Comparison of Approaches

Question 1

Behaviourism

Nature vs Nurute

Answer 1

Behaviorism is very much on the nurture side of the debate as it argues that our behavior is learnt from the environment.

The social learning theory is also on the nurture side because it argues that we learn our behavior from role models in our environment.

The behaviorist approach proposes that apart from a few innate reflexes and the capacity for learning, all complex behavior is learned from the environment.

Question 2

Cognitive

Nature Vs Nurture

Answer 2

The cognitive approach takes an interactionist view of the debate as it argues that our behavior is influenced by learning and experience (nurture), but also by some of our brains’ innate capacities as information processors e.g. language acquisition (nature)

Question 3

Biological

Nature Vs Nurture

Answer 3

The biological approach is firmly on the nature side of the debate; however, it does recognise that our brain is a plastic organ which changes with experience in our social world so it does not entirely deny the influence of nurture.

Question 4

Psychodynamic

Nature Vs Nurture

Answer 4

The psychodynamic approach recognises the influence of social factors as it argues that we are driven by innate biological instincts, represented by the Id (nature), but the ways these instincts are expressed is shaped by our social and cultural environment (nurture).

Question 5

Humanism

Nature Vs Nurture

Answer 5

The approach recognises both the influence of nature and nurture, nurture- the influence of experiences on a person’s ways of perceiving and understanding the world, nature- influence of biological drives and needs (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs).