4. nature nurture Flashcards
what is the interactionist approach
a way to explain the development of behaviour in terms of a range of factors including both biological and psychological ones - such factors do not simply add together but combine in a way that can not be predicted by each one separately (they interact).
the nature nurture debate seeks to answer the question of whether our behaviour is more influenced by nature or nurture. it is not really a debate about one or the other because any behaviour/characteristics arises from a combination of both.
what is the nature nurture debate
concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviours are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics.
how do behaviour studies show the interactionist approach
behaviour is often the result of the interaction between nature and nurture.
bowlby claimed that a babies attachment type is determined by the warmth and continuity of parental love (an environmental influence). kagan then proposed that a babies innate personality (temperament) also affects the attachment relationship = nature (the babies temperament) creates nurture (the parents response) so the environment and heredity interact.
therefore the nature nurture debate is about discussing how nature and nurture interact - interactionist approach.
how does maguire provide evidence for the interactionist approach
taxi driver study - structural MRI scans of brains of licensed london taxi drivers were compared with controls who did not drive taxi = the hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver.
the posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of the control subjects. the posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the environment and can expand regionally in people with a high dependence on navigational skills.
concluded = MRI scans 10 years later showed the taxi drivers hippocampal areas had grown = the environment changed their brains. therefore it appears the brain has the capacity for plasticity (ability to change) - the structure of the brain can alter in response to environmental demands.
how can the diathesis stress model provide evidence for the interactionist approach
the diathesis stress model suggests behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability (diathesis) which is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental trigger (stressor).
for example - a person who inherits a genetic vulnerability for OCD may not develop the disorder but combined with a psychological trigger (traumatic experience) may result in the disorder appearing.
how can epigenetics be used as a strength for the interactionist approach
epigentics refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves - a process that happens throughout life and is caused by interaction with the environment.
aspects of our lifestyle or events we encounter (from smoking and diet to trauma and war) leave marks on our DNA (genes) which switch genes on or off = explains why factors such as smoking have a lifelong influence even after you actually stop - they have changed the way your genes will be expressed.
these epigenetic changes may go on and influence the genetic code of our children as well as their children. epigenetics therefore introduces a third element into the nature nurture debate - the life experiences of previous generations.
what is nature
refers to inherited influences or heredity - behaviour is caused by innate characteristics (biological and psychological) we are born with.
genes provide the blueprint for all behaviours - some present from birth and others pre programmed to emerge with age.
approaches that support nature = biological and evolutionary approach.
what research support is there for nature?
gottesman compared concordance rates for MZ and DZ twins to determine whether schizophrenia had a genetic link. adoption studies were used to seperate out the contribution of genetics and environment on the development of the disorder (compared biological parents and siblings and adoptive parents and siblings).
results = adoption studies found increased incidence of schizophrenia in adopted children with a schizophrenia biological parent. normal children adopted to a schizophrenia parent showed little evidence of schizophrenia. twin studies found high concordance rate in MZ twins (58%) than DZ twins (12%).
concluded = significant genetic input into the onset of schizophrenia - genes responsblie for predisposing a person.
what is nurture
refers to the influence and experience of the environment - things people teach them and the things they observe and due to the different situations they are in.
empiricists argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth which is then shaped by the environment. this view later became an important view of the behaviourist approach - depends on quality of external influences and not genes.
research identified different levels of the environment - including prenatal factors such as how physical influences (smoking) or psychological influences (music) affects a foetus. more generally development is influenced postnatally in terms of the social conditions a child grows up in.
what research support is there for nurture
classical conditioning = phobia accquistion - little albert (before study he had no phobias).
findings and conclusions = by session two conditioning of fear was evident - possible to condition fear through classsical conditioning. by sessions three and four transference of fear had been made to similar objects. session five time had not removed the fear response - shows the environment can be manipulated to create a phobic response and behavioural change.
zimbardo - showed environment and stereotypes can alter behaviour.
what is a weakness of the debate between nature and nurture
difficult to tell how much is nature or nurture. the experiments to find this out are not ethically possible - to get MZ twins (or clones) and bring them up in different environments. even then there are many extraneous variables it would be difficult to determine causality.
what applications are there for the debate
nature - drug therapy to treat behavioural or psychological problems that have a physiological origin (SSRIs can be used to treat depression).
nurture - if behaviour is susceptible to environmental influences we need to consider how we adapt our environment (to promote learning behaviour and reduce aggression).
how do you measure nature and nurture
the degree to which two people are similar on a particular trait can be represented by a correlation coefficient = concordance which provides an estimate about the extent to which a trait is inherited called heritability.
heritability is the proportion of differences between individuals in a population with regards to a particular trait that is due to genetic variation.
how is adoption studies a strength of the interactionist approach
useful as they seperate the competing influences of nature and nurture - if adopted children are found to be more similar to their adoptive parents this suggests the environment is the bigger influence. however if adopted children are more similar to their biological parents then genetic factors are presumed to dominate.
a meta analysis of adoption studies found that genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression = shows how research can seperate the influences of nature and nurture.
counter = approach may be misguided that nature and nurture are not two entities that can simply be pulled apart. research suggests that people create their own nurture by actively selecting environments suited to their nature = suggests that is does not make sense to look at evidence of either nature or nurture.
