Q.Match the following: Rearing Practices —
Concept understanding — Nature Versus Nurture
Nature Versus Nurture: The Great Blueprint vs. The Blank Slate
Imagine a seed. Inside that seed is the genetic code for an oak tree — the shape of its leaves, the height it can reach, the colour of its bark. That is nature. Now imagine that same seed planted in poor soil, starved of sunlight, or pruned harshly. It will never become the towering oak it could have been. That is nurture.
The nature versus nurture debate asks a single, powerful question: What makes you who you are — your genes or your environment?
The Intuition: Two Extremes
Think about a child who grows up to be a brilliant pianist. One explanation is that she was born with a natural gift — perfect pitch, nimble fingers, a brain wired for music. That is the nature side: your destiny is written in your DNA.
Another explanation is that she was pushed to practise for hours every day by her parents, had access to a good piano, and grew up in a home where music was valued. That is the nurture side: your environment and experiences shape everything.
The debate is not about which one matters — both clearly do. The real question is: how much of what we are is due to each?
The Precise Statement
In psychology and biology, nature refers to all the hereditary factors that influence who we are — from physical appearance to personality traits, intelligence, and even mental health predispositions. These are passed down through genes from biological parents.
Nurture refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are — upbringing, culture, education, relationships, nutrition, trauma, and even random life experiences.
The modern scientific consensus is that neither nature nor nurture acts alone. Almost every human trait — from height to intelligence to temperament — is the result of a complex interaction between genes and environment. This is called gene-environment interaction.
Why This Matters for Exams
You will often be asked to distinguish between the two, or to evaluate which has a stronger influence on a specific trait. The key is to remember:
- Nature arguments point to twin studies (identical twins raised apart still show striking similarities) and heritability estimates.
- Nurture arguments point to adoption studies (children adopted into enriched environments show improved IQ) and the effects of poverty, trauma, or education.
A common mistake is to treat nature and nurture as a simple either/or. In reality, they are inseparable. Your genes set a range of possibilities (a "reaction range"), and your environment determines where within that range you actually land.
The Bottom Line
Nature gives you the cards you are dealt. Nurture determines how you play them. The debate is no longer about which one wins — it is about understanding how they dance together to create the unique person you are.
(B) 1-III, 2-II, 3-I, 4-IV. [Pg 10, Ch 1]
(B) 1-III, 2-II, 3-I, 4-IV
The correct option is (B) 1-III, 2-II, 3-I, 4-IV.
(B) 1-III, 2-II, 3-I, 4-IV. [Pg 10, Ch 1]
(B) 1-III, 2-II, 3-I, 4-IV
- CBSE 2025Set 63/W4YXZ/41 markMCQQ.Match the following: Rearing Practices —(1) Identical twins reared in different environment;(2) Fraternal twins reared together;(3) Brothers and sisters reared together;(4) Siblings reared apart. Correlation — I. 0.50; II. 0.60; III. 0.72; IV. 0.25.
›Reveal solutionSolution
The correct option is (B) 1-III, 2-II, 3-I, 4-IV.
(B) 1-III, 2-II, 3-I, 4-IV. [Pg 10, Ch 1]
✓Final answer(B) 1-III, 2-II, 3-I, 4-IV
- CBSE 2023Set 63/FGHE/41 markMCQQ.In the following question, a statement of Assertion (A) is followed by a statement of Reason (R). Select the correct choice from (a), (b), (c), (d). Assertion (A): Children from disadvantaged homes, when adopted into families with higher socio-economic status, exhibit a large increase in their intelligence scores. Reason (R): Environmental deprivation lowers intelligence while rich nutrition, good family background and quality of schooling increases intelligence.
›Reveal solutionSolution
Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true, and Reason (R) correctly explains Assertion (A).
Intelligence develops through the joint influence of heredity and environment, which interact with each other rather than acting independently. Heredity sets a range of potential for cognitive development, but where a person's measured intelligence actually falls within that range depends heavily on environmental conditions — nutrition, physical health, emotional and intellectual stimulation at home, the quality of schooling, and the family's general socio-economic circumstances. Children raised in disadvantaged, deprived environments — with poor nutrition, limited cognitive stimulation, and restricted access to books and quality schooling — tend to show lower scores on intelligence tests than their inherited potential would otherwise allow, because the environment fails to adequately nurture cognitive growth.
When such children are adopted into families with a higher socio-economic status, they typically gain access to better nutrition, a more intellectually stimulating home environment, and better-quality schooling. Adoption research on intelligence has consistently found that this kind of environmental improvement is followed by a marked rise in the children's measured intelligence scores compared with children who remain in deprived settings — demonstrating that environment is not a minor influence but a substantial determinant of how intelligence is actually expressed and measured. This is exactly the mechanism Reason (R) describes: environmental deprivation lowers intelligence, while good nutrition, a supportive family background, and quality schooling raise it. Because this environmental mechanism is precisely why adopted children's scores improve, R correctly explains A.
✓Final answerBoth Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true, and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A) — enriched environments (better nutrition, family background, and schooling) raise intelligence scores, which is why children adopted from disadvantaged homes into higher-SES families show a large increase in their scores.
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