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The nature vs. nurture debate is the scientific, cultural, and philosophical debate about whether human culture, behavior, and personality are caused primarily by nature or nurture.

Nature is often defined in this debate as genetic or hormone-based behaviors, traits, and dispositions, while nurture is most commonly defined as environment, culture, and experience.

History of the Nature vs. Nurture Debate

The nature vs. nurture debate is an ongoing one. The modern debate often centers around the effect genes have on human disposition as opposed to the influences that early environment and development might have. As culture changes, so have popular understandings of this debate. In the 1960s, for example, psychologists-and pop culture in general-were heavily influenced by the theories of behaviorism. This theory led to the widespread belief that human personality is primarily influenced by experience and training. It was during this time that researcher John Money attempted to demonstrate that gender was a product of early conditioning by raising a boy, whose circumcision was botched, as a girl. His experiment seemed successful in the beginning but ultimately was a failure.

In recent years, the nature side of the debate has gained more attention, with headlines trumpeting newly discovered genes for virtually every behavior. Evolutionary psychology and sociobiology are two branches of science that attempt to demonstrate the evolutionary roots of human behavior. Books authored by scientists in these fields are extremely popular. However, critics still emphasize the important role of early childhood environment, development, and cultural influences. Many have argued that sociobiology and evolutionary psychology are deterministic pseudosciences.

Twin and Identical Twin Studies

Several studies done on twins separated shortly after birth reveal that genetics do play a significant role in the development of certain personality characteristics, sexual orientation, and religiosity. The bond between identical twins was also suggested to be genetic by these studies, as 80% of identical twins reported that they felt closer to their twin than they did to their closest friends, despite having just met their twin.

One study also suggested that genetics play a significant role in the development of personality: Environment had little effect on personality when twins were raised together, though it did have an effect when they were raised apart.

How Nature Affects Mental Health

While nature, or genetics, has been proven to be an important factor in the development of some mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar, and major depression, the development of mental illness is not entirely genetic. Nature, or genetics and disposition, has been proven to be an important factor in the development of some mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar, and major depression. Bipolar, for example, is four to six times more likely to develop when there is a family history of the condition. However, although the importance of genetic factors cannot be denied, the development of mental illness is not entirely genetic. For example, identical twins share their genes, yet if one twin develops schizophrenia, research shows the other twin only has a 50% chance of also developing the condition. This indicates that nature, while it plays an important part, is not the only contributing factor.

Another area where researchers may place more emphasis on nature than on nurture is that of addictions. Research indicates that alcohol addiction, for example, can recur in families and that certain genes may influence how alcohol tastes and the way it affects the body.

How Nurture Affects Mental Health

Certain genetic factors may create a predisposition for a particular illness, but the probability that a person develops that illness depends in part on environment (nurture). When a genetic variant indicates the possibility of developing a mental illness, this information can be used to direct positive (nurturing) behavior in such a way that the condition may not develop or may develop with less severity.

James Fallon, a neuroscientist who discovered that he had the brain of a psychopath, has stated that he believes growing up in a nurturing and loving environment helped him become a successful adult and may have been effective at preventing him from fully developing traits of psychopathy. Similarly, the basis for addiction is not thought to be entirely genetic by most researchers. Environmental aspects, such as the habits of parents, friends, or a partner, might also be significant factors contributing to the development of an addiction. A genetic predisposition to alcohol addiction may be far more significant if one is routinely exposed to binge drinking or other forms of alcohol abuse and comes to view this as normal alcohol use.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool recently found that while a family history of mental health conditions was the second strongest predictor of mental illness, the strongest predictor was in fact life events and experiences, such as childhood bullying, abuse, or other trauma. This supports the idea that nurture plays significant role in the development of mental health issues.

Nature vs. Nurture in Therapy

In the mental health field, some therapeutic treatments and approaches may be nature-based or nurture-based, depending on which paradigm to which they adhere. For example, an extremely nature-based approach might seek to address mental health on a biological or genetic level, while a nurture-based approach could be more likely to address a person's learned beliefs and behaviors. Most approaches borrow from both nature and nurture-based philosophies, and many seek to address the interaction between nature and nurture.

