Issues and Debates: Nature + Nurture Flashcards
Nature
Abilities are innate, inborn
Heredity is more influential - genetic transmission of mental + physical characteristics from one generation to another.
Nativist theory - certain skills/abilities are hard-wired into the brain at birth
- Biological
Nurture
Environment + experience are more influential
Empiricist theory - abilities come from learning + experience.
View the mind as ‘tabula rasa’ - blank slate on which experiences are to be written.
- Behaviourism + SLT
OCD - Nature
Genetic basis for OCD:
Billett - meta-analysis of 14 twin studies of OCD - MZ twins more than 2x likely to develop OCD if their twin had the disorder than DZ twins.
Attachment - Nature
Children attach because they have a drive to do so.
It is innate, Lorenz - baby geese imprinted on the first thing that they saw.
Infants do the same to ensure survival.
Behaviourism - Nurture
Behaviour shaped by interactions with environment - things people teach them, observe + different situations they’re in.
Born as a ‘blank slate’ waiting to be filled up by experiences gained from environmental interaction
Depends on quality of external influences and not genes
Little Albert - classical conditioning of fear-phobia acquisition fear developed to rat/similar objects = environment can be manipulated to create a phobic response + behavioural change
SLT - Nurture
Bandura - although aggressive behaviour of animals explained by instinctual drives, aggression in humans is the product of learning
Can learn by observing others, paying attention to their behaviour, then imitating it when in a similar situation
Observation, vicarious reinforcement, mental representation
Nature evaluation
Strengths:
Can be seen in many studies that nature has a large part
Experiments have influenced useful applications for treatments
Scientifically tested
Twin studies - MZ high concordance, nature plays a part
Adoption studies - offspring act same as biological, parents rather than adoptive parents, nature plays a part
Limitations:
Neglects role of environment
Hard to find twins or adoption studies to relate to topic of interest
Nurture evaluation
Strengths:
Takes environment into consideration
Created useful treatments - behaviour therapy
Twin studies - using MZ twins reared apart - low concordance rate, nurture plays a part
Adoption studies - high concordance between adoptive parents and low concordance between biological parents - nurture plays a part
Weaknesses:
Neglects biological impact of behaviour
Hard to find twins or adoption studies that satisfy needs of relevant topics of interest
Interactionism - Eysenck
Behaviour often a result of interaction between nature + nurture
Eysenck: individuals characteristics may elicit particular responses in other people
Extroverts have under-active NS, constantly seek excitement.
People with high levels of extra version have a low level of arousal, require more environmental stimulation to fuel excitement.
Child is conditioned- learns sense of right + wrong, avoids behaviour which leads to punishment, controls own impulses
Some children biologically more predisposed to conditioning process
Applications of interactionism
Development of drug therapies, adapt environments to increase helping behaviour, enhance learning
