Issues and debates: Nature-nurture debate Flashcards
What’s the nature-nurture debate?
the debate whether behaviour is determined by genes or environmental factors.
What’s the nature side of the debate?
Behaviour is seen to be a product of innate biological factors.
What’s the nurture side of the debate?
Behaviour is a product of environmental influences
What’s heredity?
The process by which traits are are passed from parents to their offspring usually through genetic transmission.
What’s a heritability coefficient + what does it measure?
A numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1 which indicates the extent to which a characteristic have a genetic basis, one means it is entirely genetically determined zero means not at all.
What are the genetic explanations of nature?
Family, twin and adoption studies show that the closer two individuals are genetically the more likely they will develop the same behaviours.
Concordance rates for SZ are 40% monozygotic twins (identical) and 7% for dizygotic twins (non-identical)
What are the evolutionary explanations for nature?
Evolution occurs through natural and sexual selection.
Organisms adapt both physically and psychologically in response to their environment to ensure our survival and reproduction.
Bowlby proposed that attachment was adaptive because it meant an infant was more likely to be protected and therefore, likely to survive.
Why is behaviourism and example of the influence of nurture?
Assume all behaviour can be explained in terms of experience. Pavlov used concepts of Classical Conditioning and Skinner used Operant Conditioning to explain learning.
Behaviorism is very much on the nurture side of the debate as it argues that our behaviour is learnt from the environment.
Why is SLT an example for the influence of nurture?
Behaviour is acquired/ influenced through vicarious reinforcement as shown through Bandura’s Bobo doll study.
However, Bandura did also allow aspects biology to explain the behaviour observed. For example, he did acknowledge that the urge to behave aggressively might be biological, but the important point was that the way a person learns to express anger is acquired through environmental influences.
AO3 Nature-nurture debate
+Practical applications
+Use of lab experiments
-Reductionism + determinism
-Issues with twin studies
(+AO3) What are the practical applications for the nature-nurture debate?
Nature: Drug therapies can be developed to treat behavioural or psychological problems that have a physiological origin.
SSRIs used to treat depression
Nurture: If behaviour is susceptible to environmental influences, we must consider how we adapt to our environment.
We can plan interventions for criminal behaviour + reduce aggression.
(+AO3) How are lab experiments a strength of the debate?
Research into the debate uses lab and scientific equipment makes the research more valid as its objective and less chance of researcher bias.
E.g. Pavlov’s dogs for nurture
(-AO3) How can both aspects be regarded as reductionist?
Nature argument suggests that we’re predetermined to develop behaviours from birth - ignores free will and environmental factors.
Nurture argument suggests all behaviours are a result of the environment - ignores nature and genetics.
(-AO3) How do twin studies complicate the debate?
Research attempting to separate influence of environment is complicated: siblings raised within same family may not have experienced same upbringing.
Idea of shared & unshared environments suggests: individual differences mean siblings may experience life events differently.
Age/temperament to a certain life event (divorce) may have different meanings to different siblings.
= Explains finding that; even identical twins raised together don’t show perfect concordance rates.
