Today, developmental psychologists seldom adopt either position on most areas of development; instead, they study the ties between genetic and environmental effects. Many human developmental researchers believe that biological and social (cultural, socio-environmental, and socio-economic) variables all play an important role in human development (Boyce et al. 23235). People acquire certain genetic features from their parents, such as eye color, height, and personality traits, when they are born. Besides fundamental genotype, however, there is a complex interplay between human genes and the environment: individual experiences in the surroundings impact whether and how certain traits are exhibited, while genes affect how humans connect with the environment (Boyce et al. 23236). Nature and nurture both form human beings, thus there is a reciprocal connection.
Heritability is a term in biology that defines how much of a trait’s variance in a population is attributable to genetic variations in that population. Personal development, especially for highly heritable characteristics like eye color, is influenced by a variety of environmental factors, including the presence of other genes in the body, as well as temperature and oxygen levels throughout development. According to Boyce et al., gene expression may be influenced by environmental factors, a phenomenon known as gene-environment interaction (23235). Genes and the environment interact to generate characteristics by exchanging information. Therefore, it is evident that both biological/genetic factors and social factors influence human development; however, their importance in shaping human race is relative to the contributions of each factor (Boyce et al. 23236). Hence, biological/genetic factor is the most important factor compared to culture based on its contributions to human development as it is quite evident that genetics form the basis of almost everything regarding human development.
Work Cited
Boyce, Thomas W., et al. “Genes and environments, development and time.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117, no. 38, 2020, pp.23235-23241, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016710117.