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ROSEMARY JONES

07480199

PYB012 | PSYCHOLOGY
Assignment 1

Essay

What is more Important? Nature or Nurture

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Intelligence levels have been found to have an extensive impact on the life outcome of

individuals; childhood intelligence levels predict personality structure in adult,

employment, social status at midlife, and have a stronger impact on education and

Socio economic status [SES] (Rindermann & Neubauer, 2004; Anderson, 2001,

Fagan & Holland, 2007, & Von Stumm et al., 2010; Von Stumm et al., 2009). But is

intelligence purely a reflection of the social and cultural values of an elitist society as

some scientists claim (Anderson 2001)? While Intelligence Quotient [IQ] tests have

been used as one form of measurement of intelligence, there have been well

documented flaws in IQ testings across culture (Anderson, 2001). Is there an

existence of a thing called intelligence in itself, as a stable, measurable and

biologically based dimension of human individuality (Anderson 2001)?

An increased understanding of intelligence has major implications for our

understanding of humanity (Bouchard & McGue, 2003; Anderson 2001).

It is important in the study of intelligence, then, to formulate an accurate definition of

intelligence which is measurable across humanity (Fagan & Holland, 2007).

This essay will investigate current research in defining intelligence, in order to

explore the importance of nature and nurture, through independent and interacting

factors on the determination of intelligence. In particular, the hypothesis will be

explored that genetic inheritance has a dominant effect over environmental factors in

the determination of intelligence.

One description of intelligence is that of a biopsychological potential, influenced by

experience, cultural and motivational factors, as the ability to solve problems and

fashion products that are culturally valued (Visser, Ashton & Vernon, 2006). General

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intelligence, or g, has been researched extensively as a definition of intelligence in the

past years, and has been widely accepted to be valid, and replicable using diverse

forms of testing (Anderson (2001; Brouchard & McGue, 2003). The concept of

general intelligence was first proposed by Spearman, in 1927, but more recently

Jensen has developed this in line with current research, which strongly suggests that

general intelligence influencing results in most forms of cognitive testing (Anderson,

2001; Visser et al., 2006; Haworth et al., 2009). G is not limited by the knowledge

content of mental test items or skills, and is not fundamentally a psychological or

behavioural variable, but has been proven to be a biological variable (Anderson, 2001;

Brouchard & McGue, 2003). The concept of general intelligence has also been found

to have clear developmental changes paralleling cognitive maturation, which results

in increased speed of information processing and the acquisition of independent

modules, together these factors have been labelled as the basis for overall intelligence

(Anderson 2001).

This essay will use the concept of General intelligence as a basis for investigation,

and for the purpose of clarity, despite its appropriate use in relation to the inheritance

through socialisation, heritability will refer to genetic inheritance for the remainder of

this essay (Rutter et al., 2006).

While the theory of intelligence as a social construct has been contradicted by Alfred

Binet’s results, other theories around intelligence are still supported by groups of

authors in this field (Anderson, 2001). One such theory is that because the IQ score

contains multiple determinants, there is a possibility instead of one overall

intelligence, of multiple and separate intelligences, one author testing seven

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supposedly independent intelligences (Fagan & Holland, 2007; Visser et al., 2006).

Fagan & Holland (2007) disagree with this, stating that the concept of g rules this

theory out, while others say that multiple intelligences are entirely compatible with

theories of general intelligences- they are simply many within the one (Brouchard &

McGue, 2003) . Intelligence also has well documented developmental progression,

and one theory of developmental intelligence ascribes the increase of intelligence with

age to an increase in capacity, another attributes this to an increased resistance of

interference from irrelevant stimuli, improving efficiency and speed of processing

(Anderson, 2001).

While a comprehensive table of the sources of psychological variance is included in

the appendix, the major contributions to the variance in intelligence between

individuals are; Variance contributed by genetic differences, variance contributed by

between family differences in shared environment and variance contributed by within-

family differences in non-shared environment (Anderson 2001). Another formula

created to outline the influences making up intelligence is as follows: Vp=Vg+

Vc+Ve, when Variance in quantitative phenotype is Vp, additive function of genetic

effects is Vg, shared environmental effects are Vc and non-shared environmental

effects are Ve (Bouchard & McGue, 2003).

