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Psychology > Nature and Nurture > Flashcards

Nature and Nurture Flashcards

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1
Q

What is nature?

A
  • Nature is inherited disposition
  • The behaviour is explained through GENES, GENETIC VARIANCE AND HERITABILITY
  • GENES = aggression – MAOA
    = schizophrenia = S2-DISC1
    = Anorexia nervosa
  • HERITABILITY = This is how the genes are inherited within a family

-GENETIC VARIANCE = the extent to which behaviours are genetic
= S2 – 79%
= AN – 70%
= OCD – 29%

  • In nature we can talk about anatomical differences such as brain structure (but only if they are born this way)
  • INATE BEHAVIOURS = these are evolutionary explanations (survival of the fittest)
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2
Q

What is nurture?

A
  • The environment influences behaviour
  • FOR EXAMPLE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING, OPERANT CONDITIONING AND SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY (role models and vicarious reinforcement)
  • TABULU RASA = (Locke) – that you are born a blank late and it is your experiences that make up who you are
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3
Q

What is interactionism?

A
  • This is when both nature and nurture work together

Diathesis-stress model:
- These are genetic pre-disposition + environmental factors that come together and for the behaviour

Epigenetics:
- That the environment switches genes on/off to cause different behaviours

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4
Q

How do we study nature and nurture?

A

TWINS:
- We are interested into monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins (but less than MZ)
- With twins we are looking at concordance rates = the percentage of times that both twins have the same disorder/same diagnosis
- If a behaviour is completely genetic, then the concordance rate of MZ twins would be 100%
- The problem with genetic explanations is that the concordance rates of MZ twins is never 100%

ADOPTION STUDIES:
- With adoption studies you have biological parents however you are raised by people that are not your biological parents
- looking at genes from biological parents and the environment provided by adoptive parents

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5
Q

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the way that we study nature and nurture?

A

TWINS:
- STRENGTH – They are representative of all twins, and they are easy to access due to twin registries
- WEAKNESS – The equal environments assumption = this is when it is assumed that the twins had the same environment growing up and that they were raised similarly.
However, MZ twins are treated more similarly than DZ twins and they are more likely to experience identity confusion

ADOPTION STUDIES:
-STRENGTH – they show us that twin studies overestimate genetic influences
- WEAKNESS – selective placement = this is when adopted parents are often similar to a child’s biological parents (not really separating nurture from nature)
- WEAKNESS – another weakness is that it is a naturally occurring IV because the problematic children will stay in the system for longer so they are more likely to have problems

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6
Q

SOCIAL

What is an example of nature in social?

A
  • Obedience to authority might be due to personality factors, which are predisposed.
  • Burger looked at the personality traits of empathetic concern and desire for personal control in his replication of Milgram.
  • He found that the defiant participants had a significantly higher desire for personal control.
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7
Q

What is another example of nature in social?

A

When we are ‘AGENTS’ TO THOSE IN AUTHORITY, this might be something that EVOLVED in humans because being in a society protects us and is a survival trait.
- This is seen in Charles Hoffling et al as after being asked by authority (a doctor) to administer an overdose of a drug, 95% administered it.
- This is because they were doing what they were told and not rebelling.

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8
Q

What is an example of nurture in social?

A
  • The AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY may be due to how a person was raised.
  • Adorno believed that a harsh style of parenting leads children to develop traits such as toughness, destructiveness and cynicism, which are features of the authoritarian personality.
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9
Q

What is another example of nurture in social?

A
  • When exposed to SOCIAL PRESSURES AND MORAL STRAIN we are more likely to be obedient.
  • This is seen in Milgram’s study as, despite instincts telling them to stop and anxiety, in the presence of a professional experimenter and prompts that told them to go on, 65% of the participants administered the full 450V shock.
  • This is nurture as societal pressures lead us to do things.
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10
Q

COGNITIVE

What is an example of nature in cognitive?

A
  • There is a focus on brain functioning and BRAIN STRUCTURE in the way that we remember.
  • For example, it is suggested that the medial temporal lobe and the hippocampus are connected to short term memory processing.
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11
Q

What is another example of nature in cognitive?

A
  • SCHEMAS are an innate mental structure that is used to make quick decisions about people and things for our survival and to save energy.
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12
Q

What is an example of nurture in cognitive?

A
  • The idea of RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY is nurture.
  • This is because Bartlett claimed that any gaps in the reconstructions of our memories and filled with our expectations and stereotypes which are based off our past experiences.
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13
Q

What is another example of nurture in cognitive?

A
  • There are CULTURAL DIFFERENCES in the way words are encoded
  • This is known as the word length effect
  • This is seen in Sebastian and Hernandez gill as the digit span for Spanish children continued to increase until 17 whereas for Anglo-Saxon children it was 15, as it takes longer for Spanish children to rehearse the words as they have more syllables.
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14
Q

BIOLOGICAL

What is an example of nature in biological?

A
  • Aggression may be caused by differences in GENES, HORMONES AND BRAIN STRUCTURE.
  • For example differences in hormone levels such as high levels of testosterone may cause the aggression. - Dabbs et al in the women prisons where the degree of criminal violence used by the women was positively correlated with testosterone
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15
Q

What is another example of nature in biological?

A
  • FREUD believed that we had AGGRESSIVE INSTINCTS.
  • The id and the pleasure principle contain instincts, impulses and drives that are socially unacceptable, including aggressive drives.
  • These unconscious instincts we are born with and therefore are innate.
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16
Q

What is an example of nurture in biological?

