Assignment Instructions/ Description
Nature vs Nurture section in Module 3
While watching the Winter Olympics this year, you may have pondered whether top athletes are born with incredible endurance and speed or whether such skills can be developed through years of intense training. According to sports psychologist Jim Afremow, raw talent isn't everything.
In the book, The Champion's Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive (Rodale Books, 2014), Afremow argues that getting an edge over the competition can boil down to mental preparation.
In the book, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance (Current Hardcover, 2013), Sports Illustrated writer David Epstein combs through the scientific literature to explain the complexities of the nature versus nurture debate. "Even at the most basic level, it's always a hardware and software story," he writes. But for some, no amount of dedicated training will do the trick.
According to Malcolm Gladwell, however, we often underestimate people because "we have a definition in our heads of what an advantage is -- and the definition isn't right." In David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (Little, Brown, 2013), Gladwell proposes that traits that seem valuable may not always work in our favor, and vice versa. – Excerpts from a Book Review - Stern, V. (2014). NATURE VS. NURTURE. Scientific American Mind, 25(4), 73.
After reading the information above and the textbook information, what is your thinking about the nature vs nurture debate?How would you apply nature vs nurture concepts to the argument of whether talent is it innate or cultivated?Link to module 3https://www.oercommons.org/courses/lifespan-development-2/view
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