Issues and Debates: nature/nurture

Question 1

What is the philosophical background of the nature vs nurture debate (Descartes) (Locke)

Answer 1

Decartes (nativist):
- Human characteristics are innate.
- includes some innate knowledge.
- behaviour is the result of heredity.

Locke (Empirist):
- mind is a blank slate at birth upon which learning and experience writes.
- Behaviour is the result of the environment.

Question 2

What are the features of the nature argument?

Answer 2

• Behaviour is caused by innate characteristics : The physiological/biological characteristics we
  are born with.
• Behaviour is therefore determined by biology.
• Determinist view - all behaviour is determined by hereditary factors, the inherited characteristics, or genetic make-up we are born with.

Question 3

How do we assess nature (heredity)

Answer 3

• heritability coefficient is used to assess heredity.
  -> Numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1.0 -> indicates extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis (1.0 meaning entirely genetically determined).
• Plomin suggested heritability for IQ is around 0.5.

Question 4

What are the features of the nurture argument

Answer 4

• Behaviour is determined by the environment -> things people teach them, what they observe, and the situations they are in.
• also determinist -> proposed human behaviour is the result of interactions with the environment.
• Behaviourist theories are nurture theories -> behaviour shaped by interactions with the environment.
• No limit to what they can achieve -> depends on quality of external influences and not genes.

Question 5

What do we mean by the environment (Nurture) (Lerner)

Answer 5

• The ‘environment’ is a very broad term. Lerner (1986) suggests there are different types of environment:
• the mothers physical state during pregnancy ➢ social conditions.
• cultural and historical context.

Question 6

What are the difficulties of the nature vs nurture debate

Answer 6

• Nature and nurture cannot be separated.
• Environment has an impact before a child is even born.
• Psychologists therefore now choose to focus on what the relative contribution of each influence is.
• E.g. Twin studies: very difficult to tell whether high concordance rates are the results of shared upbringing or shared environment.

Question 7

What is the interactionist approach

Answer 7

• asks the question of how nurture affects nature
  -> phenotypes: (environmental influences the expression of genes to be something different than the genotype, e.g. malnutrition -> small height.

Question 8

How do nature and nurture interact with each other

Answer 8

• Behaviour is often a result of the interaction between nature and nurture.
• an individual’s characteristics may elicit particular responses in other people, e.g:
  
  • Temperament: how active, responsive or emotional an infant is influences in part their caregivers responses.
  • Gender: people tend to react differently to boys and girls due to expectations of masculine and feminine characteristics.
  • Aggression: Displaying aggressive behaviour create particular responses from other people.

Question 9

List studies that support the nature argument

Answer 9

• Piaget -> stages of development
• Chomsky -> nativism in language acquisition
• Gottiesman + Shields -> significant genetic input in schizophrenia.

Question 10

List studies that support the nurture argument

Answer 10

• Little Albert -> classical conditioning
• Zimbardo SPE -> conforming to social roles.
• Ainsworth -> strange situation -> result of attachment§

Question 11

List studies that support both nature and nurture arguments

Answer 11

• Plomin -> 68% of variation in IQ due to genetics
  -> variations also due to environmental influences.
• Pika Tierrari -> diathesis-stress model -> depression caused by genetic vulnerability when coupled with an environmental ‘trigger’

Question 12

Explain how the nature argument can be applied to drug therapies

Answer 12

• Drug therapies can be developed to treat behavioural or psychological problems that have a physiological origin.
• E.g. SSRI’s can be used to treat depression, Ritalin- ADHD.

Question 13

Explain how the nurture argument can be applied to real life

Answer 13

• If behaviour is susceptible to environmental influences we need to consider how we adapt our environment.
• E.g. To promote helping behaviour, enhance learning, reduce aggression and decrease criminality.

Question 14

(-) Explain how the nativist approach is deterministic (criticism of nature

Answer 14

• Extremely deterministic stance.
• Provides justification for studies which link race, genetics
  and intelligence.
• Lombroso –> criticised by DeLisi (2012) the racial undertones of his work and links to the eugenics movement.

Question 15

(+) explain how the nurture argument takes an empiricist approach

Answer 15

• The suggestion that behaviour can be changed by altering environmental conditions has led to practical application in therapy.
  E.g.
• Token economy in prisons – modifying behaviour.
• Anger management – cognitive behaviour treatment.

Question 16

(+) explain support for interaction of nature and nurture

Answer 16

• Shared and unshared environments.
• Dunn and Plomin (1990) suggests that individual differences mean that siblings may experience life events differently.
• Age and temperament.
• MZ twins raised together do not show 100% concordance rates.

Question 17

(+) explain how constructivism supports the interactionist approach

Answer 17

• Constructivism is the idea that people create their own ‘nurture’ by actively seeking environments appropriate for their nature e.g. an aggressive child choosing aggressive friends.
• Plomin (94) refers to this as niche picking and niche building and suggests it would be impossible to separate nature and nurture.