Sunday, April 8, 2012
The Arguement - The Greatness Gap
Shenk states that people with "gifted talents" make the "average Joe's" feel that "these extraordinary performers cannot possibly belong to the same species as you or me" (57). In 1785 Christian Friedrich Schubart claimed that "Poets and musicians are born" (58). While in 1862 composer Peter Lichtenthal said "Musical genius is that inborn, inexplicable gift of Nature" (58). The definition of "genius" has not been changed since the late 18th century, but the "endowments" of gifts have (58). Explain how the view of "gifts" have changed over the centuries. Use specific examples and use the G+E model and the GxE model in your answer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Prior to the discovery of genetic material inheritable from one generation to the next, also known as DNA, the cause of great performers was largely a mystery, “inexplicable gifts of nature” (58) as Lichntenthal called them. This paradigm was very unstable, however, and discoveries such as Nietzsche’s revelation of Beethoven’s sketchbooks, which showed a painstaking, laborious process of testing and experimenting with music rather than the previously conceived notion of simple, pure genius, challenged the status quo. Nietzsche further elaborated on his findings, saying that what distinguished a good artists from mediocre ones was not inspiration, or the volume of good ideas thought of, but rather a keen judgment for evaluating and isolating good ideas from bad ones (58). However it was not until the 20th century that scientists, Watson and Crick, would produce irrefutable evidence to further explain the phenomenon of talent. With the discovery of DNA, “in the twentieth century, the presumed source of a person’s natural endowment shifted from God-given to gene-given, but the basic notion of giftedness remained substantially the same. Exceptional abilities were things bestowed upon a very lucky person”(58).
ReplyDeleteIn 1957, William Walter Greulich conducted an experiment comparing the height of Japanes children raised in the United States to Japanese children raised in Japan. The results showed that Japanese children raised, with better nourishment and medical care, in the U.S grew an astonishing 5 inches taller on average than their counterparts raised in Japan (26). This conclusion, along with those from other experiments, began the initial moment of a movement away from the pure genetic theory and toward the G+E theory. Under the newly conceived G+ E theory, environmental factors were included in combination with genetics to dictate the outcome of a trait.
However, soon after Greulich’s experiment, Rod Cooper and John Zubek conducted an experiment on the effect of the environment on rat intelligence in 1958. The thought to be classic experiment ended up producing surprising results with dramatic implications. The scientists started with "Maze-bright" rats that had tested well in mazes for multiple generations and "Maze-dull" rats that had consistently tested poorly for generations with 40% more mistakes. They were raised in three different environments: enriched, normal, and restricted. The expected results were that each rat would get slightly smarter when raised in the enriched environment and slightly dumber when in the restricted environment. However, the results showed that in the extreme environments, the bright and dull rats performed virtually the same (58). What the experiment proved was that the environment had a much larger role in determining trait expression than suggested by the G+E model. Although not recognized at the time, the experiment would demonstrate a classic example of the GxE model, in which both components, environment and genetics, play a crucial role in trait expression.
ReplyDeleteThis new model of GxE is appropriate because it more accurately portrays how Gene Expression actually functions in the human body. The process of Gene Expression begins with a simple gene on a strand of DNA. The gene serves as the blueprint for production for particular proteins, and thus without it said proteins could not be made (Campbell 314). Therefore, it makes sense that if the G in GxE is nonexistent or zero, the end product will be nonexistent or zero as well. Just having a gene be present, however, is not enough. If the gene is not transcribed by RNA polymerase, no mRNA codon copies will be made and ribosomes will not be able to construct proteins using said mRNA in combination with tRNA and amino acids (Campbell 337). Control of the process of gene transcription affects patterns of gene expression and, thereby, allows a cell to adapt to a changing environment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_polymerase). [This regulation is] controlled by attachment of special proteins (transcription factors) to 6 - 10 nucleotide long binding sequences located on the DNA (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070829143603.htm). Therefore the stimulation presented by a changing environment is also a necessary component of the formula and without the right environmental demands certain genes will not be transcribed and turned into protein. So the environment aspect of the GxE equation is just as important to obtaining talent as having the genes.
Bowen Jin (bowenjin2004@yahoo.com)