December 2015 archive

3 things I’m most proud of in Spanish this unit

Three things I am proud of improving in Spanish 2015:

  1. I have improved a lot on freely writing emails and stopped relying on translators. Making lists of new vocal, transitions and expressions before starting to write has helped me do so. Getting in this habit has also helped me use and then remember the new vocabulary in more detail.
  2. My studying habits have improved from last year. I have managed to add all the new vocab to quizlet and study it multiple times a week. Memorizing all of the new and still studying the oldvocabulary has helped me write more varied and interesting texts.
  3. I was already quite good at this last year but I am proud that I managed to continue being organized and completing my homework. I have always managed to hand my homework in on time and bringing my folder, papers, booklet and note book to class.

Nature vs. Nurture

The nature vs. nurture debate is something that has been going on for years now. The nature side supports that our DNA determines who we are and the ways we behave. The nurture side apposes to this and states that it all depends on the ways we are brought up and what we learn during our lives. Many of the studies done to support either side of this debate has been done on identical twins. The reason for this is that they have identical genes meaning that scientists can make analysis ignoring the possibility of differences in the DNA. There are many arguments that support both sides and people say that its pretty much 50-50 and that there is no really winner in this debate. Here are some of the arguments.

One way in which nature has a significant impact on who we are is that the environment we grow up in can change parts of our genes. A study done by students at the University of Manchester supports this. They took a group of mouse pups and cross fostered them. They divided to group of pups into two groups. One was nursed by their birthmother and the second group was given to a mother none of them were related to.

The students then checked the genomes of each of the pups and found ten gene loci that had been affected by cross-fostering. Of these ten identified loci, four showed imprinting by cross-fostering interactions. These “epigenetic effects of genomic imprinting” mainly occurred in pups nursed by foster mothers. This suggests that the young can have changes in their genomic imprinting through environmentally influences. (McLeod)

However on the opposing side of this there is the statement that nature has a greater influence on who we are than nurture does. There was a study preformed by students of the Edinburgh University to support this side of the debate. These researchers studied a total of 800 pairs of identical and non-identical twins to see if their genetics of the environment they are up in had a greater influence on their intelligence and behavioral attributes.

They then asked the twins a series of questions. Through applying their answers to a phycological scale, researchers could identify and compare personality traits for each twin. By doing this the researchers found that identical twins were twice as likely as non-identical twins to share the same personality traits, suggesting that their DNA was having the greater impact. (Collins)

Looking at and comparing these two opposing sides I believe the nature side of the nature vs. nurture debate has stronger evidence and support. DNA is something that we are all born with that effects us through out our entire life. The experiences we have do influence parts of who we are but our DNA is still present.

The reason I think that the studies done on mice pups is not as trustworthy as the study done on human twins is because we are not certain which percentage of the mice had identical genes to start with.

On the other hand I can see why it can be kind of scary to think that a lot of our life was already determined by our genes before we were born. However it is something we have got to learn to live with.


Collins, Nick. “It’s Nature, Not Nurture: Personality Lies in Genes, Twins Study Shows.” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 16 May 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.

McLeod, Saul. “Nature Nurture in Psychology.” Debates in Psychology. Simply Psychology, 2007. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

”The Nature-nurture Debate.” Philosophy of Nature., 01 Dec. 2009. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.