4-2 Research and Discussion Paper: Nature vs. Nurture

Nature vs Nurture
Name
Affiliation/Institution
Date
Nature vs Nurture
Musical Talent
The debate of nature vs. nurture has been ongoing for a long time but until today, the two ideologically opposite parties have never found common ground. Researchers have in the past and recently clashed over whether musical talent is influenced more by nature or nurture. Howe, Davidson, and Sloboda (1998) conducted research on innate talents and concluded that there is “no evidence of innate attributes operating in the predictable and specific manner.” However, not all people agree with the above researchers because other studies have been done and confirm that the inverse is indeed true. According to Hambrick and Tucker-Drob (2015), nature and nurture work in tandem with each other but evidence suggests that nature has more influence on one’s musical talent than nurture.
Malcolm Gladwell’s advice that practice always makes perfect took the psychology world by storm and many researchers weighed in on the matter. Mosing, Madison, Pederson, Halkola, and Ullen (2014) argued against the above notion and said that without the right genes, the many hours that o...