Issues and debates: nature and nurture (learning)

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 (nurture)

Answer 2

A01:
- Learning theories (SLT, classical conditioning, operant conditioning) explain behaviour as acquired through the environment.
- SLT states that children learn behaviours, like aggression, by observing and imitating role models.
- Conditioning theories argue behaviours are learned through associations or reinforcement.

A03:
Bandura
- Found we learn through observation. Therefore, what a person is exposed to in their culture will influence their behaviour based on their role models.
- Stated that people adopt unhealthy eating behaviours they see modelled on TV.

Question 3

A01 & A03 (nature)

Answer 3

A01:
- However, the learning theories may be incomplete in explaining how we learn behaviours as not all of the children in Bandura’s study acted aggressively, even if they had observed the same role model and had the same environmental influence.

A03:
Watson and Ryaner: (8 marker)
- UCR + UCS are innate and do not need to be learnt

Brendgen: (12 marker)
- suggest that social oppression was determined mainly by environmental factors (nurture), whereas physical aggression was primarily genetic (nature).
- This suggests an interactionist approach may be more appropriate when explaining learning of behaviour.

Question 4

Judgement

Answer 4

Overall behaviour in learning is nurture as individuals’ experiences and situations manipulate and alter their behaviours stronger than that of innate factors.