Heredity vs Environment Essay Example

The age old debate Nature vs. Nurture. Are we the way we are because of how we are raised or are the actions and choices we make in life already hard-wired into our DNA when we are born? It is hard to be able to choose just one answer and go with it 100%. Scientist have been performing experiments for both sides of this debate for years now and the results seem to blend together the fact that we are effected by both heredity and the environment that we are raised in. Personally, I tend to lean more towards the nurture aspect of this argument. One of the most famous experiments backing the nurture aspect is an experiment by John Watson in 1913 concerning behaviorism. This experiment became known as the "Albert Experiment". He used an 11-month-old boy, Albert, to prove that he could be conditioned to be afraid of something that did not previously him. Watson placed the boy alone in a room with no other humans or objects present. He then released a single white mouse into the room. At first Albert seemed to enjoy the mouse and would interact normally with the creature. Then over time Watson would play loud and displeasing noises that upset the young boy when ever he went to touch the animal. As a result, Albert became terrified of every white and furry object in which he came in contact. These results put a pretty bold statement in the lime light. It clearly states that a person can be taught feelings about their environments. The other experiment I am going to use to orchestrate this point is one done on a set of adopted children that have no genetic ties to each other. They were raised in the same house by the same two parents and when they were given an IQ test. Their scores were very similar. This is not very concrete evidence but it does lean more towards the fact that environment does affect the way a child develops into the person that will be in life. There was also an experiment done in Great Britain that involved 12- to 13-year olds.