Discuss with reference to both sides of the nature / nurture debate.

The enduring debate about the relative importance of nature and nurture in the development of intelligence has by no means lessened in intensity today and is one debate that has had, and still has, far reaching political and social implications.

French Psychologist Alfred Binet (1857 - 1911), commissioned by the French government to devise a method to identify children in France who needed special education, believed that intelligence `was a result of learning and experience' (nurture)1. Sir Francis Galton (1822 - 1911) a eugenicist from the opposite spectrum believed intelligence was innate (nature) and no improved social and educational opportunities would change a person's basic intelligence2.

The most important and influential research in the nature and nurture debate is kinship studies. Kinship is a study where researchers look at family resemblance. The three main types of kinship studies are family studies...