Task 1
M1) Historically, some philosophers and theorists have argued that we are born to be the way we are. However, other theorists have argued that it is the way we are brought up and influenced by our surroundings that make us who we are. This argument is known as the nature v nurture debate and has been going on for many years as to this day, it is still not resolved. Nurture refers to the social, economic and environmental influences while nature refers to the genetic and biological influences. The way we look can be argued to be mainly due to nature as the genes we inherit from our parents provide a basis of how we look. An example of this could be when people say, “Don't you look like your mum/dad!”. Genetic inheritance can determine our eye colour, natural hair colour, whether we have straight or curly hair and how tall we are. Also, we can inherit certain diseases that can have a serious impact on our health. However, as we get older, we can make our own decisions on how we look and change our appearance. In today's society, it is proven to be popular that people change their hair colour, get tattoos and piercings. Also, there are many cosmetic procedures available to change our appearance. For example, eating junk food and not exercising regularly can lead to obesity. The environment we are brought up in and the experiences we have influence our health which contributes to our physical development. An example of how nature-nurture affect our physical development is; we may carry genes that increase our risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but if we eat a healthy diet and get sufficient exercise, we may not develop the disease. Also, the genes we inherit can affect our health. For example, a daughter is more likely to have breast cancer if her mother has had it. However, our life choices and the environment we live in can increase our chances.
Genes provide instructions for structuring amino acids which