FREE ESSAY ON INTELLIGENCE: HEREDITARY OR ACQUIRED?

INTELLIGENCE: HEREDITARY OR ACQUIRED?

Intelligence: hereditary or acquired?
Is intelligence determined primary by heredity or by the environment? This issue has
aroused intense debates because many believe it has a little bit of both, but to what
extent? The ones that believe that believe that every person is born with a fixed amount
of intelligence argue that there is little one can do to improve intelligence, so special
education programs should not be expected to produce an increase in the children's IQ. On
the other side, those who see intelligence determined mostly by environmental factors see
early intervention programs as crucial in the development of a child's IQ.
To many, intelligence is defined as the general mental capability to reason, solve
problems, think, learn and understand new material, and benefit from past experiences. We
usually refer to someone's intelligence as being bright, smart, dumb, stupid, clever or
slow. All of this describes intelligence, but are these characteristics acquired by
environmental factors or they are born this way.
Today most scientists agree that intelligence is a combination of both genetic and
environmental factors. The child's intellect may be due to the parent's gene or the
environment where he or she has developed. The genetic influence constitutes around 40 to
80% of the intelligence and the environmental influence is around 20 to 60% of the
intelligence. Those who believe that intelligence is hereditary, especially scientists
have made many studies to prove their positions. They define the heredity of intelligence
as that part of the IQ scores that is linked to the genetic factors.
Scientists have conducted hundreds of studies to determined if intelligence is all
hereditary. One of the most specific studies that prove this theory is that of identical
and fraternal twins. They have found that the IQ's of identical twins that are raised
together are very similar to each other. This finding suggests a genetic influence in
intelligence. On the other hand, fraternal twins IQ are more similar to each other than
those of ordinary siblings. This finding suggests that the environment affects
intelligence. Another important study is that of adopted children's intelligence. The IQ
of these children has a small relationship with the IQ of their adoptive parents. In
general, the IQ's of the adopted children are more similar to those of their biological
parents than to their adoptive parents. Both of these findings suggest the importance of
hereditary factors of the intelligence.
Contrary to the studies that prove that heredity has a great influence on intelligence
many experts believe that improved environments can increase a persons intelligence.
Although it is known that environmental factors can be a great influence in intelligence
it is not understood exactly how. Scientist have identifies a few specific environmental
factors that may affect positively or negatively one's intelligence. For example:
schooling economic level in society (poverty), family size, birth order, and prenatal
care among others. All of these environmental factors have a great influence on
intelligence proving that the environment does play an important part in the intelligence
development. 
There are numerous studies that prove that both genes and the environment affect directly
or indirectly a child's intelligence. In my opinion everything in life is affected by
heredity and especially environmental factors that we face each day. Is intelligence is
almost 40 to 80% hereditary then there is no doubt that it plays an important role. The
other part is definitely affected by the environmental factors that surround you. No one
is born without intelligence; there is just diversity in their capacities. It is up to
every person to develop this potential to the most, always knowing that you can benefit
from positive environmental factors. So agreeing with most scientists, intelligence is a
mixture of nature vs. nurture.