Which term best captures the influence of environment and experience on development?

• A. Environment
• B. Heredity
• C. Nurture
• D. Genome

Answer: (C)

Nurture is the term that captures how environment and experience shape development. It focuses on the ways upbringing, education, culture, social interactions, and life experiences influence how people grow, learn, and behave. While biology provides genetic potential, nurture explains how external factors and learning experiences mold that potential into actual traits and abilities.

Environment and heredity are related but refer to different sources of influence. Heredity means genetic inheritance, the biological traits passed from parents to offspring, while genome refers to all the genes an individual carries. Those terms describe genetic factors, not the experiential shaping that nurture emphasizes.