Issues and debates(the nature-nurture debate) Flashcards
What is the nature-nurture debate?
The argument of whether a persons development is due to their genes or environmental influences.
Examples of influence of nature -
Genetic explanations - Family, twin and adoption studies show that the closer the two individuals are genetically the more likely they will develop the same behaviour. For example:
Gottesman’s study, children with 2 schizophrenic parents had a concordance rate of 46%, children with one at 13% and siblings (with a brother or sister having schizophrenia) with a concordance rate of 9%.
Examples of influence of nurture -
Behaviourism, where behaviourist suggest behaviour is from experience alone through types of conditioning - For example Skinners box research where the environment is derived from reinforcement where a organism learns from its environment through either positive or negative, reinforcement or punishment. Classical conditioning explain why attachment is formed through babies where an infant learns to associate the idea of pleasure from food with the mother throughout when she feeds her.
Nurture may impact nature -
For example in neural plasticity of Maguires London taxi study. Where the regions of spatial control in the brain were bigger than the control group. This was seen to be not because they were born this way but because the hippocampi had responded to extreme use of the environment. Suggesting how unique and specialised use of the environment had impacted the hippocampi.
Diathesis-stress -
One consideration is the interaction between nature and nurture in the diathesis-stress model. This can be used to explain mental disorders such as a phobia. A diathesis refers to a biological vulnerability, such as being born with genes that make you vulnerable to develop a disorder. The expression of the gene heavily depends on the stressor which is the environment which triggers the condition. Thus a persons nature is only expressed under certain conditions of his nurture.