A
  • The use of DRUGS throughout your life might have an effect and alter the processes in the body.
  • For example if we take cocaine then they can lead to an impact of the activity of dopamine and lead to dependency.
  • When there is a low, this can lead to irritability and aggressive behaviour.
17
Q

What is another example of nurture in biological?

A
  • Some criminal’s behaviours might come from CHILDHOOD TRAUMA/ BRAIN DAMAGE later in life as there is this correlation in jails, not brain structure.
  • Raine is very careful not to conclude that the NGRIs in his study were born that way; their apparent brain damage might have come about because of their experiences (e.g. drug abuse, violent relationships, etc).
18
Q

LEARNING

What is an example of nature in learning?

A
  • PHOBIAS might come from evolved survival traits.
  • Before it might have been advantageous to have a fear of open spaces as this mean that we were vulnerable or small spaces because there is no way out.
19
Q

What is another example of nature in learning?

A

PLEASURE CENTRES in our brain and the DOPAMINE pathway might mean that the REWARD feeling that are given through operant conditioning lead us to learning the behaviour.
- Without this feeling, the effect of the rewards of behaviour wouldn’t work.

20
Q

What is an example of nurture in learning?

A
  • SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY suggests that we copy behaviours of others/ ROLE MODELS (and through vicarious reinforcement in this behaviour is rewarded).
  • This is seen through Bandura who through his studies found that childhood role models can have an effect on your future behaviour
  • You are more likely to follow your gender parents’ behaviour so if this is violent it may be replicated
21
Q

What is another example of nurture in learning?

A
  • CLASSICAL CONDITIONING is reliant on ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULI and how we respond to these stimuli.
  • For example with Pavlov’s dog experiment he conditioned the dogs to salivate to the environmental stimuli of a buzzer.
22
Q

SOCIAL - SHERIF

What is an example of nature in Sherif?

A
  • COMPETITIONS due to a lack of resources is EVOLUTIONARY because it is SURVIVAL INSTINCTS
  • We have this inbuilt FEAR OF STRANGERS which could have led to the prejudice.
23
Q

What is another example of nature in Sherif?

A
  • All of the boys were from the SAME CULTURE yet NOT all of them were prejudice.
  • This suggests that prejudice is UNIVERSAL, and this suggests that there is a nature element to prejudice.
24
Q

What is an example of nurture in Sherif?

A
  • Prejudice is environmental is a factor because they were influenced by a SOCIAL SITUATION.
  • There was group formation (in groups and outgroups) and there were competitions (tug of war and baseball for example).
  • This meant that the views were influenced by the views of their group.
25
Q

What is another example of nurture in Sherif?

A
  • We can reduce prejudice by using SUPERORDINATE GOALS.
  • In Sherif et al’s study the boys had to fix a broken down truck and a water tank. Socialising wasn’t enough and they had to do tasks together to change their views.
  • Aronson + Bridgeman – ‘jigsaw classroom’ (used in American classrooms to tackle racism)
  • SOCIAL SOLUTIONS
26
Q

COGNITVE - BADDELEY

What is an example of nature in Baddeley?

A
  • In experiment 3, both men and women were used so this shows that memory is innate and is NOT AFFECTED BY GENDER
27
Q

What is another example of nature in Baddeley?

A
  • Encoding is UNIVERSAL.
  • How we encode information is the same for everybody and is linked to the MSM.
  • We will all encode acoustically in the STM for example
28
Q

What is an example of nurture in Baddeley?

A
  • The word length effect due to cultural differences.
  • Language and words in different languages get encoded differently.
  • Therefore the words in Baddeley’s list might be encoded differently dependent on what language they are in
29
Q

What is another example of nurture in Baddeley?

A
  • SCHEMAS are influenced by CULTURAL DIFFERENCES (Bartlett).
  • This might affect which words in the word list that we encode because we remember them better due to environmental stimuli and past experiences
30
Q

BIOLOGICAL - RAINE

What is an example of nature in Raine?

A
  • Different levels of GLUCOSE METABOLISM in their amygdala which could be inherited.
  • The right amygdala has higher activity than the left side which led to higher aggression in the murderers.
31
Q

What is another example of nature in Raine?

A
  • There was LESS ACTIVITY IN PFC which reduces our impulse control.
  • This could have led to the aggression because they were filtering less messages from the amygdala.
32
Q

What is an example of nurture in Raine?

A
  • All of the participants were NGRIs/murderers, so they have a higher likelihood of having CHILDHOOD TRAUMA OR PREVIOUS BRAIN DAMAGE
  • Raine is very careful not to conclude that the NGRIs in his study were born that way; their apparent brain damage might have come about because of their experiences (e.g. drug abuse, violent relationships, etc).
33
Q

What is another example of nurture in Raine?

A

There might have been PEER INFLUENCE if criminals hung out with the wrong people.
This can be related to SLT because childhood role models can have an effect on your future behaviour (Bandura)

34
Q

LEARNING - WATSON AND RAYNER

What is an example of nature in Watson and Rayner?

A
  • The FEAR RESPONSE in an innate behaviour.
  • These are evolutionary because it aided survival.
  • It is also BIOLOGICAL PREPAREDNESS (Seligman) which means that some fears are evolutionary and used to aid our survival, so they are harder to decondition
35
Q

What is another example of nature in Watson and Rayner?

A
  • The DESIRE TO LEARN is also innate.
    We want to seek out information and learn, specifically newborns.
  • This is built in and part of our genetics.
  • Without it Little Albert wouldn’t have gone to touch the rat in the first place
36
Q

What is an example of nurture in Watson and Rayner?

A
  • The researchers introduced the FEAR STIMULUS of the loud crash which means that they classically conditioned Little Albert to be scared of rats.

Psychology (10 decks)

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