Depression: Nature v Nurture

"The debate whether it’s nature or nurture that dictates your life has raged since the time of Darwin. But the latest DNA testing and our understanding of genetic action, is sending us into a new era.

Jonica Newby steps into the future by taking a DNA test not yet available to the public. The test will reveal whether she has the double gene for depression. If she does, science says she will be prone to severe depression during stressful times.

The story captures the moment when the news is delivered and discusses the implications of knowing your genetic destiny.

The link between genes and behaviour is being closely studied in Dunedin, New Zealand. Similar attempts over the last 20 years have failed – but this team did something unusual. They cross-referenced the genes with the person’s background – with extraordinary results.

Their first discovery has been hailed as a gene for violence. We explain how it works – people who have one version of the MAOA gene are not readily able to damp down their stress response in the brain. But it’s only a problem if they have a stressful childhood – most people with the wrong gene/environment combination have ended up in jail for violent crime.

And now, the same team has found a gene for depression. It involves a different neurotransmitter – in this case using the serotonin system – but the same applies; combine a certain gene with stressful life events, and these people are far more likely to develop depression.

The debate between nature and nurture may soon be declared a tie.

Combine the two and it seems you may have a powerful predictor of human behaviour. The discovery will change society forever from our legal system, to healthcare and insurance and even perhaps what it means to be human".

Click the link under the headline Nature Nurture to launch a 10 min ABC documentary on nature v nurture in aggression and depression.

The Nature-Nurture Debate

Altruism

The term altruism was coined by the 19th century sociologist Auguste Comte and is derived from the Latin “alteri” or "the others”. It describes an unselfish attention to the needs of others. Comte declared that man had a moral duty to “serve humanity, whose we are entirely.” The idea of altruism is central to the main religions: Jesus declared “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” and Mohammed said “none of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself”. Buddhism too advocates “seeking for others the happiness one desires for oneself.”

Philosophers, Psychologists, and Evolutionary Biologists have all tried to explain altruistic human behaviour. For evolutionary psychologists altruism is a major problem: why are we so nice to each other? Darwin argued, in the words of Tennyson, that the natural world was 'red in tooth and claw': all that mattered was survival and reproduction. If this is true how can evolutionary psychologists explain why people help others who are not biologically related? This is at the heart of the nature-nurture debate.

The link below will take you to 'In Our Time' a radio four programme that discusses the concept of altruism from a range of different perspectives. It is useful for the unit 3 topic: aggression. It is also very useful for the nature-nurture debate.

In Our Time: Altruism