Twin Research

10 Pages 2474 Words

The dubious history of the heredity environment controversy can be
easily traced as far back as the start of the present century with at least some
historical evidence placing the roots of this dispute in the time of John Locke.
This controversy has continued despite continual reiteration that the critical
question is not how much of a trait is due to heredity and how much is due to
environment, but rather how environment transact to influence development.” (
Wachs , 1983, p. 386).
This paper will focus on the nature/nurture controversy and the extent
to which an individuals intellectual level is determined either by inborn
intelligence or by environmental factors.
The relative powers of nature and nurture have been actively pursed by
psychologists and biologists striving to determine how heredity and environment
influence the development of intelligence.
Before we can go on to discuss the relationships between intelligence
and the controversy that exists between the different schools of thought
regarding inherited or environmental issues we must have an understanding of
what intelligence really is.
Of all the words used in pressed day psychology, intelligence is one of
the most difficult to define and is also one of the most controversial. There
is however, a general agreement that intelligence refers to the overall
faculties of the mind which concern themselves with the sorting of information
in the brain after it has been received by the senses, the perceiving of
relationships between this new data and information which is already in memory,
and the capacity to make rapid and appropriate decisions as a result of the
previous processes.
The intellectual faculties of the brain are dynamic and interactive and
relate to the capacity of the central nervous system to respond speedily and
appropriately in a rapidly changing and potentially threatening environment.
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