For example, using medication to treat a mental health issue may be a primarily nature-based approach, while behavioral therapy, which stems from behaviorist psychology, addresses a person's upbringing and conditioning and takes a nurture-based point of view. Meanwhile, therapies based in cognitive psychology may be more likely to address the effects of both nature and nurture.

It is possible to find a therapist who takes a more nature or nurture-based approach to treatment. However, many therapists today consider multiple factors, including how the nature and nurture work together, during a session.

How Nature and Nurture Interact

Many scientists eschew the nature vs. nurture debate by emphasizing "nature x nurture." In this schema, nature and nurture are inseparable. Some genes, for example, cannot be activated without certain environmental inputs. The development of vision is a prime example of this. People cannot develop normal sight without exposure to visual stimuli.

Similarly, some environmental inputs may be undermined by some genes. For example, some lifelong smokers may never experience smoking-related illnesses, and this may be due at least in part to their genes. Environmental toxins may alter the expression of some genes, and genes for many behaviors presumed to have a genetic basis have not been discovered.

Developmental systems theory, among other theories, presents an alternative to this debate that does not require scientists to advocate either for nature or nurture.
References:

1. Agin, D. P. (2010). More than genes: What science can tell us about toxic chemicals, development, and the risk to our children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2. Alcoholism Nature vs. Nurture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dualdiagnosis.org/alcohol-addiction/nature-vs-nurture.

3. Facts about Bipolar Disorder. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://adamhscc.org/en-US/facts-bipolar.asp.

4. Iliades, C. (2013, February 7). Mental Illness May Be In Your Genes. Retrieved from http://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/mental-iillness-may-be-in-your-genes-1751.aspx.

5. Lewis, T. (2014, August 11). Twins Separated at Birth Reveal Staggering Influence of Genetics. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/47288-twin-study-importance-of-genetics.html.

6. Ohikuare, J. (2014, January 21). Life as a Nonviolent Psychopath. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/life-as-a-nonviolent-psychopath/282271.

7. Moore, D. S. (2003). The dependent gene: The fallacy of nature vs. nurture. New York, NY: Henry Holt.

8. Putt, G. (2013, October 20). Nurture Over Nature: Mental Illness and Traumatic Life Events. Retrieved from http://www.decodedscience.com/nurture-nature-mental-illness-traumatic-life-events/3836.

Last Updated: 09-28-2018

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Nature vs. Nurture Debate - GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog

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The nature vs. nurture debate is the scientific, cultural, and philosophical debate about whether human culture, behavior, and personality are caused primarily by nature or nurture. Nature is often defined in this debate as genetic or hormone-based behaviors, traits, and dispositions, while nurture is most commonly defined as environment, culture, and experience.

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Genes and the environment influence each other to create unique individuals through complex interactions. Thanks for watching! Leave feedback below!

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Traditional territories of Alaska Native Cultures

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Traditional territories of Alaska Native Cultures

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May of Indigenous Peoples and Languages of Alasdka

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May of Indigenous Peoples and Languages of Alasdka

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Map of American Indians and Alaska Natives

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Map of American Indians and Alaska Natives

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Culture and climate change in the Arctic

It's hard to believe that people have been living in the Arctic for 40,000 years. How can people survive in such a harsh environment and what would motivate them to stay?

Anthropologists who study Arctic cultures have discovered that it's quite a hospitable place for those who figure out how to get by. Hundreds of cultures have occupied the Arctic over time and these communities have adapted to life on the ice. They invented a variety of ways to get around and find the resources they need. Skis, dogsleds, reindeer, kayaks and snowmobiles have helped Arctic people connect with each other and the natural resources.

Natural resources that sustain Arctic life include huge concentrations of marine mammals, including bowhead whales and ringed seals and massive herds of land animals such as caribou. An Arctic mammal offers a full set of essential supplies. From clothing to food to cooking oils, plus bones to make tools or boat frames.

Both people and the wildlife they depend on are intimately connected to Arctic conditions. Small changes in temperature lead to large changes in sea ice. The temperatures spur migrations and adaptations of animals and people. For thousands of years, Arctic people have been adjusting to seasonal fluctuations and longer-term climate changes.

Find out more about how people in the Arctic adapt to changing conditions. Join us on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, for a Smithsonian Science How live webcast. It is titled Culture and Climate Change in the Arctic and airs at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. EST on the Q?rius website. Archaeologist Dr. Bill Fitzhugh from the National Museum of Natural History will appear live to discuss and answer questions. Get teaching resources to support your webcast experience.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

Anthropologists who study Arctic cultures have discovered that it is quite a hospitable place for those who figure out how to get by. But that doesn't answer this question: What motivates them to stay?

