Genealogy expert kimberly powell is a professional genealogist, genealogy blogger and proud mother of three children. She is a course coordinator and instructor at the salt lake institute of genealogy, and an instructor at the institute of genealogy and historical research at samford university in birmingham, alabama. She is also the proud winner of the silver tray for excellence in genealogical publishing. Awarded by the utah genealogical society in january 2013 for her work on about.com. Did you learn these from your parents or was it predetermined by your genes? while it 39 s clear that physical characteristics are hereditary, the genetic waters get a bit more murky when it comes to an individual 39 s behavior, intelligence, and personality. We do not yet know how much of what we are is determined by our dna and how much by our life experience. It has been reported that the use of the terms 34 nature 34 and 34 nurture 34 as a convenient catch phrase for the roles of heredity and environment in human development can be traced back to 13th century france.

Some scientists think that people behave as they do according to genetic predispositions or even 34 animal instincts. Other scientists believe that people think and behave in certain ways because they are taught to do so. Fast growing understanding of the human genome has made it clear that both sides of the debate have merit.

Nature endows us with inborn abilities and traits nurture takes these genetic tendencies and molds them as we learn and mature. The 34 nature vs nurture 34 debate still rages on, as scientist fight over how much of who we are is shaped by genes and how much by the environment. Continue reading below scientists have known for years that traits such as eye color and hair color are determined by specific genes encoded in each human cell. The nature theory takes things a step further to say that more abstract traits such as intelligence, personality, aggression, and sexual orientation are also encoded in an individual 39 s dna. Many fear that genetic arguments might be used to excuse criminal acts or justify divorce. The most debated issue pertaining to the nature theory is the existence of a 34 gay gene , 34 pointing to a genetic component to sexual orientation. An april, 1998 article in life magazine, 34 were you born that way 34 by george howe colt, claimed that 34 new studies show it 39 s mostly in your genes.

34 if genetics didn 39 t play a part, then fraternal twins, reared under the same conditions, would be alike, regardless of differences in their genes. But, while studies show they do more closely resemble each other than do non twin brothers and sisters, they also show these same striking similarities when reared apart as in similar studies done with identical twins. attachment theory in the late 1950s, psychologist harry harlow studied the effects of maternal deprivation on the development of baby monkeys. Using a wire artificial mother and a cloth artificial mother, both of which offered nourishment to the monkeys, harlow found that the monkeys drew more comfort from the cloth model. He hypothesized that the monkeys needed the warmth and comfort that the cloth appeared to offer. This hypothesis was confirmed by putting the monkeys in a new environment with the wire and cloth mothers. The monkeys felt safe and secure enough to explore the strange environment when the cloth mother was present but not in the wire mother 39 s presence.

Harlow also deprived monkeys of contact with any kind of mother for the first eight months of their lives. He found that these monkeys could not later form attachments to any mother figure. What do these findings say about nature versus nurture? how do these studies indicate the close relationship between genetic makeup and upbringing? write several paragraphs to explain your ideas.

stranger in the nest: do parents really shape their child 39 s personality, intelligence, or character? david b. Parents have always felt great responsibility for the kind of adults their children become. This book attempts to sort which characteristics in children are the result of parenting and which are influenced by genes, or if a combination of both genes and environment influence development. While some of this material is challenging to the reader, lots of examples, research results, and case studies make the text more accessible.

For many years, twins have been the subjects of research to determine how much of a personality is controlled by genes. Using insights from many research studies, the author explains not only our genetic influences but also how studies have been manipulated by others to promote any number of false results, both in the past and present. After a decade of hype surrounding the human genome project, punctuated at regular intervals by gaudy headlines proclaiming the discovery of genes for killer diseases and complex traits, this unexpected result led some journalists to a stunning conclusion. The seesaw struggle between our genes nature and the environment nurture had swung sharply in favor of nurture.

