The discourse about nature and nurture concerning mental illness often involves factors that influence the mental development of a person. Nature (the genetic or biological composition of an individual) and nurture (environmental factors) are viewed on how they interact to influence mental development, but about one against another. Individuals can inherit certain mental traits and characteristics from their parents, particularly predisposition to specific mental conditions.
Individuals may have predisposing genetic factors for mental illness. However, outcomes may depend specifically on what takes place in an individual’s lifetime. For instance, a study conducted in the US showed that differences in genes helped to protect adults who were abused as children from developing depression. This study had helped to demonstrate how nature and nurture interacted to cause mental conditions. In another study in Britain, researchers established that pregnant women who experienced significant emotional challenges during their early months of pregnancy gave birth to children with higher risks of developing mental illness, schizophrenia in particular.
As shown by many studies, mental illness, specifical schizophrenia is linked to genetic factors within a family. Schizophrenia is a serious mental condition characterized by delusions and confusion. If a single member of the family has schizophrenia, then there are higher chances that children or other future members of the family will develop the condition. One must however recognize that an individual may be predisposed to schizophrenia, but that does not imply that the person will ever develop the condition. Other psychological disorders such as severe cases of depression may also be genetically passed to future generations.
Environmental factors, as demonstrated, present various opportunities to individuals with predisposed conditions both physically and psychologically. However, individuals’ reactions differ significantly. Some people may succumb to environmental influences, others may be extremely resilient and some people may even develop strengths because of effective coping mechanisms with adversity or stress. It may be noticed that individual variations merely show differences in risks of conditions.
Environments have significant influences on genes. This happens through gene expression and not gene sequencing. These effects may extend to brain activities and thus mental development. For instance, a study established that mothers who experienced a loss of a family member during the first trimester were most likely to give birth to children with increased risks for schizophrenia. Stress resulted from the environment, but it was later found to influence the brain development of an unborn child.
Genes, as now known, have critical influences on mental conditions and so is the environment. While some gene disorders also exist, schizophrenia is a classical case for explaining the role of nature and nurture on mental disorders. In schizophrenia, for instance, genetic risk is nearly 80 percent. This implies that an absence of such a disorder in a family shows that any family member is unlikely to develop the disorder.
For mental disorders, it is no longer an issue of nature against nurture in attempts to understand their influences, but it is how nature and nurture interact to develop mental illnesses. As a result, many researchers have agreed that nature and nurture play critical roles in influencing individuals, including their mental developments and disorders. Traits are therefore passed from parents to children, but the environment also has a role to play. Mental conditions may therefore be explored from both nurture and nature perspectives and how they interact rather than from isolated perspectives.