Write your answers in the comments section below

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Culture and climate change in the Arctic

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Culture and climate change in the Arctic It's hard to believe that people have been living in the Arctic for 40,000 years. How can people survive in such a harsh environment and what would motivate them to stay? Anthropologists who study Arctic cultures have discovered that it's quite a hospitable place for those who figure out how to get by.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Newsela | Native American Cultures: Alaska

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Voices: In Alaska, climate change is a daily reality

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Voices: In Alaska, climate change is a daily reality

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CLOSE

WALES, Alaska - Standing on the suddenly melted runway that was our link to the outside world, I'm getting a first-hand look at how climate change is affecting life on the edge of America.

The gravel runway at Wales has been frozen hard all winter long - solid ground to land small planes on. But an almost-overnight thaw has turned the hardpacked gravel into a sticky, muddy mess. Until it dries out, the runway is officially off limits. That may take 10 days. Overnight, our link to the outside world had been severed.

Now, while thaws like this happen every year, they usually occur a month later. And while the warmer days are a welcome change from months of frigid temperatures, there's cause for greater concern.

"The weather has changed a lot," says Clyde Oxereok, 57.

Oxereok isn't a climate scientist. He's a ninth-generation resident of the village that looks across the Bering Strait to Russia. A lifelong hunter accustomed to eating walrus and whale and seal, he's finely attuned to the natural world. The things he's telling me are a little scary, when combined with the reporting I've already done across Alaska. Last summer, the state had its second-worst wildfire season in history, and this year's summer is shaping up to be one of the hottest on record.

Ninth-generation Wales, Alaska, native Clyde Oxereok turns to look at World Wildlife Fund worker Elisabeth Kruger during a training session on patrolling for polar bears. (Photo: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY)

This spring, I've come to Wales to see how the Inupiat residents of the mainland United State's westernmost village are adapting to climate change. Experts say places like Wales are among the most susceptible to long-term changes in weather because they're most connected with natural cycles. In the case of Wales, the rise in global temperatures means the sea ice that normally fronts the village for half the year is melting earlier and earlier.

That's got lots of consequences. It means residents of Little Diomede Island, in the Bering Strait, can no longer consistently land small planes on frozen ocean in front of their village. Instead, they now largely depend on a helicopter that can only land in good weather. Last year, the helicopter couldn't land for six weeks, and the entire 110-person island ran out of toilet paper.

The weaker ice is also affecting polar bears, which normally prowl the edges hunting seals. Forced to swim longer distances between ice floes, cubs often drown, and federal scientists are alarmed by the drop in the polar bear populations. Experts say there could be as few as 25,000 of these iconic animals living worldwide, and polar bears today are listed as a "threatened" species in danger of extinction.

To help protect the polar bears, the villagers in Wales are working with the World Wildlife Fund to patrol their community with air horns and noisemakers. They hope to scare the bears away from kids walking to and from school in the long dark winter, instead of simply just killing them from a safe distance. It seems like a small thing, but with so few polar bears left alive, literally every bear matters.

For residents of Wales, the polar bears are an integral part of the natural world - and that natural world is changing around them. Oxereok, a Cold War-era veteran, has only left Alaska twice in his 57 years, once for a high school trip and then again for basic training in Georgia. He's seen plenty of polar bears but many of the animals and insects native to the Lower 48 never make it this far north. Well, they never used to.

But last year, some of his friends in a nearby village said they'd found grasshoppers on the tundra. Grasshoppers. Near the Arctic Circle.

"Sure enough, they showed me a hopper crossing the road," Oxereok told me. "I'd never seen a grasshopper in Alaska."

A polar bear patroller searches for signs of polar bears in the town dump outside Wales, Alaska. Climate change experts say faster-melting sea ice is causing polar bears to move onto land and seek out new food sources, like garbage. (Photo: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY)

For most of us, climate change is an abstract. For many politicians, it's still a hotly debated topic. But here on the westernmost tip of Alaska, climate change has a different definition: Reality.
Hughes is USA TODAY's Denver-based correspondent.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/26Q5CiI

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Voices: In Alaska, climate change is a daily reality

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CLOSE WALES, Alaska - Standing on the suddenly melted runway that was our link to the outside world, I'm getting a first-hand look at how climate change is affecting life on the edge of America. The gravel runway at Wales has been frozen hard all winter long - solid ground to land small planes on.

