faber - debates Flashcards
What is the nature - nurture debate?
the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics
What is the nature side of the debate?
the view that behaviour is the prodduct of biological, innate or genetic factors (eg. genes or other hereditary factors)
What is heredity?
The genetic transmission of both mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another
What is heritability?
measure of how well differences in people’s genes account for differences in their traits
What is the heretability coefficient for IQ?
0.5
What does the 0.5 heritability coefficient for IQ mean?
both our genetics and the environment influence our intellegence
What is an example for the nature side of the debate?
bowlby - social releasers
-> children come into the world biologically programmed to form attachments which will help them survive
-> this suggests that attachment behaviours are naturally selected and passed on as a result of genetic inheritance
What is an example for the nature side of the debate?
the view that environmental factors (including early childhood experiences or the way one was raised up) affect behaviour and who we are
What is environment for the nature side of the debate?
any influence on human behaviour which is non-genetic and relates to our experience (eg. upbringing)
What is an example for the nurture side of the debate?
bowlby - learning theory of attachment
-> attachment is acquired through classical conditioning assosiating mother with pleasure via food according to behaviourists
What is the interationist view on the debate?
nature and nurture are interlinked and intertwined
-> these two factors cannot be separated
-> researchers should study how they interact
What are three examples of the interactionist approach?
- diathesis stress model
- epigenetics
- pku
What is the diathesis stress model?
an approach that says behaviouris caused by a genetic vulnerability (the diathesis) which is only expressed when coupled with a social or environmental “trigger” (the stressor)
What is an example of the diathesis stress model?
tienari et al: adoption studies of schizophrenics
-> more likely to get schizophrenia if they biological parents had it (nature)
-> or they went into dysfunctional adoptive families (nurture)
What is epigenetics?
how our experiences influences which of our genes are expressed on our behaviour which can then result in us passing this information on to influence the genetic codes of our offspring
What is pku?
-potentially serious inherited disorder (nature)
- people with pku cannot break down amino acids -> builds up in blood and brain -> leads to brain damage
- if children have a low protein diet for their first 12 years they will not be affected by this disorder (nurture)
What is concordance rate?
the extent to which both twins share the same characteristics
What is a strength of nature and nurture being able to be separated?
support of adoption studies
-> rhee and waldman found in a meta analysis of adoption studies that genetic influences accounted for 41% of variance in agression
-> this shows that nature and nurture can be seen as able to separately influence behaviours
What are some strengths towards the viewpoint that nature and nurture cannot be separated?
+ support of constructivism (interactionism)
-> children create their own nurture by selecting environments appropriate to their nature accordingly (niche picking)
-> therefore, it is impossible and illogical to separate nature and nurture influences on behaviour
+ support of epigenetics
-> susser and lin found that women who were pregnant during the famine had low birth weight babies who were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia
-> this implies that life experiences of previous generations can leave epigenetic “markers” that influence the health of their offspring
What is a strength for the interactionist view?
both positions taken to extremes may have negative consequences for society so a moderate, interactionist position is preferred
- the extreme nativist stance is determinist and has led to controversy -> eg. linking race, genetics to intellegence
- empiricists suggest that any behaviour can be changed by altering environmental conditions - may lead to a society that controls and manipulates its citizens
What is free will?
the idea that we can play an active role and have choice in how we behave
-> the assumption is that individuals are free to choose their behaviour and are self determined
What is determinism?
the view that free will is an illusion and our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces which we have no control
-> consequently, our behavior is viewed as predictable
