Issues and debates: nature and nurture (bio)

Question 1

INTRO

Nature and Nurture

Answer 1

• Nature refers to behaviours which occur due to innate factors (genes) therefore all our behaviour is pre-disposed or hard wired.
• Nurture refers to behaviour which have occurred due to the environment.
• As a result, it is the belief we are born with a blank slate and all behaviour is determined by experience.
• An interactionist view suggests our behaviour is a combination of the two.

Question 2

A01 & A03 (nature)

Answer 2

A01:
- When the brain structures like the prefrontal cortex are damaged, it leads to specific predictable behaviour like aggression.
- This is a nature approach to aggression as it is affected more by biological factors than environmental (nurture) factors.

A03:
Rain et al
- murders - lower activity in lateral + medial prefrontal cortex, corpus collosum, parietal cortex, left hemisphere of amygdala and hippocampus comapared to control
- murders - higher activity in right hemisphere of thalamus, amygdala + hippocampus compared to controls
- link to nature: shows aggression linked to different parts of brain, showing it is innate, so predisposed behaviour, biological nature

Question 3

A01 & A03 (nurture)

Answer 3

A01:
- Moreover, twin studies, comparing MZ (identical) and DZ (non-identical) twins, help assess genetic versus environmental influences.
- If MZ twins show higher concordance rates, behaviour may have a genetic basis, but environmental factors must also be considered.

A03:
Brendgen
- 54-63% of physical aggression explained by genetic factors, meaning concordence rates for MZ could been higher than DZ. However, may been due to MZ being treated more similarly (e.g. being mistaken for one another). So could be experiences had explained behavioural similarity (nurture) rather than genetic similarity (nature)

Question 4

judgement