Issues & Debates: Nature Nurture Debate Flashcards
What does the nature-nurture debate discuss?
Whether human behaviour is due to nature (gene) or nurture (environment, experiences).
What is meant by nature?
Inherited, innate factors (genetic). A biological approach.
What is meant by nurture?
The environment, e.g. learning, socialisation and experience. A behaviourist approach; we are a ‘blank state’ at birth.
What is meant by interactionism?
Heredity (nature) and the environment (nurture) have an influence on each other.
What do nativist psychologists believe about human characteristics and behaviour?
That characteristics and behaviours (mental and physical) are innate and passed on from one generation to the next via genes.
Give an example of where ‘nature’ is seen in a topic in psychology.
Bowlby’s monotropic theory states that babies come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments through behaviours such as social releasers because this will help them to survive.
Attachment is innate.
What do empiricists suggest about human behaviour?
That the mind is a ‘blank state’ at birth and our behaviour is shaped by our environment, learning and experience.
Give an example of a principle in psychology that supports the idea of nurture.
Using classical conditioning to explain attachment/learning of a phobia.
UCS + NS = UCR (Association and repetition)
NS becomes CS which leads to a CR (learned behaviour).
Why is it so difficult to answer the nature-nurture debate? Give an example (link to twin studies).
Because environmental influences in a child’s life begins as soon as it is born.
Difficult to tell whether high concordance rates in MZ twins for certain behaviours/characteristics are a result of shared genetics or shared upbringing (often treated similarly).
How has the nature-nurture debate changed in recent years?
instead of trying to decide on one side of the debate to explain behaviours, psychologists are now more concerned with the relative contribution of each.
How does the interactionist approach fit into the nature-nurture debate?
The interactionist approach takes a stance between the extreme nature and extreme nurture debate, arguing that both genetics and the environment play a part in human behaviour (diathesis-stress model).
What does the interactionist approach suggest about how our behaviour is determined?
Genetics give us a pre-disposition to certain behaviours. Our genetics are then influenced by the environment.
Give an example of how the interactionist approach is used to explain OCD.
Individual may be born with a maladaptive SERT gene which makes them vulnerable to OCD. However, the individual may not develop the disorder unless they experience a stressful life event (to trigger their OCD).
AO3: Why can the nature side of the debate not be used as a full explanation of human behaviour?
Because if genes were 100% the sole cause of behaviour, MZ twins would share 100% genetic material SHOULD have 100% concordance rates. However, this is not the case. So other factors like the environment must be involved.
AO3: What did Tiernari (2004) find about likelihood of SZ using the interactionist approach?
In a group of Finnish adoptees those most likely to develop SZ had biological relatives with SZ (diathesis) and also had dysfunctional relationships with their adoptive families (stressor) - Supporting the idea of interactionism.