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Natural Regions and Climate

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

From north to south, the four main natural regions of Alaska are the Arctic Coastal Plain; the Rocky Mountain System; the Interior Plateau, basin of the great Yukon River; and the Pacific Mountain System. The long, narrow region that borders the Pacific includes three very different sections: the southeastern Panhandle, south-central Alaska, and the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands chain.

Natural Resources

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Alaska - Natural Regions and Climate - From north to south, the four main natural regions of Alaska are the Arctic Coastal Plain; the Rocky Mountain System; the Interior Plateau, basin of the great Yukon River; and the Pacific Mountain System.

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Get facts and photos about the 49th state.

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The heartwarming moment Kekoa the giant timber wolf plays with a wildlife worker

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Video from Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center

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Salmon Fishing Wolves of Alaska, Very Rare Footage!  wolf vs grizzly bear

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http://www.nathab.com/photo-tours/alaska-northern-lights/grizzlies-photo-tour/ wolves have learned to fish for salmon by watching coastal brown bears. Filmed and photographed by naturalist guide Brad josephs on Natural Habitat Adventures expeditions. click to see images http://www.alaskabearsandwolves.com/category/wolves-2/ bear vs wolf, grizzly vs wolf, kodiak bears, grizzlies, grizzly, wolves, lobo, oso, orso,

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Wolf - Native American ~ Sacred Spirit ~ Yeha-Noha

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My first wolf video ^^ It was the most popular on my previous account :( Sorry everyone that likes this one but now it is alive again ^^ Documentary: - En Compagnie Des Loups Song: - Yeha-Noha Artist: - Sacred Spirit I DON'T OWN THIS DOCUMENTARY AND THE SONG IT'S JUST A FAN-MADE,EN COMPAGNIE DES LOUPS BELONGS TO BBC AND THE SONG YEHA-NOHA BELONGS TO SACRED SPIRIT #45 - Top Favorited (This Week) - Pets & Animals - Canada

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Arctic Village on the Frontlines of Climate Change

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Arctic Village on the Frontlines of Climate Change

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Arctic Village is one of the most remote Native villages in Alaska; far away from the noise and turmoil of mainstream society, the only large chaos it consistently registers is climate change.
This past summer, Arctic Village saw rapidly shifting weather and its strongest storms.

Gideon James is a Gwich'in Elder in Arctic Village who is seeing shifts in fish migration. "I really think the fish are moving South toward the Yukon. Global warming is here. Scientifically, we can't solve it, but as human beings, we can slow it down by driving less. [Cars cause] carbon dioxide (CO2)." Gideon says a solution to the creation of CO2 is to plant more trees. Trees purify and filter the air. They also "store" carbon dioxide as wood so that CO2 cannot become an available greenhouse gas. Gideon also mentions the heat waves that have characterized recent summers in the United States. The increased heat has created conditions perfect for uncontrollable wildfires. "There is bad weather and every year it's getting worse and worse. Thirty years ago the permafrost was solid underground, so the land was flat. Now there's dents everywhere." Asked what people can do about the increasing climate change, he says we have to first target greed. "If we don't identify greed, we will destroy the earth. The greedy take and take. Get greed under control!"

Sarah James is Gideon's sister and another Elder in Arctic Village. She is said to be the most famous Gwich'in advocate in the world. She speaks of global warming internationally. "All summer, we weren't getting summer weather. This is Juneau weather," she says pointing to the rain clouds outside. Sarah says the constant rain makes the waters muddy upriver. "Too much erosion and permafrost melting is hard on the fish and lots of animals that find food on creeks, like ducks and birds." Sarah's solution is simple: "[The] solution starts in our living room. As soon as you get up to the time you go to sleep, you have to change the way you think and do things." She says we have to accept a new way of life and not think of it as a chore. "It took 500 years to get ourselves into this mess, and it's going to take another 500 years to undue it." She says the Creator already figured everything out and that we need to pay attention! "Every animal in nature has a job and works like we do. If one is missing, it all shuts down." She then re-emphasizes her solution. "It starts in your own house. I hardly throw anything away, I re-use, reduce, recycle, refuse,
and use less," she says, expounding on her lifestyle as a model.

