The debate on the nature of Human Behavior development dates back to the seventeenth century.With philosophical thinkers such as the John Locke, who believed that at birth the Human mind is tabula rasa, a 'blank slate' that is gradually filled with experience. On the other hand, the French philosopher Rene Descartes, was a seventeenth century nativist who believed that knowledge of the world was largely innate or inborn and that heredity determined certain abilities and capacities. Popular in the eighteenth century was the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who claimed that children should be free to develop as nature dictates. However towards the beginning of the nineteenth century the heredity thesis was more dominant but then again the dominant opinion swung to the environmental perspective by th e middle of the century.
If it is to be believed that Genes play a more significant role in the development of Behavior, then it should be true that a person's IQ should always remain constant. There has been evidence from studies to suggest however that this is not the case. Pollitt and Gorman gave children in developing countries a quantity of high quality nutritional supplements during infancy and early childhood, it was later found that their IQ and vocabulary scores were considerably higher than those of non-supplemented children. Also Heber et al conducted a study call 'The Milwaukee Project'. Heber et al began a programmed with forty poor black families, commencing with the birth of their babies and continuing until their children started school at the age of six. Twenty of the women were given job training and sent to school (the 'experimental group') and twenty were not helped in any way (the 'control group'). When the children were starting school, the 'experimental group' children has an average IQ score of 120.7, while the 'control group' had an average score of just 87.2 By the age of ten these were 194 compared with 86 for the 'control group'. Educationally the experimental group were significant superior also. It was found that in later years, after the program had ended, that both groups decreased in performance. These results contradict the notion of the genetics argument, that as the environment has no influence over IQ, which is inherited genetically, an individuals IQ shall therefore remain constant over time. Rather they suggest that the environment has a significant effect upon cognitive performance and ability, including IQ stages.
With much consideration to research it can now answered that yes, Genes do play a significant role in the d evelopment of Behavior, however is cannot be said that Genes play a more significant role. Research and studies upon Monozygotic and Dizygotic twins has offered significant support to the genetic argument however if Genes do determine the development of Behavior then it would be true that, firstly, an individuals IQ would always remain constant over time and neither increase and decrease however studies previously considered provide evidence to suggest that this is not the case. Secondly, it would also mean that any experience could have no impact or affect upon Behavior, this suggestion has also been widely discredited, as there is much evidence to imply otherwise. Finally, if Genes are the sole determinant of Behavior then any attempts to change Behavior should fail, yet evidence of success rates of environment enrichment programs prove otherwise. It is generally now accepted by psychologists worldwide that Behavior< /a> cannot be determined by either genetic or environmental factors but instead a continuous interaction between the two. As Hebb pointed out in 1949, an egg cannot survive without its environment, take it away and the egg would die but without its genetic base, the egg would not have existed in the first place.
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Author:: Sharon White
Keywords:: Genes, Human, Behavior
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