Nature v/s Nurture debate on intelligence Introduction: The ability to measure intelligence has been through IQ tests and such. These tests can tell us the base intelligence of a person through various mechanisms and quizzes which provides a good understanding of how smart a person is. Intelligence is variable, but a consensus has been reached, regarding connections between behaviour and context. However, one, still quite a disputable and notorious aspect of intelligence is its cause. This brings us to the war of nature versus nurture. Nature refers to the innate intelligence one acquires through genes and nurture refers to the intelligence that is learnt through the environment by methods of trial and error or otherwise. This debate has been ongoing since the 1800s with no evident end in sight. Various psychologists have tried to present their views on it trying to tip the scales towards either nature or nurture. We will examine two research articles and attempt to formulate a learned opinion on this debate. Old article: An interesting article to accurately understand the concept of ‘Intelligence’ and what we mean by it is ‘Intelligence and the Logic of the Nature-Nurture Issue’ by John White. John (1974) explained that an intelligent person must be judged by an intelligent act and that an intelligent act must be judged by connections between several actions and their correlations. He also propounded that empirical research could not settle the nature-nurture debate. He quite frequently quotes and brings forth Francis Galton, the one who coined the term nature-nurture and was the pioneer of its research. In his article, ‘The History of Twins, as a criterion of the relative powers of nature and nurture’, Galton (1875) makes history by conducting research on twins to get a direct estimate of heritability. Heritability is the effect that differences in genes have on differences in IQ scores. Since twins have identical genes, heritability can be calculated by measuring the difference in IQ scores in twins instead of the differences in IQ scores of individuals picked randomly. Galton (1875) concluded that nature had a higher effect on IQ scores than nurture or the environment. However, Joseph McVicker Hunt argues that while genes may place an upper limit on intelligence, they do not guarantee its ability to reach that potential, therefore not fixing a level of intelligence and leaving room for the environment. This debate on the cause of intelligence has also been dragged into several political debates. A prominent one is the scandal of the gap in the scores between black Americans and white Americans. Concluding that the differences were due to an innate polarity, public funding of social programmes designed to educationally compensate minority groups was eliminated. The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues spoke out against this in 1969 saying that the exact contribution of heredity to intelligence could only be measured when the social conditions were equal for social groups were equal and had been so for several generations. With newer research being put forth, this dichotomy of the nature-nurture debate would soon see an end. New article: The debate over whether "nature" or "nurture" determines how we turn out is a longstanding one. It is an old saw which says that: parents believe that nurture is the most essential factor when their first baby is born. But when their second baby is born, they tend to believe in nature. The confirmation of this adage is given by how people answered in a survey in, “Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality", cited by David. J. Linden. In his book, Linden, a neuroscientist at John Hopkins University sets out to look at everything that makes us distinctly ourselves: our height and weight, food preferences, personality styles, gender identity, racial identity, sexual orientation and intelligence. Robin Marantz Henig has written an article on the topic titled, ‘Beyond Nature vs. Nurture, What Makes Us Ourselves? referencing Linden’s book. But Henig (2020) questions whether these qualities are carried in our genes or the roles of the life we live, every experience, the books we read, etc. make us who we are. He says that in ordinary English nurture means how your parents raise you, he writes. But, of course, that’s only one small part of the nonhereditary determination of traits. Henig (2020) prefers using the word "experience" in which a broad range of factors, beginning in the womb and carrying through every memory, every meal, every scent, every romantic encounter, and every illness from before birth to the moment of death; is encompassed. Filtered through the inherent randomness of development, our individuality emerges through heredity interacting with experience. Henig (2020), in his article, sheds light upon this. Linden's (2019) "Unique", includes findings from decades, the worth of twin studies. These twin studies gave scientists some of their first insights into understanding how much behaviour and personality might be inherited and how much acquired. Henig (2020) marches into the territory where many other scientists fear to tread: race, sexual orientation, and the genetics of gender identity. Linden acknowledges certain genetic differences among some populations but also emphasizes that they don’t necessarily align with the social binaries of male/female, black/white, etc. Thus, this article highlights the importance of going beyond the dichotomy of nature vs nurture and finding out what actually makes us "ourselves". Insights: The article compelled us to research the nature-nurture dilemma and intelligence indepth. This caused both, a strong knowledge of the subject and a diverse understanding through multiple perspectives. Intelligence is a very relative term considering that a horse is smarter in the field of donkeys. We had never thought of what makes humans intelligent and how it affects us, or whether it can be changed. We are sure that learning in this way will make us think more insightfully, trying to understand humans on a deeper