Issues and debates: Nature vs Nurture

Question 1

What is the nature nurture debate?

Answer 1

It’s concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics.

Question 2

What is nature?

Answer 2

Those characteristics and abilities that that are determined by your genes. Supporters of this view are hereditarians or nativists.

Question 3

What is nurture?

Answer 3

The influences of experience and environment. A belief that all knowledge is gained through experience Supporters of this view = empiricists.

Question 4

What is heredity?

Answer 4

The genetic transmission of mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another.

Question 5

What is the heritability coefficient and what does it measure?

Answer 5

The heritability coefficient is a numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1 which indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis, one means it is entirely genetically determined zero means not at all.

Question 6

What are the genetic explanations of nature?

Answer 6

Family, twin and adoption studies show that the closer two individuals are genetically, the more likely that both of them will develop the same behaviours.

The concordance rates for a mental disorder such as schizophrenia about 40% for MZ twins and 7% for DZ twin. This close similarity for individuals with the same genes shows that nature has a major contribution to the disorder.

Question 7

What are the evolutionary explanations of nature?

Answer 7

Evolution or change over time occurs through the processes of natural and sexual selection. In response to problems in our environment, we adapt both physically and psychologically 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.

Question 8

What is the behaviourism example of the influence of nurture?

Answer 8

Assume all behaviour can be explained in terms of experience. Skinner used concepts of CC and OC 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.

Question 9

What is the social learning theory example of the influence of nurture?

Answer 9

Behaviour is acquired through learning adding a new dimension of vicarious reinforcement. But Bandura did also allow biology to play a role. 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.

Question 10

What are the other explanations of the influence of nurture?

Answer 10

The double-bind theory of schizophrenia suggests schizophrenia develops in children who frequently receive contradictory messages from their parents. For example, if a mother tells her son she loves him, she simultaneously turns her head away in disgust. Such conflicting messages about her feelings prevent the child from developing an internally coherant construction of reality, which may lead to the symptoms.

Question 11

A03:

Answer 11

+ Practical application
+ Use of lab experiments
- Reductionist & deterministic
- Issues with twin studies

Question 11

Practical application

Answer 11

• Practical applications for nature argument:
  Drug therapies can be developed to treat behavioural or psychological problems that have a physiological origin.
  E.G: SSRIs can be used to treat depression.
• Practical applications for nurture argument:
  If the behaviour is susceptible to environmental influences, we must consider how we adapt to our environment.
  E.G: how can we plan interventions for criminal behaviour & reduce aggression?

Question 12

Use of lab experiments

Answer 12

The high use of laboratory and scientific equipment makes the research more valid as it is objective and less chance of researcher bias.

Question 13

Reductionist & deterministic

Answer 13

• Nature argument suggests: we are predetermined to develop behaviours from birth - ignores free will & environment.
  = Reductionist.
• Nurture argument suggests: all behaviours are a result of the environment - ignores nature & genetics.
  = Reductionist.

Question 14

Issues with twin studies

Answer 14

• Research attempting to separate influence of environment is complicated: siblings raised within same family may nor have experienced same upbringing.
• Idea of shared & unshared environments suggests: individual differences mean siblings may experience life events differently.
  E.G:
  Age/temperament to a certain life event (divorce) my have different meanings to different siblings.
  = Explains finding that; even identical twins raised together don’t show perfect concordance rates.

Question 15

The interactionist approach: A03

Answer 15

While twin studies are often used to provide support for the nature argument, nearly all twin studies also highlight the need for an interactionist approach. Nestadt et al. (2010) examined previous twin studies in relation to OCD. Nestadt found an average concordance rate of 68% in MZ twins and a 31% concordance rate in DZ twins, highlighting a significant genetic component. These results do provide evidence of a strong genetic component, as the concordance rate MZ (68%) twin is significantly higher than the DZ twins (31%), which suggests that behaviour is partly attributed to nature because MZ twins share 100% genetic relatedness. However, the results also highlight the role of nurture as the concordance rate is not 100%, again highlighting the importance of taking an interactionist approach. Most psychologists now believe that we should consider both nature and nurture and therefore should adopt an interactionist approach.