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Old 11-25-2002, 03:37 PM   #21
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"The actual assignment is to 'evaluate the evidence that the human behavior you choose to investigate is or is not under genetic control, and the extent to which both environment and genetics contributes. You needn't argue for genetic determinism, simply offer both sides of the issue and reach your own conclusion'."
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The whole premise of the assignment presumes too much and seems like an assignment more suited to the 1960's. We now know that nature and nurture are simply too deeply intertwined for one to make percentage claims about how much of a behavior is genetic and how much is environmental. Many behavioral traits are coded genetically, but without the environmental trigger during critical phases, they will not develop. If they do get triggered, the genetic code takes a turn and restructures the organ in an entirely different way than it would have. DNA codes for different structures based on environmental input.
A person may have the gene for schizophrenia, a disease that produces tissue that is markedly different from normal brain tissue, but this difference is produced by the gene in response to triggers in the environment. Hence, not every person who has the gene for schizophrenia will develop the disease.
The ability for cats to see horizontal lines must be developed in a critical period. If kittens are kept in dark rooms during this period, they will never be able to successfully jump onto tables, stairs, or computer keyboards. Nature and nurture are a vibrant dynamic system and the question of what behavioral trait is determined to what degree by genetics and what degree by environment oversimplifies the matter and always leads to asking the wrong questions based on the wrong assumptions.
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