Nature Versus Nurture

Paper Summary:

This paper explores some of the aspects of this nature versus nurture controversy, with reference to Francisco Ayala's Population and Evolutionary Genetics: A Primer. The author argues as Ayala suggests in his discussion on the complex interplay between genotype and phenotype as evidenced in twin studies, that environment, and in particular the aspect of environment usually referred to as culture, are more important in determining human behavior and personality than are genetics. This paper acknowledges the ways in which genetics affects human behavior while still arguing that environment and culture are far more important than genetics in determining behavior.

From the Paper:

"Behavior is one of the most complex and interesting of human characteristics and like many other characteristics, such as height or weight, behavior has come to be understood to reflect a combination of influences, some genetic, others environmental. While it had for many years been assumed that behavior was essentially all learned, in recent years advances in a number of techniques have allowed researchers new and provocative glimpses into the genetic basis of human behavior."

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