Another Gwich'in Elder, Allan Tritt, says the climate has become too chaotic for even an Elder like him. "You go out, it's sunny, you go out later, it's raining, and you go out again, it's windy. We can't predict anything. You and I could wake up tomorrow and the land will be covered in snow and they'll be caribou sitting in the field." Allan says laughing. "I can't say anything, because tomorrow I might be wrong." Allan says he heard three Native Elders at the Alaska Federation of Natives this year say: "From this day on, we don't know what's going to happen." Allan then went into ancient prophecies of Gwich'in Elders, when they foretold the time of change. When there would be "airplanes all over, lots of food, lots of light, and white men all over." He then comments on how "too easy-going" it is today.

Trimble Gilbert is the Traditional Chief of Arctic Village and the second Traditional Chief of the Athabascan People. I interview him in his two-story home overlooking most of the village. "More vegetation is growing because of lots of rain. The brush is hard for caribou." He mentions that animals are disappearing: ducks, snipes, and pike. "Couple of years ago, we saw a polar bear; then another year we had problems with wolves killing our dogs. Things are changing so much."

This summer, Arctic Village's East Fork River turned completely red for a few hours. It stunned the village and even made the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Trimble recounted, "The river turned red from the Red Rock. This has never happened before. The basin upriver was shaken by rain, hail, and thunder." When I mention Allan Tritt's statement about unpredictability, Trimble agrees. "Yeah, like Texas ran out of water and look what happened in Japan. We don't know what's going to happen." He also agrees with Gideon about greed. "Rich people go anywhere they want and always roll over us Native People with money." Trimble's solution is that human beings need to consume less. "A plane from Fairbanks burns 50 gallons an hour, so that's a 100 gallons roundtrip every day. We [Arctic Village Gwich'in] don't burn that much. The city is different." He remarks that urban America should learn to not waste so much energy and learn to conserve. His other idea for countering climate change is allowing Native Americans to own and manage land, as they did in ancient times.

After hearing the amazingly wise and intelligent words of the Gwich'in Elders, I turned to the Gwich'in young voices. Kristen John is a 26-year-old single mother. "The bad weather has affected our hunting. We won't go out as much as we used to." She says the constant rain makes her lazy and moody. "It's obvious the land is changing because of climate change. The land is not going to be the same." She continues, "I don't have to go out into the woods, I can just 'feel' it. The rain hasn't stopped." Kristen says she sees the weather only getting worse. She also says she is raising her son to be as independent as possible. "I want him to live off the land and do things on his own."

Kate Hollandsworth is an 18-year-old Gwich'in high school senior in Arctic Village. She was disappointed about Arctic's rainiest summer, "It wasn't a summer break for us [students], because we couldn't go outside. Now, school is around the corner." Kate and her friends were terrified by the unusually strong thunderstorms. "When it was happening, my cousin called crying: 'Oh my God! What do I do?' I told her, 'Just get down!'" Kate laughs. Kate also says she may not even enjoy the state fair, because of the rain. "Rain is getting everyone sick. I drove down when it was sunny, the next minute it was raining, and the next day I had a cold because I didn't bring rain gear, because it was sunny." Asked what her message was for the world and the United States, she says: "No one is going green, start recycling!"

Clifford David is a 17-year-old Gwich'in high school junior in Arctic Village. The weather scared him so much he didn't go outside most of the summer, and he says, "The bad weather in Arctic was rather strange, everyone was talking about it. Everything has changed. I just hope it doesn't continue on this downward spiral." Both the Gwich'in Elders and young people have the same message, the world needs to move towards sustainability and environmentally sound lifestyles before the weather gets worse. As Sarah James says, "The battle starts in our living room, by changing our lifestyles."

- Matt Gilbert (Gwich'in) grew up in Arctic Village, Alaska and is a freelance journalist. He can be reached at mattgak35@gmail.com.

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Arctic Village, Alaska On the Frontlines of Climate Change

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Arctic Village is one of the most remote Native villages in Alaska; far away from the noise and turmoil of mainstream society, the only large chaos it consistently registers is climate change.This past summer, Arctic Village saw rapidly shifting weather and its strongest storms.

