Issues & Debates : Nature vs Nurture

Question 1

What is meant by nature?

Answer 1

Inherited influences (heredity). Nativists believe some characteristics and knowledge are innate and cannot change due to the fact you always had the genes

Question 2

What is meant by nurture?

Answer 2

Influence from experiences and environment. Empiricists believe the mind is a blank state (tabula rasa) which is shaped by experience. Both prenatal (mothers physiological and psychological state during pregnancy) and post natal (socio-historical context the child grew up in)

Question 3

What is heredity?

Answer 3

The process which traits are passed from parents to offspring (on scale of 1 – nature to 0 – nurture)

Question 4

What is concordance?

Answer 4

How similar two people are, measured by a correlation coefficient (between 0-1)

Question 5

What is the interactionist approach?

Answer 5

Both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour – the relative contribution made by both

Question 6

What’s the diathesis-stress model?

Answer 6

Behaviour is caused by a biological/ environmental vulnerability (diathesis) why is only expressed when coupled with a biological/ environmental trigger

Question 7

Whats epigenetics?

Answer 7

A change in genetic activity (switching genes on and off) without a change in the genetic code

Question 8

Nature explanations - Genetic

Answer 8

The concordance rate for a mental disorder (eg. Schizophrenia) is 40% for MZ twins and 7% for DZ twins – illustrating how nature plays a part in contribution to the disorder. However, the concordance rate for MZ isn’t 100% suggesting nurture and the environment also play a specific role in development.

Question 9

Nature explanations - Evolutionary

Answer 9

Based on the principle that a behaviour which primed survival will be naturally selected because these behaviours are adaptive, so the individual is more likely to survive. Bowbly proposed that attachment was adaptive as it meant an infant was more likely to be rotected due to display social releases (cute behaviours more likely to be taken care of by adults meaning infant is more likely to survive)

Question 10

Nurture explanations - Behaviourism

Answer 10

Behvaiourists assume all behaviour is explained based on experience. Skinner used concepts of classical and operant conditioning

Question 11

Nurture explanations - Social Learning Theory

Answer 11

Bandura said behaviour could be explained through classical and operant conditioning but also vicarious enforcement, acknowledging biology and environmental influences

Question 12

Strengths for nature vs nurture theory…

Answer 12

• Diathesis stress model highlights interplay between nature and nurture in the development of psychological disorders → Tienari et al (2004) studied 145 Finnish adoptees with genetic risk for schizophrenia, comparing that with 158 with no risk. After 12 years, 14 developed schizophrenia – 11 of which were in the high risk group. Those with genetic predisposition, raised in high-stress, low-empathy environments were more likely to develop the disorder, vs those without the genetic risk, even in similar environments.
• Evidence from adoption studies that enables genetic influences to ve partially separated from environmental influences → Rhee and Waldman (2002) conducted meta-analysis of adoption studies and found that genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggressive behavior.
• Evidence from epigenetic research demonstrating how environmental factors can influence gene expression across generations → Sasser and Shang Lin (1992) reported that women who became pregnant during the ‘Dutch Hunger Winter’ (1944), gave birth to low-weight babies, twice as likely to develop schizophrenia later in life vs to the general population
• Real world application to understanding and manganese mental health → Nedstat et al. (2010) found that the heritability rate of OCD is 0.76, suggesting a genetic component. However, high heritability does not guarantee that an individual will develop the disorder.
• ‘Constructivism’, where learners seen as active participants in their own learning, which highlights how an individual’s nature can shape their nurture (emphasizing the intricate relationship) → Plomin introduced concept of ‘niche-picking’/ ‘niche-building’, suggesting that a child’s inherent traits, will influence the environments they seek out and the relationships they form.

Question 13

Limitations for nature vs nurture theory…

Answer 13

• Difficulty separating nature and nurture → Maguire et al.’s (2000) study on London taxi drivers found the region of brain associated w spatial memory (hippocampus), was larger in taxi drivers vs control Ps. This correlated with length of time spent as taxi driver, suggesting the brain’s development is influenced by environmental factors (nurture). However, this adaptation is underpinned by brain’s innate capacity for neuro-plasticity, a genetically determined trait (nature).