic factor is involved. Gottesman also looked at schizophrenics whose father had an identical twin. He found that there was a 17% of being schizophrenic when the father was but he also found that there was also 17% chance of developing the disease when the father’s twin had schizophrenia but the father didn’t.…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The concept that nurture has a direct affect on the process of development was first conceived in the 1690 's by John Locke, which this was then contested in 1869 by a man named Francis Galton who believed that nature alone influenced the process of development. The current consensus within the scientific community is that there is a mixture of both genetic and environmental factors that contribute to mental illness. The real controversy lies with which of the two are more prominent in an individuals developmental process and at what point the two intertwine.…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays