The debate over Nature and Nurture has been going on for years and it’s still unresolved. Many theorist believe what we have inherited and our genes, makes us the person we are and how we develop throughout our lives. Others believe it is the way we are brought up and our experiences, that makes us who we are and how we develop. Nature is the debate that we are born the way we are and everything is inherited from our parents through our genes, whereas nurture is the environment and upbringing that makes us who we are. Richards appearance can be debated he was born with blonde hair and blue eyes like his mother Eve this is debated more towards the nature side as he has got the same appearance from his mother’s genes, it can’t be as related to the nurture as he has brown like that and hadn’t experienced the world yet this is too do with physical development.
Physically the way we look can be argued to be mainly due to nature. The genes we inherit from our parents make the basis of our looks. For example people often say, ’Don’t you look like your mother/father’. Genetic inheritance can be determined our eye colour, whether our hair is curly or straight or how tall we will be. We can also inherit certain diseases that can impact our health as this is more due to nature. When Richards mother was pregnant she smoked this was due to her having an addiction so this caused Richard to be a lower birth weight, this was due to Eve’s social and environmental influences this wasn’t something that she inherited so this then caused Richards development to be affected due to the nurture side. But if someone’s mother or father had something like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease and they got pregnant the child has a chance of inheriting the disease that will affect their development this is due to nature. However, we can make decisions on how we look and change our appearance such as dyeing hair, getting tattoos and getting something pierced this is influenced through nurture as friends or family could have done this so then a person may be influenced to do the same, it can be who their brought up around, the area they live in and how much money they have. There are many different cosmetic procedures available to alter our appearance to suit ourselves or others this is debated to be due to nurture as this is our environment and how we are brought up. The way we live our life and the choices we make can also have a massive impact on how we look. For example, eating junk food and not exercising leads to obesity and other problems. The environment we are brought up in and the experiences we have, can influence our health which contributes to physical development. An example of how nature and nurture affect our physical development is; we many carry genes that increase our risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but if we eat a healthy diet and get sufficient exercise, we might not develop the disease. The genes for characteristics we inherit are called genotypes, they decide our physical traits like eye colour and height they can be seen. Genes we inherit can affect our health. For example, a daughter is more likely to have breast cancer if her mother had it. However, our life choices such as diet and exercise and the environment can increase chances of developing breast cancer for example if someone smokes.
Many debates over nature versus nurture relate to identical twins, researchers have done experiments through identical twins not only ones that have been raised together but ones that were separated at birth, to determine whether or not a certain trait is biologically programmed or it happened as a result of the environment. Some results show that twins that have been brought up together didn’t share anything in common, however some twins shared common interests like swimming or playing football, theorists have argued whether or not this is due to the nature or nurture side, was it through genes that were inherited or just from the