Nature Vs Nurture Research Paper

1681 Words4 Pages

On average, the american household contains 2.4 kids, who are all unique in the way they are raised. But does this mean that some kids will develop a disorder from the way they were nurtured? Today researchers are having the debate on whether disorders like bipolar disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, and autism spectrum disorders originate from genes or their early childhood environment. This topic is also one of the most common arguments among the psychology department with nature versus nurture. The debate is whether much of an individual is related to inborn tendencies and genetic factors, or environmental and learning factors. Personalities, mental illnesses, and pure intelligence are a few of the most common areas when …show more content…

Various animal studies have been performed to test this, In animal research many selective experiments have been performed. Selective experiments include humans purposefully selecting specific phenotypic traits to be developed. In one study, lab rats were bred within their own small population with certain males that seemingly had less anxiety and stress than other mice in the population. This caused the newborns to maintain this open field behavior where they are noticeably more calm and anxiety levels in the new mice are at a much lower rate than the scatter brained others. Behavioral geneticists are able to control and evaluate different functions of the model organisms including physiological, molecular, and behavioral outcomes due to the new genetic changes. Techniques like floxing and gene knockout provide alterations, insertions, or deletions of various genes. Floxing is when a DNA sequence is actively squished between different loxP sites which continually carry out deletions and insertions where the DNA specifies. When a gene is floxed, it is knocked out, or inverted through Cre-lox recombination. Floxed genes are essential to studies of behavioral genetics because they allow space for genes to freely be expressed, meaning that they can be actively seen through the naked eye, or a microscope. Creation of a visual change provides proof of a successful genetic variation in behavior of the model

More about Nature Vs Nurture Research Paper

Open Document