Nature vs. nurture

 

 

Complete gaps 1 to 10 with ONE suitable word.

 

NATURE vs. NURTURE

 

The nature vs. nurture debate is the scientific, cultural, and philosophical debate about 1) __________ human culture, behavior, and personality are caused primarily by nature or nurture. Nature is often defined in this debate as genetic or hormone-based behaviors, 2) __________ nurture is most commonly defined as environment and experience.

The nature vs. nurture debate is an ongoing one. The modern debate often centers around the effect genes have 3) __________ human personalities as opposed to the influences that early environment and development might have. As cultural mores have changed, so have popular understandings of this debate. In the 1960s, for example, psychologists—and pop culture in general—4) __________ heavily influenced by the theories of behaviorism. This theory 5) __________ to the widespread belief that human personality is primarily influenced by experience and training. It was during this time that researcher John Money attempted to demonstrate that gender was a product of early conditioning by 6) __________ a boy, whose circumcision was botched, as a girl. His experiment seemed successful in the beginning, but ultimately was a failure.

In recent years, the nature side of the debate has 7) __________ more attention, with headlines trumpeting newly discovered genes for virtually every behavior. Evolutionary psychology and sociobiology are two 8) __________ of science that attempt to demonstrate the evolutionary roots of human behavior. Books authored by scientists in these fields are 9) __________ popular. However, critics 10) __________ emphasize the important role of early childhood environment, development, and cultural influences, and many have argued that sociobiology and evolutionary psychology are deterministic pseudo-sciences.