Issues and Debates- Nature-Nurture Debate Flashcards
What is nature?
Innate characteristics determined by physiological and genetic factors
What is nurture?
The influence of the environment and learning experiences
What was the debate between nativists and empiricists?
Nativists like Rousseau argued that all human characteristics were in-born and empiricists like Locke claimed that everyone is a ‘blank slate’ when they’re born so the environment ‘writes’ unique characteristics onto us
What is the interactionist approach?
Accept that nature and nurture must interact because personality and behaviour seem to be influenced by both
What does Gottesman suggest?
People have a reaction rate- everyone has a certain genetic potential for things like intelligence and height (the genotype)
What does the environment determine?
How much this potential is fulfilled (the phenotype)
What does the diathesis-stress model suggest?
People have genetic predispositions for disorders so a person with a higher diathesis is more likely to develop the trait but whether they do depends on the amount of stress they experience
How do family studies help study the nature-nurture debate?
If family members share a trait more frequently then unrelated people do then this could imply a genetic influence for that behaviour
What is the problem with family studies?
Similarities between family members may actually be because of their shared environment
What are adoption studies?
Compare an adopted child with biological and adoptive parents
How do adoption studies help study the nature-nurture debate?
If child has more similarity with adopted parents then this would imply that nurture is more important and similarity with the biological parents would imply that nature is more important
What percentage of twins share genes?
MZ twins share 100% of their genes and DZ twins share about 50% of their genes
How do twin studies help study the nature-nurture debate?
If a trait is determined by nature then MZ concordance would be 100%
What is the view of the psychodynamic approach?
Interaction of nature and nurture- emphasised the importance of inborn instincts and drives however also said that experiences can result in fixations in the stages of development
What is the view of the biological approach?
Emphasises genetically determined brain structures and processes however the environment influences brain development so learning can override genetic predispositions
