ABSTRACT
Discussions of the varying factors affecting human attainment can be traced back at least as far as the days of Plato. However, Francis Galton’s first use of the phrase “nature and nurture” to describe the sources of individual differences in 1874 marked an important milestone in modern conceptualizations of this debate. Since then, arguments over the role of environmental influences versus innate characteristics have become more heated and taken on important social and political implications (see Herrnstein & Murray, 1994; Pinker, 2002). Over the past 150 years, these issues have come to dominate scientific (as well as non-scientific) discussions.
