Nature and Nurture - AO3 Flashcards
Nature and Nurture cannot be seperated (alternative approach)…
P - Trying to seperate nature and nurture is not possible.
E - Donald Hebb argued they both contribute.
E - Example is the inherited disorder that prevents amino acid pheylalanine being metabolised, resulting in brain damage. However, if detected at birth an infant can be put on a specific diet which means brain damage is averted.
L - If prevention can be achieved through environmental manipulaton is the condition down to nature or nurture. Highlights the importance of an interactionist approach.
Diathesis stress (importance of an interactionist approach)…
P - Diathesis-stress model offers a way to understand nature and nurture.
E - Used to explain mental disorders. A diathesis is a biological vulnerability which predispose a person to developing a disorder.
E - Expression of the genes which lead to the disorder depends on experience in the form of a ‘stressor’ which triggers the condition.
L - Emphasises the importance of the interactionist approach.
Nurture affects Nature…
P - Neural plasticity has taught how life experiences shape your biology.
E - Maguire (2000) study on London taxi drivers showed the regions of their brains associated with spatial memory was bigger than in controls.
E - Taxi drivers were not born this way, their hippocampi has responded to an increase in use.
L - Clear demonstration of how nurture can affect nature.
Epigenetics…
P - Another consideration in the nature-nurture debate is epigenetics.
E - Epigenetic material in each cell of your body acts like a set of switches which turn genes on or off. Life experiences control these switches.
E - For example, MZ twins might both produce children who would differ in weight even though their children had identical diets - due to the epigenetic material they inherited which was derived from an environmental effect.
L - Means genetics and the environment are far less seperate then previously thought.
