Discuss The Nature Nurture Debate In Relation To Individual Development?

Actually it's not really nature versus nurture any more. What we call nature has to do with how our genetic makeup influences our development. And nurture refers to how the environment shapes our development. It is becoming ever clearer that these two influences shape each other. So we may have a genetic predisposition to some characteristic or disease, but how the environment affects us at critical points in our development can change how those genes are expressed. There are some genetic conditions that will be expressed no matter what the environmental context is, but many genetically based characteristics can be modified or prevented depending on how the environment affects the individual. The environment begins even before conception, because what kind of condition the parents are in can affect how the fetus develops.

The relationship between nature (genetic influences) and nurture (environmental influences) is not either/or.  Both processes shape how a person develops from before birth into adulthood. There is an ongoing interaction between our genes and experiences we have. Some genes have an overwhelming impact on us (such as eye color), while others are triggered to be expressed or not by environmental influences. Some environmental effects are very strong, such as lack of good nutrition or early childhood trauma, which can prevent some genes from functioning normally. For example, we may have the genes for being tall, but if we don't get basic nutrition during childhood, we may not grow to our full potential height.