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Kids learn about Native American Indian Inuit Peoples. Their history, language, clothing, food, homes, fun facts, and government.

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NICOLET, Quebec - I'm sitting in an outdoor pen with four puppies chewing my fingers, biting my hat and hair, peeing all over me in their excitement.

At eight weeks old, they are two feet from nose to tail and must weigh seven or eight pounds. They growl and snap over possession of a much-chewed piece of deer skin. They lick my face like I'm a long-lost friend, or a newfound toy. They are just like dogs, but not quite. They are wolves.

When they are full-grown at around 100 pounds, their jaws will be strong enough to crack moose bones. But because these wolves have been around humans since they were blind, deaf and unable to stand, they will still allow people to be near them, to do veterinary exams, to scratch them behind the ears - if all goes well.

Yet even the humans who raised them must take precautions. If one of the people who has bottle-fed and mothered the wolves practically since birth is injured or feels sick, she won't enter their pen to prevent a predatory reaction. No one will run to make one of these wolves chase him for fun. No one will pretend to chase the wolf. Every experienced wolf caretaker will stay alert. Because if there's one thing all wolf and dog specialists I've talked to over the years agree on, it is this: No matter how you raise a wolf, you can't turn it into a dog.

As close as wolf and dog are - some scientists classify them as the same species - there are differences. Physically, wolves' jaws are more powerful. They breed only once a year, not twice, as dogs do. And behaviorally, wolf handlers say, their predatory instincts are easily triggered compared to those of dogs. They are more independent and possessive of food or other items. Much research suggests they take more care of their young. And they never get close to that Labrador retriever "I-love-all-humans" level of friendliness. As much as popular dog trainers and pet food makers promote the inner wolf in our dogs, they are not the same.

The scientific consensus is that dogs evolved from some kind of extinct wolf 15,000 or more years ago. Most researchers now think that it wasn't a case of snatching a pup from a den, but of some wolves spending more time around people to feed on the hunters' leftovers. Gradually some of these wolves became less afraid of people, and they could get closer and eat more and have more puppies, which carried whatever DNA made the wolves less fearful. That repeated itself generation after generation until the wolves evolved to be, in nonscientific terms, friendly. Those were the first dogs.

People must spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for weeks on end with wolf puppies just to assure them that humans are tolerable. Dog puppies will quickly attach to any human within reach. Even street dogs that have had some contact with people at the right time may still be friendly.

Despite all the similarities, something is deeply different in dog genes, or in how and when those genes become active, and scientists are trying to determine exactly what it is.

There are clues.

Some recent research has suggested that dog friendliness may be the result of something similar to Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder in humans that causes hyper-sociability, among other symptoms. People with the syndrome seem friendly to everyone, without the usual limits.

Another idea being studied is whether a delay in development during a critical socializing period in a dog's early life could make the difference. That delay might be discovered in the DNA, more likely in the sections that control when and how strongly genes become active, rather than in the genes themselves.

This is research at its very beginning, a long shot in some ways. But this past spring and summer, two scientists traveled to Quebec to monitor the development of six wolf pups, do behavior tests and take genetic samples. I followed them.

I visited other captive wolves as well, young and adult, to get a glimpse of how a research project begins - and, I confess, to get a chance to play with wolf puppies.

I wanted to have some firsthand experience of the animals I write about, to look wolves in the eye, so to speak. But only metaphorically. As I was emphatically told in a training session before going into an enclosure with adult wolves, the one thing you definitely do not do is look them in the eye.

Sleeping With Wolves

Zoo Académie is a combination zoo and training facility here on the southern bank of the St. Lawrence River, about two hours from Montreal. Jacinthe Bouchard, the owner, has trained domestic and wild animals, including wolves, all over the world.

This past spring she bred two litters of wolf pups from two female wolves and one male she had already at the zoo. Both mothers gave birth in the same den around the same time at the beginning of June. Then unusually bad flooding of the St. Lawrence threatened the den, so Ms. Bouchard had to remove them at about seven days old instead of the usual two weeks.

Then began the arduous process of socializing the pups. Ms. Bouchard and her assistant stayed day and night with the animals for the first few weeks, gradually decreasing the time spent with them after that.

