There has been a long debate and much research into the Nature vs. Nurture theories. Being that do we inherit traits from our biological parents or does the environments in which we are raised contribute to how we turn out as adults. Sometimes it seems that that there is no black or white answer to the age-old question of what contributes to human behavior, personality, and psychopathology. There are common traits within biological parents that children can pick up but it seems that in some cases, children can be adaptive to their environment. So we shall examine this curiosity that takes us into finding out whether we are genetically inherit to some of the biological traits of our parents or if living in certain environments develop our social well being. There have been studies into schizophrenia and the genetic traits that may be passed on to the children. The study was conducted to observe children who had biological parents who suffered from schizophrenia and their adoptive parents showed no signs of the illness. The study was also conducted on children from biological parents who showed no signs of schizophrenia adopted by a parent who later showed signs or family history of the illness. The research showed that although there is no definitive answer for what causes schizophrenia, children whose biological parents that suffered from schizophrenia had a higher recidivism rate for contracting the disease. “This study also showed that the adoptees whose biological parents suffered from schizophrenia had a higher likelihood of schizophrenia or other related disorders when the adoptive families were low functioning.” (Haimowitz 2005). So it seems with certain types of mental illness, nature wins in this argument. Researchers did a study in Sweden from 1953 to 1993 on whether drug abuse was more common in children raised in a high risk environment, an environment of where the parents used drugs, or whether their biological parents used drugs. The study was done over the several years and the basis concluded that children raised in a home with a parent who had or developed a drug problem, 8.6% were likely to develop a drug problem on their own later in life. As opposed to the children of biological parents who developed a drug problem was 4.5%. “The authors state that their findings indicate that although genetic factors were a huge part of whether or not a child is more likely to develop a drug problem, the main factors are whether or not the child was raised in a high-risk environment or not. Basically, a child raised in a household which was not stable, ect., would play a big part in the chances of the child having a drug problem later in life.” (Kendler 2012). In reviewing a multitude of twin, adoption, and family studies broaching a large variety of topics, it is clear to see that the foundation for each human being is diverse in structure. For some cases, genetics seem to dominate; in some other cases, environment explains all. In still more situations, it is a strong combination of the two factors that mold people to be who they are. This is a strong indicator that there will never be an umbrella response to the question and that personality and psychopathology may always have to be rationalized on a case-by-case basis.

REFERNCES:
Haimowitz, A. G. (2005). Heredity versus environment: Twin, adoption, and family studies . Informally published manuscript, Rochester Institute of Technology, Retrieved from http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/haimowitz.html

Kearney, C. (2012, March 07). Drug abuse in adopted children - nature vs. nurture. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/242619.php