Which of the following statements best explains the interaction between…
2025
Which of the following statements best explains the interaction between heredity and environment in human development?
- A.
Heredity sets the potential, and environment influences its realisation.
- B.
Heredity has a greater influence than environment in all cases.
- C.
Environment determines heredity during prenatal stages.
- D.
Environment determines physical structure; heredity determines behaviour.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Development is shaped by both heredity and environment acting together, not by either factor alone. Heredity refers to the genetic material an individual inherits at conception; it fixes a range of potential for physical, cognitive, and behavioural traits. Environment refers to every external influence during and after development — nutrition, stimulation, learning opportunities, family, and culture — that acts on this inherited potential and decides how much of it is actually expressed.
Applying this to human development generally: an individual's inherited genetic makeup sets the upper and lower bounds of what is possible for a trait, while the surrounding environment determines where, within that range, the individual actually ends up. This joint, mutually dependent relationship — heredity setting potential and environment shaping its realisation — is what the interactionist (nature-and-nurture) view of development describes.
Heredity has a greater influence than environment in all cases treats one factor as universally dominant, rather than describing the joint, context-dependent relationship in which both factors act together in every case.
Environment determines heredity during prenatal stages reverses the relationship: heredity is fixed at conception by inherited genetic material, and prenatal environmental conditions can affect how that inheritance develops or is expressed but do not determine the inherited genes themselves.
Environment determines physical structure; heredity determines behaviour assigns entire developmental domains exclusively to one factor, when both physical and behavioural development are each shaped jointly by heredity and environment.
Because it captures this joint, potential-and-realisation relationship rather than treating one factor as absolute, universal, reversed, or domain-exclusive, the statement that heredity sets potential and environment influences its realisation is the description that fits the interactionist view of development.