On June 30, Kathryn Lord and Elinor Karlsson showed up with several colleagues, including Diane Genereux, a research scientist in Dr. Karlsson's lab who would do most of the hands-on genetics work.

Dr. Lord is part of Dr. Karlsson's team, which splits time between the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester and the Broad Institute in Cambridge. Their work combines behavior and genetic studies of wolf and dog pups.

An evolutionary biologist, Dr. Lord is an old hand at wolf mothering. She has hand-raised five litters.

"You have to be with them 24/7. That means sleeping with them, feeding them every four hours on the bottle, " Dr. Lord said.

Also, as Ms. Bouchard noted, "we don't shower" in the early days, to let the pups get a clear sense of who they are smelling.

That's very important, because both wolves and dogs go through a critical period as puppies when they explore the world and learn who their friends and family are.

With wolves, that time is thought to start at about two weeks, when the wolves are deaf and blind. Scent is everything.

In dogs, it starts at about four weeks, when they can see, smell and hear. Dr. Lord thinks this shift in development, allowing dogs to use all their senses, might be key to their greater ability to connect with human beings.

Perhaps with more senses in action, they are more able to generalize from tolerating individual humans with a specific scent to tolerating humans in general with a scent, sight and sound profile.

When the critical period ends, wolves, and to a lesser extent dogs, experience something like the onset of stranger anxiety in human babies, when people outside of the family suddenly become scary.

The odds of being able to pin down genetically the shift in this crucial stage are still long, but both Dr. Lord and Dr. Karlsson think the idea is worth pursuing, as did the Broad Institute. It provided a small grant from a program designed to support scientists who take leaps into the unknown - what you might call what-if research.

There are two questions the scientists want to explore. One, said Dr. Karlsson: "How did a wolf that was living in the forest become a dog that was living in our homes?"

The other is whether fear and sociability in dogs are related to the same emotions and behaviors in humans. If so, learning about dogs could provide insights to some human conditions in which social interaction is affected, like autism, or Williams syndrome, or schizophrenia.

The pups at Zoo Académie were only three weeks old when the group of researchers arrived. I showed up the next morning and walked into a room strewn with mattresses, researchers and puppies.

The humans were still groggy from a night with little sleep. Pups at that age wake up every few hours to whine and paw any warm body within reach.

Wolf mothers prompt their pups to urinate and defecate by licking their abdomens. The human handlers massaged the pups for the same reason, but often the urination was unpredictable, so the main subject of conversation when I arrived was wolf pup pee. How much, on whom, from which puppy.

As soon as I walked in, I was handed a puppy to cradle and bottle-feed. The puppy was like a furry larva, persistent, single-minded, with an absolute intensity of purpose.

Even with fur, teeth and claws, the pups were still hungry and helpless, and I couldn't help but remember holding my own children when they took a bottle. I suspect that tiger kittens and the young of wolverines are equally irresistible. It's a mammal thing.

The first part of Dr. Lord's testing was to confirm her observations that the critical period for wolves starts and ends earlier than that for dogs.

She set up a procedure for testing the pups by exposing them to something they could not possibly have encountered before - a jiggly buzzing contraption of bird-scare rods, a tripod and a baby's mobile.

Each week she tested one pup, so that no pup got used to it. She would put the puppy in a small arena, with low barriers for walls and with the mobile turned on. She would hide, to avoid distracting the puppy. Video cameras recorded the action, showing how the pups stumbled and later walked around the strange object, or shied away from it, or went right up to sniff it.

At three weeks, the pups had been barely able to get around and were still sleeping almost every minute they weren't nursing. By eight weeks, when I returned to have them gambol all over me, they were rambunctious and fully capable of exploration.

The researchers won't publicize the results until observers who never saw the puppies view and analyze the videos. But Dr. Lord said that wolf experts considered eight-week-old wolf puppies past the critical period. They were so friendly to me and others because they had been successfully socialized already.

Before and after the test, she collected urine, to measure levels of a hormone called cortisol, which rises during times of stress. If the pup in the video would not approach the jiggly monster and cortisol levels were high, that would indicate that the pup had begun to experience a level of fear of new things that could stop exploration. That would confirm the timing of the critical period.

She and Dr. Karlsson and others from the lab also collected saliva for DNA testing. They planned to use a new technique called ATAC-seq that uses an enzyme to mark active genes. Then when the wolf DNA is fed into one of the advanced machines that map genomes, only the active genes would be on the map.

