Nature Vs. Nurture

Get Started. It's Free
or sign up with your email address
Nature Vs. Nurture by Mind Map: Nature Vs. Nurture

1. Nature

1.1. Height

1.1.1. Height can be exceedingly based on one's genetics. If you have tall patents, you are also likely to be tall, and if you have short parents, you are most likely to be short. Likewise, if you have a tall father and a short mother, you may end somewhere in the middle. Even those who have 2 tall parents sometimes end up being short because, for example, short men tend to run on the mother's side. The best examples of this can be seen across races, with Asians being the shortest race and Africans being the tallest all because of their genetics

1.2. Fertility

1.2.1. How fertile you are can be determined, in large part, by your genes. One example of this is that women who are twins are more likely to have twins because of a certain genetic mutation that causes them to release multiple eggs during their menstruation cycles. On the flip side, infertility can also be an inherited trait. One example of this is that people who are inbred have a harder time conceiving because inbreeding manifests negative, recessive traits such as infertility.

1.3. Cardiovascular Disease

1.3.1. Most of the afflictions classified as cardiovascular diseases are said to be hereditary. This is likely because if someone is born with a weak heart, it will probably be passed down to their offspring since the advent of being born with weak heart in the first place means that it was something genetic that caused it (babies typically don't have their hearts deteriorate due to conditions in the womb). And people with weak hearts or already existing genetic heart conditions, such as heart murmurs, are more likely to have their symptoms progress as they age and their body goes through its maturation cycles. One example of this is congenital heart disease, which is extremely popular and genetic.

1.4. Aggression

1.4.1. Aggression is something that is deeply rooted in us biologically. Stimulate certain areas of the brain (amygdala) and you can cause someone to go blind with rage. Pretty much whatever ecosystem you go and visit on earth, you can find at least some traces of aggressive behavior. This is because aggressive behavior now and then (or maybe a little more) was actually beneficial as a survival mechanism in defending or resources. Hate also triggers the reward center of the brain, causing people to want to do it more. What's more, aggression has actually been found to be linked to testosterone levels, and the more testosterone one naturally has, the more aggressive they tend to be. It has also been found that children of criminals are more likely to commit crime as well.

1.5. Schizophrenia

1.5.1. One of the ways that someone can get schizophrenia is by having low dopamine levels, which is a biological factor. It is also been found that there are many genes/gene combinations that can cause someone to be more likely to develop the disorder as well as having a schizophrenic parent. The differing types of schizophrenia have also been found to be hereditary, such as hearing voices running in one family and seeing things that aren't there running in another. In another example, people who had the gene for schizophrenia had a much less likely chance of actually developing it if another specific gene was present at the same time.

2. Nurture

2.1. Height

2.1.1. Someone's height can often be determined by their level of childhood nutrition. For those who are malnourished, they can end up having stunted growth and being shorter, while those with ample nutrition will grow to be taller with better posture as well due to bones that can better handle the stresses of the body and one's everyday life. Ex. Between identical twins, one raised in South Korea and one raised in North Korea, the South Koreans tended to be ~4 inches taller on average

2.2. Fertility

2.2.1. Nurture can be a driving force behind whether or a woman gets pregnant. There are many ways in which nurture can affect this, with one being physical harm to the person that affects their ability to conceive. Another way that nurture can affect this is through stress. If a woman is stressed, it puts strain on her body and not only makes it harder to conceive in the first place, but also makes it significantly harder for the baby to survive in the womb, and high-stress situations can lead to miscarriages.

2.3. Cardiovascular Disease

2.3.1. So many heath problems are caused by our environments, and Cardiovascular Disease does not escape the list. One of the classic ways that people get cardiovascular disease is by smoking. All of that inhalation of dangerous and toxic chemicals is horrible for the body and causes some pretty nasty build-up of substances like tar in the lungs and similar substances in the bloodstream. Another environmental factor that can lead to cardiovascular disease is pollution. Once those harmful substances (ex. coal) get burned and released into the air, one has little choice but to breath them in and have their body slowly destroyed form the inside out. A real life example of this was when a perfectly healthy man moved to a polluted city in the 1900s. It was actually because he exercised so often that he ended up breathing the pollutants in heavily and died one day from a heart attack as a side effect, even though he had no family history of heart attacks and he was only in his 40s.

2.4. Aggression

2.4.1. One's levels of aggression can often be linked to their environment. People more exposed to violence and crime as children are more likely to become desensitized to it and practice it into adulthood, as can be seen in such wars where children are abducted and converted into soldiers (Sudan). And if we look at the past, especially feudal times, we can see how extremely violent people were back then, and how much more docile we are today. Changes like this don't happen genetically to entire populations over the course of a couple generations. We are changed today because our environment is, and it allows for more peaceful methods of problem solving. Aggression also has roots in frustration and stress, which can be caused and/or enhanced by our environments and the situations we are in.

2.5. Schizophrenia

2.5.1. Our environments can be huge factors when it comes to mental illnesses. With schizophrenia, specifically, environmental factors may even be the cause of over half of all cases, since only 5.8% of people who were supposedly at a great risk for developing the disorder did so when in a healthy family setting. It can also be found that between identical twins, there is a 50% chance of developing it, highlighting the significance of the environment. As our environment grows increasingly stressful, schizophrenia, the type of disorder triggered by extreme stress and nervous breakdowns, can find itself more prevalent, like how it is more common in the urban environment than the rural one.

3. APA Citations

3.1. Kathiresan, S., & Srivastava, D. (2012, March 16). Genetics of Human Cardiovascular Disease. Retrieved February 01, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3319439/

3.2. McCawley, S. (2002, January 07). The Nature of Aggression (or is it Nurture?). Retrieved February 01, 2017, from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro01/web2/Mccawley.html

3.3. The British Journal of Psychiatry. (2004). Schizophrenia Causes and Prevention. Retrieved February 01, 2017, from http://www.schizophrenia.com/familyenv1.htm#