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Nature vs. Nurture: The Invasion of the Mass Media
By Martha Ellis, Ph.D.
Collin County Community College
Plano, TX
- This update is provided courtesy of APA's Community College Working Group.
The beginning of the fall 1997 semester has been a hay day for anyone teaching the introductory psychology course and/or a developmental psychology course. The mass media has provided diverse information in both print and television regarding the nature vs. nurture controversy. Beginning with John Stossel's program on happiness, the issue of genetics and environment was brought to the attention of the public by focusing on a specific emotion that most students are seeking to attain. In this program, Stossel showed various research techniques and interviewed Richard Davidson regarding his MRI studies, David Myers regarding his happiness research, and Thomas Bouchard, Jr. regarding his twin studies.
At the same time, the New York Academy of Sciences devoted the September/October issue of The Sciences to the promise and peril of cloning. In this issue, Thomas Bouchard, Jr. interprets his twin studies. The article, Whenever the Twain Shall Meet, includes the history and methodology of the studies at the University of Minnesota. Bouchard summarizes, on average, personality traits of identical twins have a 50 percent correlation, while fraternal twins have a 25 percent correlation, and non-twin siblings an 11 percent correlation (p.54). He reports that EEGs (usually as distinct as fingerprints) of identical twins are about as similar as two EEGs of the same person plotted at different times (p.54). Bouchard explains that almost three quarters of a person's 100,000 genes, are identical in all humans with the remaining one quarter defining the individual. He goes on to discuss the study of intelligence as it relates to genetics including much of the information that most psychology teachers share with their students. The strength of this article rests in Bouchard's discussion on the weaknesses of his research and the application of the research. With respect to the weakness, Bouchard states "for all their striking findings, twin studies do not explain how genes influence personality, intelligence, or social attitudes" (p. 56). He purports that genes make a personality more likely to respond to its environment in certain ways. Most psychological variability is probably shaped by experiences, however, those experiences are largely self-selected and that selection is guided by the pressure of the genome (p. 56). Bouchard gives examples of applying this viewpoint to both education and to the cloning issue. As he articulates, the twin studies underscore their subjects' individuality because despite having identical genomes and even being raised together, identical twins still respond differently to many of the items on his questionnaires. Bouchard concludes by saying the twin studies refute both biological and environmental determinism. His results, he believes, account for the uniqueness of the individual and "remind us that we are an integral part of a complex biological world" (p. 57).
Lastly, the October issue of Discover hit the newsstands about two weeks later with a special issue on genetics. Robert Sapolsky's article, A gene for nothing, provides an excellent overview of genetics and the nature-nurture issue. As Sapolsky informally states: "You've got nature-neurons, brain chemicals...And then there's nurture, all those environmental breezes...Again and again, behavior biologists insist that you can't talk meaningfully about nature or nurture, only about their interaction" (p. 42). By explaining genes, DNA, neurotransmitters, and chromosomes, Robert delineates why there is more to behavior than just genes. Examples about anxiety and depression are given with the interaction between environment and genetic tendencies clearly discussed. He concludes "genes modulate how one responds to the environment" (p. 46). The writing style and humor throughout the article provides readability for students in high school and college.
With this influx of information from the mass media, what's a psychology teacher to do!?!? Have a wonderful time. By showing the first 15 minutes of the Stossel program on happiness, students see and hear about current research in a variety of settings. The article by Bouchard is a wonderful read because the author writes in first person which provides a personable, interview feeling for students. The Bouchard and Sapolsky articles are short and easily understandable for high school and freshmen college students. Although these are not journal articles, they have a depth not usually contained in the popular press.
This fall I combined all three of the above. On this first day of class we did the usual "agree or disagree" opinion statements regarding several nature/nurture questions. The next class period I showed the first part of the Stossel program, we discussed research methodology, and I handed out the Bouchard article. Students wrote a reaction paper to the article discussing (1) what they learned, (2) their opinion of the research processes including weaknesses and biases, and (3) any questions they had that the article did not answer. The next class period they broke into small groups and discussed their reactions. During the next week we discussed genetics and the chapter on the brain and I gave them the article from Discover. This time they were to write a reaction paper discussing the nature/nurture issue based upon what they had learned thus far in the course. The process took about ten minutes in each class session. The response I received from the students included an increased depth of understanding on genetics, nature/nurture issue, and research methodology. Also, the relevance of the topic was illuminated because it was in the mass media, not just in their textbook. They found the information fascinating and continue to apply what they learned as we approach new topics in the course.
References
Bouchard, T.J., Jr. (1997). Whenever the twain shall meet. The Sciences, 37, 5, 52-57.
Sapolsky, R. (1997). A gene for nothing. Discover, 18, 10, 40-46.
Stossel, J. (September, 1997). The mystery of happiness, ABC News.
The above article was originally published in the Nov/Dec 1997 issue of The Psychology Teacher Network. The article is reprinted here with the permission of the Education Directorate of the APA. Further publication of the article is not permitted without the express written consent of the Education Directorate.
For information on subscribing to The Psychology Teacher Network, write to:
- Psychology Teacher Network
Education Directorate
APA
750 First Street, NE,
Washington, DC 20002-4242.
