What is the status of the nature–nurture debate in psychology today
The nature theory suggests that coding of genes in our body are the one responsible for different traits, mainly influencing the physical attributes such as ear size, hair color, and height. However, there is still confusion related to the fact that whether personalities, intelligence, and likes are also related to gene-coded in our DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).
There are also some interesting topics, like criminal acts and aggressive behavior, which still are to be confirmed as a cause of “behavior genes” by researchers. While looking at fraternal twins, it can be concluded that behavioral genes exist. Rearing of the fraternal twins apart show same responses and similarities in the twins, that it appears as if they were reared together.
The nurture theory states that there may exists the influence of genetic traits over abstract traits, but still environmental factors are given importance, and are considered as real origin for our behaviour. This includes conditioning or altering the behaviours shown by a child.
According to John Watson, a baby picked randomly among 12 infants can be trained into any type of specialist. Rearing of the fraternal twins apart may show same responses and similarities in the twins, that it appears as if they were reared together. However, several differences in their behavior may result due to different environment factors. Therefore no conclusions can be made, and hence, the ongoing debate of nature versus nurture is still in the hot topics without any conclusions.