level. These articles gave us an in-depth and extensive understanding of the actual meaning of the two terms. Both Nature and Nurture are two sides of the same coin, and their interdependency formulates our intelligence. Through this research, we understood how behavioural genetics has enabled psychology to quantify the relative contribution of Nature and Nurture with regard to specific psychological traits. Through the research of these articles, we eventually discarded our extreme naturist or nurturist views and developed our interest in researching how nature and nurture interact in a host of different ways. This debate of nature vs nurture is concerned with the relative contribution that both influences make to human behaviour, such as cognitive traits, personality, temperament and psychopathology. The way in which racism was incorporated into the dilemma is also very important. It showed us the side of humanity that uses creative inventions for the destruction of society, and scientific progress that sets us back in terms of humanity. This phrase "nature vs nurture" coined by the Victorian polymath Francis Galton, is now perceived differently by different people. It is now beyond the concept that the environment is what makes us who we are. The balance between Nature and Nature is extremely essential. Opinions: After analysing various perspectives and conclusions and experiments, it can surely be said that intelligence does not have one particular cause. Intelligence, just as any other human phenomenon is a complex peculiarity. We believe that whatever the cause of intelligence may be, it is not one particular measurable cause and nor can it be manipulated through environment or genes. We also believe that great care should be taken so that scientific progress is never used negatively. In our opinion, the framed debate between nature vs nature has always been based upon the dominance of one over the other. But acknowledging that both nature and nurture play a role in psychological development and interact in complex ways, is extremely crucial. We do agree that nature is more influential than nurture (according to the traditional notion), but after researching and gaining an indepth understanding of our topic, we have learnt that going beyond this debate is the need of the hour. This is because understanding the role of both nature and nurture in the development of a human being helps one study intelligence and personality better. Learnings: 271: Writing a research article has taught us quite a bit about research, articulation and complexly understanding a concept or dilemma in depth. One of the first difficulties we faced was finding articles and extracting content from them without confusing ourselves or the reader. This made us properly comprehend the topic in such a manner that it could be simplified yet retain its intricacy. Intelligence and its relation to nature and nurture is not a topic that can be easily digested, but because of the method by which we studied it, the subject unfolded quite well. We also learnt the APA format which as Arts students will be highly helpful for us in our studies. 272: As a result of our research, we clearly understood that intelligence is influenced not solely by genetic factors, but also by environmental factors, i.e. by both Nature and Nurture. Genetic factors have been identified as the influential forces of nature that shape intelligence, whereas environmental factors influence intelligence through exposure or rather nature. We learnt how nurture or environmental factors differentiate between children's cognitive development and how nature or genetic factors are influential forces that shape intelligence. Research and thorough reading taught us the importance of looking at things from different perspectives. We learnt that every perspective is important, as it helps one to analyse and understand things better. Understanding the interdependency between nature and nurture thus made us realise that balance between the two is crucial. Conclusion: To conclude, one must first accept that such a debate can never truly end. Secondly, we find through careful examination of several articles both new and old, that this dispute has carried on for years and will for many more to come. We must understand the interdependency that both nature and nurture hold over human intelligence to truly comprehend the human mind, rather than quarrelling over its causes. The fact of the matter is that intelligence is caused neither by nature nor nurture singularly, but by a complex union of both and perhaps more. And this fact is not a compromise but a result of intense research on intelligence. References: John White. (1974). Intelligence and the logic of the nature-nurture issue. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121301/1/White_ch1intelligence.pdf Francis Galton, F.R.S. (1875). The history of twins, as a criterion or the relative powers of nature and nurture. https://galton.org/essays/1870-1879/galton-1875-history-twins.pdf Grace Rubin-Rabson. (1974). Nature—Nurture and the Intelligence Issue. https://www.jstor.org/stable/274607?searchText=nature+nurture+and+intelligence&searchUr i=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dnature%2Bnurture%2Band%2Bintelligence &ab_segments=0%2FSYC-6744_basic_search%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastlydefault%3A57230d89958b48df9783d7f4a5340eef&seq=4 Mairi Levitt. (2013). Perception of nature, nurture and behaviour. https://lsspjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2195-7819-9-13 Sara A. Hart. (2021). Nurture might be nature: cautionary tales and proposed solutions. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-020-00079-z Claire Haworth. (2014). Why nurture is just as important as nature for understanding genetics. https://theconversation.com/why-nurture-is-just-as-important-as-nature-forunderstanding-genetics-30231 Robin Marantz Henig. (2020). Beyond Nature vs. Nurture, What Makes Us Ourselves? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/books/review/unique-david-j-linden.html
