Essay on "Nature Nurture"

Essay 4 pages (1107 words) Sources: 7

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Somewhere in the middle of the nature and nurture debate, are new theory has been proposed that merges the two poles. Epigenetics is a relatively new concept that represents one of the most interesting new developments in the nature and nurture debate. In the first half of the twentieth century, developmental biology and genetics were separate disciplines. The word epigenetics was coined by Waddington to link the two fields; epigenetics could be broadly defined as the sum of all those mechanisms necessary for the unfolding of the genetic program for development (Holliday, 2006). Research in this field has discovered that genes are not static in nature, rather there is a selection mechanism that selects different genetic sequences based on the environmental conditions; sometimes several generations back. It is argued that the human genome project will be followed by the epigenome project, which is working to unravel the significance of DNA methylation in the control of the specialized gene functions (Holliday, 2006).

DNA methylation has been associated with age-related disease. An intra-individual change in gene-specific DNA methylation over time in a community-based cohort is just beginning to receive research attention (Madrigano, et al., 2012). One study looked at the change in DNA methylation due to aging for nine genes Seven hundred and eighty four men from the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study who were living in metropolitan Boston from 1999 -- 2009 who donated a blood sample for DNA methylation analysis at clinical examinations repeated at approximately 3-5-year intervals. The statistical analyses of these genes suggest that DNA methylation may reflect differential biological aging.

There are numerous examples in psychology and other disciplines of the enduring effects of early experience on neural function. Epigenetics has provided evidence that environmental events can directly modify the epigenetic state of the genome. Studies with rodent models suggest that during both early development and in adult life, environmental signals can activate intracellular pathways that directly remodel the "epigenome," leading to changes in gene expression and neural function (Zhang & Meaney, 2010). These studies define a biological basis for the interplay between environmental signals and the genome in the regulation of individual differences in behavior, cognition, and physiology. Therefore, the next generation of work in personality development will likely merge the nature and nurture aspects into one field that will explain how the environment can work through a mechanistic process to select genes in response to external phenomenon. Therefore, such research stands the potential to end the nature and nurture debate with the solution that it was both all along.

Works Cited

Holliday, R. (2006). Epigenetics: A Historical Overview. Epigenetics, 76-80.

Hurley, D. (2013). Trait vs. Fate. Discover, 48-55.

Kan, K., Wicherts, J., Dolan, C., & Maas, v. d. (2013). On the Nature and Nurture of Intelligence and Specific Cognitive Abilities: The More Heritable, the More Culture Dependent. Psychological Science, 2420-2428.

Lampi, E., & Norblom, K. (2012). Nature and nurture: the relation between number of siblings and earnings. Applied Economic Letters, 759-762.

Madrigano, J., Baccarelli, A., Mittleman, M., Sparrow, D., Vokonas, L., Tarantini, L., & Schwartz, J. (2012). Aging and epigenetics: Longitudinal changes in gene-specific DNA methylation. Epigenetics, 63-70.

Stoltz, K. (2012). Murder on the development express: who killed nature/nurture? Biology and Philosophy, 919-929.

Zhang, T., & Meaney, M.… READ MORE

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