Dr. Genereux, who was isolating and then reading DNA, said she thought it was "a long shot" that they would find what they wanted. She and the other researchers plan to refine their techniques to ask the questions successfully.

When They Grow Up

And what are socialized wolves like when they grow up, once the mysterious genetic machinery of the dog and wolf direct them on their separate ways?

I also visited Wolf Park, in Battle Ground, Ind., a 65-acre zoo and research facility where Dana Drenzek, the manager, and Pat Goodmann, the senior animal curator, took me around and introduced me not only to puppies they were socializing, but to some adult wolves.

In the 1970s, Ms. Goodmann worked with Erich Klinghammer, the founder of Wolf Park, to develop the 24/7 model for socializing wolf puppies, exposing them to humans and then also to other wolves, so they could relate to their own kind but accept the presence and attentions of humans, even intrusive ones like veterinarians.

The sprawling outdoor baby pen was filled with cots and hammocks for the volunteers, since the wolves were now nine and 11 weeks old and living outdoors all the time. There were plastic and plywood hiding places for the wolves and plenty of toys. It looked like a toddlers' playground, except for the remnants of their meals - the odd deer clavicle or shin bone, and other assorted ribs, legs and shoulder bones, sometimes with skin and meat still attached.

The puppies were extremely friendly with the volunteers they knew, and mildly friendly with me. The adult wolves I met were also courteous, but remote. Two older males, Wotan and Wolfgang, each licked me once and walked away. Timber, the mother of some of the pups, and tiny at 50 pounds, also investigated me and then retired to a platform nearby.

Only Renki, an older wolf who had suffered from bone cancer and now got around on three legs, let me scratch his head for a while. None was bothered by my presence. None was more than mildly interested. None seemed to realize or care about my own intense desire to see the wolves, be near them, learn about them, touch them.

I saw how powerfully a visit with wolves could affect how you feel about the animals. I wanted to come back and help raise pups, and keep visiting so that I could say an adult wolf knew me in some way.

But I also wondered whether it was right to keep wolves in this setting. In the wild, they travel large distances and kill their food. These wolves were all bred in captivity and that was never a possibility for them.

But was I simply indulging a fantasy of getting close to nature? Was this in the same category as wanting a selfie with a captive tiger? What was best for the wolves themselves?

I asked Ms. Goodmann about it. She said that park operated on the idea that getting to know the park's wolves, which had never been deprived of an earlier life in the wild, would make visitors care more for wild wolves, for conservation, for preserving a life for wild carnivores that they could never be part of.

And she noted that Wolf Park operates as a combination zoo and research station. Students and others from around the world compete to work as interns, helping with everything from raising puppies to emptying the fly traps.

This is the rationale for all zoos, and it was a strong argument. Then she made it stronger. She pointed out that one of the interns, Doug Smith, worked on the reintroduction of wild wolves to Yellowstone National Park.

Dr. Smith has had a major role in the Wolf Restoration Project from the very beginning in 1995 and has been project leader since 1997. I reached him one morning at his office at park headquarters and asked him about his time as an intern at Wolf Park.

"I hand-reared four wolf pups, sleeping with them on a mattress for six weeks," he said. "It had a profound effect. It was the first wolf job I ever got in my life. It turned into my career."

From there he went on to study wild wolves on Isle Royale in Michigan, and then to work with L. David Mech, a pioneering wolf biologist who is senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota. Eventually, he went to Yellowstone to work on restoring wolves to the park.

He said ethical questions about keeping wild animals in captivity are difficult, even when every effort is made to enrich their lives. But places like Wolf Park provide great value, he said, if they can get people "to think about the plight of wolves across the world, and do something about it."

In today's environment, "with conservation on the run, nature on the run, you need them," he added.

Then he said what all wolf specialists say: That even though wolf pups look like dogs, they are not, that keeping a wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid as a pet is a terrible idea.

"If you want a wolf," he said, "get a dog."

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Wolf Puppies Are Adorable. Then Comes the Call of the Wild.

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NICOLET, Quebec - I'm sitting in an outdoor pen with four puppies chewing my fingers, biting my hat and hair, peeing all over me in their excitement. At eight weeks old, they are two feet from nose to tail and must weigh seven or eight pounds.