The term shared environmental variance includes all experiences common to the

studied members that operate to make them similar, including the neighbourhood and

Socio Economic Status [SES] if subjects are familial and raised together, or

developmental process in the womb if reared separately (Johnson, Segal & Bouchard

Jr., 2008). Non shared environmental influential factors include experiences the

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studied members do not share, such as injuries and illness, different school

experiences and leisure activities (Johnson et al., 2008).Other well documented

influences of the environment on intelligence include nutrition, educational access,

and general health (Johnson, Segal & Bouchard Jr., 2008; Theodore et al., 2009).

The impact of genes or the environment on intelligence can either be continuous or

periodical, and the forms of gene and environment interplay in the aetiology of mental

characteristics are not totally separate and have multiple forms of interaction through

genes on environment and environment on gene expression (Haworth et al., 2009;

Fagan & Holland. 2007). This means that there is a third factor in the balance between

environmental influences and genetic influences, as genetic makeup influences the

personality and choices of the child and parent, resulting in the environment being

shaped to some extent by the genetic factor (Rutter, Moffitt & Caspi, 2006; Plomin

1995; Bouchard & McGue, 2003; Johnson et al., 2008). Furthermore, environmental

circumstances affect gene expression (Plomin 1995; Rutter, Moffitt & Caspi, 2006).

Detection of these genetic influences requires environmental measures, genetic

controls and dependent measures for accurate study, such as twin and adoptions

studies (Bouchard & McGue, 2003). While studies conducted on twins take some of

these variables out, with the control of 100% of shared genes within Monozygotic

[MZ] twins, some findings of discordance appear even within MZ twin pairs- due

either to random chance or different experiences affecting gene expression (Anderson,

2001; Johnson et al., 2008; (Rutter et al., 2006). A criticism in twin studies is that

because of genetic similarity, their similar appearance will invoke similar responses

from the people in their separate environments, but the absence of any data linking

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physical appearance and intelligence counters this (Anderson 2001). In conclusion,

although being labelled either as completely worthless or the perfect study, the

adoption control of separated siblings and the use of twins in these studies still remain

the best way of resolving the separate contributions of genetic and environmental

factors (Bouchard & McGue, 2003).

First used in 1869, by Francis Galto to investigate the balance of genetics and

environment on behaviour, dozens of family, twin and adoption studies have been

documented to find without exception that g has substantial genetic heritability

(Haworth et al., 2009). While no specific genes for cognitive ability have been

isolated, the genetic heritability of general intelligence and IQ has been consistently

found to be around 50% [with 95% CI of .41-.60], and shared environmental factors

account for 17%-28% of IQ variance (Haworth et al., 2009; Bartels et al., 2002;

Bouchard & McGue, 2003). Wainwright (et al., 2005), found a heritability of 70% on

Queensland Corse Skills tests results causing a conclusion that the variation in QCST

performance is primarily due to genetic influences. There is a developmental aspect in

the genetic and environmental balance of influence, with genetic influence accounting

for 41% of intelligence in childhood, continuing to increase from 4 yrs old onwards,

to become 66% in young adulthood, whereas shared environment has the opposite

progression, rapidly declining from 33% to 16% as the child ages (Haworth et al.,

2009; Bouchard & McGue, 2003; Bartels et al., 2002).

Despite this clear dominance by genetic inheritance over determination of

intelligence, environmental impact is still significant, with adoptions studies finding

that low- SES African- American children adopted into the upper class achieved a

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higher IQ in their new culture than their peers in their old SES class (Fagan &

Holland, 2007).

The limitations listed by those studying the nature and nurture contributions to

intelligence were varied, for example in adoption studies, time in adoptive home,

number of pre adoptive placements and quality of pre adoptive placements all

significantly affect outcomes of intelligence later in life and are often unknown

(Anderson, 2001; Fagan & Holland, 2007). Plomin (1995) and Bouchard & McGue

(2003), claim that further research is needed in areas including use of other measures

of the environment, generalisation to other populations, gender differences and

increased study into developmental differences.