The news that shocked the world: we have only about twice as many genes as your average fruit fly. Enlarge photo credit: wgbh educational foundation we simply do not have enough genes for this idea of biological determinism to be right, asserted craig venter, president of celera genomics, one of the two teams that cracked the human genome last february. Indeed, venter has wasted little time in playing down the importance of the genes he has catalogued. He cites the example of colon cancer, which is often associated with a defective colon cancer gene. Even though some patients carry this mutated gene in every cell, the cancer only occurs in the colon because it is triggered by toxins secreted by bacteria in the gut. Strong support for this viewpoint appeared last year in the new england journal of medicine.

Researchers in scandinavia studying 45,0 pairs of twins concluded that cancer is largely caused by environmental rather than inherited factors, a surprising conclusion after a decade of headlines touting the discovery of the breast cancer gene, the colon cancer gene, and many more. Everyone carries between five and 50 genetic glitches that might predispose that person to a serious physical or mental illness. But can the role of heredity really be dismissed so easily? in fact, the meager tally of human genes is not the affront to our species' self esteem as it first appears. More genes will undoubtedly come to light over the next year or two as researchers stitch together the final pieces of the human genome. More importantly, human genes give rise to many related proteins, each potentially capable of performing a different function in our bodies. A conservative estimate is that 30,0 human genes produce ten times as many proteins in the human body, and figuring out what these proteins do will be a challenge for a century or more.

This is just halftime for genetics, says eric lander, a leading member of the public genome project, alluding to decades of work ahead to unravel the function of all the proteins in the body. Notwithstanding the valuable discovery of brca1, the breast cancer gene, researchers insist the causes of cancer lie more with nurture than with nature. Enlarge photo credit: wgbh educational foundation the key to ultimately defining the respective roles of genes and environment lies with snips mdash genespeak for the sites littered throughout our dna that frequently vary between unrelated people. About three million differences exist in the genomes of any two unrelated people, but of these only about 10,0 or so are likely to have any functional consequences. Scientists have already linked some of these specific dna variations with increased risk of common diseases and conditions, including cancer, asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and alzheimer's. Identifying these flaws will enable doctors to predict individual disease risks, recommend suitable lifestyle regimens, and prescribe the safest and most effective drugs. Fingering the flaws in their patients' genetic code will enable doctors of the near future to better prepare those individuals with high risk for certain diseases.

Enlarge photo credit: wgbh educational foundation but divining dna variations to uncover health risks will increasingly threaten our ability to land and hold jobs, secure insurance, and keep our personal genetic profiles private. We're all ultimately unemployable and uninsurable, warns new york representative louise slaughter, co author of a new genetic privacy bill in congress, even the president of a health insurance company! without laws prohibiting genetic discrimination, she says, society may soon begin penalizing people with bad genes. Even though 22 states have passed genetic privacy laws, slaughter believes the confidentiality of your genetic code should not depend on your zip code. Francis collins, director of the public genome project, says we don't get to pick our genes, so our genes shouldn't be used against us.

No one has identified or even claimed to have identified a gay gene, and the first few genes associated with other personality traits appear to have only a minor effect. However, with the full genome sequence now accessible over the internet, scientists hope to pin down many more genes that code for various aspects of human behavior. Ever since the early days of genome sequencing, scientists have searched for elusive genetic clues to human behavior. Enlarge photo credit: wgbh educational foundation yet is it realistic to believe that single genes can have a major impact on behavior? much attention is currently focused on the genes that code for proteins involved in the transmission of electrical signals in the brain. If drugs such as the antidepressant prozac work by altering the activity of neurotransmitters brain chemicals that convey messages between nerve cells , it is plausible that inherited variations in the proteins that produce those chemicals could exert a dramatic effect on an individual's mood and temperament.

But even the most diehard geneticists acknowledge that the environment plays a major role in shaping our behavior, temperament, and intelligence. The technology to detect and possibly select genes for future generations is rapidly improving. With so much attention on explaining behavior in terms either of nature or nurture, scientists at the university of california, san francisco recently described a fascinating example of how heredity and environment can interact. Perfect pitch is the ability to recognize the absolute pitch of a musical tone without any reference note. People with perfect pitch often have relatives with the same gift, and recent studies show that perfect pitch is a highly inherited trait, quite possibly the result of a single gene. But the studies also demonstrate a requirement for early musical training before age six in order to manifest perfect pitch.