Despite these limitations, and the need for further research, the evidence points

consistently and conclusively to the fact that once the balance of nature and nurture

are separated and independently studied, genetic inheritance is the most important of

the factors in determining the outcome of general intelligence. Environmental factors,

however, have a consistent and still significant part to play in the development of the

human intelligence. One finding in particular is that genetic research can tell the

researcher almost as much about nurture as it can about nature, due to the heavy

interaction of one on the other and vice versa (Plomin, 1995). Concluding,

intelligence has a well documented existence, which impacts heavily on the life

outcomes of the individual, and the aetiology of intelligence, while primarily genetic,

is significantly also environmental.

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References

Anderson, M. (2001). Annotation: Concepts of intelligence. Journal of Child

Psychiatry, 42(3), 287-298

Bouchard, T. J. Jr., & McGue, M. (2003). Genetic and environmental influences on

human psychological differences. Journal of Neurobiology, 54, 4-45

Bartels, M., Rietveld, M. J. H., Van Baal, G. C. M., & Boomsma, D. I. (2002).
Genetic and environmental influences on the development of intelligence.
Behavior Genetics, 32(4), 237-249

Deary, I. J., Irwing, P., Der, G., & Bates, T. C. (2007). Brother-sister differences in
the g factor in intelligence: Analysis of full, opposite-sex siblings from the
NLSY1979. Intelligence, 35, 451-456

Fagan, J. F., & Holland, C. R. (2007). Racial equality in intelligence: Predictions from
a theory of intelligence as processing. Intelligence, 35, 319-334

Haworth, C. M. A., Wright, M. J., Martin, N. W., Martin, N. G., Boomsma, D. I.,
Bartels, M., Posthuma, D., Davis, O. S. P., Brant, A. M., Corley, R. P., Hewitt,
J. K., Iacono, W. G., McGue, M., Thompson, L. E., Hart, S. A., Petrill, S. A.,
Lubinski, D., & Plomin, R. (2009). A twin study of the genetics of high
cognitive ability selected from 11,000 twin pairs in six studies from four
countries. Behavioural Genetics, 39, 359-370

Johnson, W., Segal, N. L., Bouchard Jr. T. J. (2008). Fluctuating asymmetry and
general intelligence: No genetic or phenotypic association. Intelligence, 36,
279-288

Plomin, R. (1995). Genetics and childrens experiences in the family. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 36(1), 33-68

Rindermann, H., & Neubauer, A. C., (2004). Processing speed, intelligence, creativity
and school performance: Testing of causal hypotheses using structural
equation models. Intelligence, 32, 573-589

Rutter, M., Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (2006). Gene-environment interplay and
psychopathology: Multiple varieties but real effects. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 47(3/4), 226-261

Theodore, R. F., Thompson, J. Waldie, K. E., Wall, C., Becroft, D., Robinson, E.,
Wild, C. J., Clark, P. M., & Mitchell, E. D. (2009). Dietary patterns and
intelligence in early and middle childhood. Intelligence, 37, 506-513

Visser, B. A., Ashton, M. C., & Vernon, P. A. (2006). Beyond g: Putting multiple
intelligences theory to the test. Intelligence, 487-502

Von Stumm, S., Gale, C. R., Batty, G. D., & Deary, I. J. (2009). Childhood
intelligence, locus of control and behaviour disturbance as determinants of

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intergenerational social mobility: British cohort study 1970. Intelligence, 37,

329-340

Von Stumm, S., Macintyre, S., Batty, D. G., Clark, H., & Deary, I. J. (2010).
Intelligence, social class of origin, childhood behaviour disturbance and
education as predictors of status attainment in midlife in men: The Aberdeen
children of the 1950s study. Intelligence, 38, 202-211

Wainwright, M. A., Wright, M. J., Geffen, G. M., Luciano, M., & Martin, N. G.
(2005). The Genetic basis of academic achievement on the Queensland core
skills test and its shared genetic variance with IQ. Behavior Genetics, 35(2),
133-145

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Appendix

Bouchard, T. J. Jr., & McGue, M. (2003). Genetic and environmental influences on

human psychological differences. Journal of Neurobiology, 54, page 6

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