Nature and Nurture Debate Flashcards
What is the nature/nurture debate?
The extent to which our behaviour is determined by our biology and the genes we inherit from our parents versus the influence of environmental factors such as home, school and friends
What is the nature side of the debate?
Nature = the view that all our behaviour is determined by our biology (not the same as the characteristics you’re born with as these may have been determined by pre-natal environment + some characteristics only appear later in development as a result of the process of maturation)
Nature view supporters = nativists
Which explanations of human behaviour exemplify the nature approach?
Evolutionary explanations - the main assumption underlying this approach is that any particular behaviour has evolved because of its survival role e.g. Bowlby suggests attachment behaviours are displayed as they ensure survival of the infant - survival value further increased as attachment has implications for later relationships = promote successful reproduction
What do evolutionary psychologists assume?
That behaviour is a product of natural selection. Interpersonal attraction can, for example, be explained as a consequence of sexual selection. Men and women select partners who enhance their productive success, judging this in terms of traits that ‘advertise’ reproductive fitness, such as signs of healthiness and resources
What other approach supports nature?
Physiological psychology is also based on the assumption that behaviour can be explained in terms of genetically programmed systems
What are the strengths of the nature side of the debate?
Bowlby’s explanation of attachment does not ignore environmental explanations - in the case of attachment theory, Bowlby proposed that infants become most strongly attached to the caregiver who responds most sensitively to the infants needs
The experience of sensitive caregiving leads a child to develop expectation that others will be equally sensitive, so they tend to form adult relationships that are endearing and trusting
What are the limitations of the nature side of the debate?
Problem of the transgenerational effect - behaviour which appears to be determined by nature may in fact by determined by nurture e.g. if a women has a poor diet in pregnancy the baby will suffer. This means the effs with which each female child is born will also have these negative effects. This can affect the development of her children a whole generation later so a child’s development can be determined by their grandmothers environment so what may appear to be inherited is in fact caused by environment and nurture
What is the nurture side of the debate?
That all behaviour is learnt and influenced by external factors such as the environment
Supporters of the nurture debate are ‘empiricists’ holding the view that all knowledge is gained through experience
What is the clearest example of the nurture view in psychology?
The behaviourist approach - as it assumed that all behaviour is learned through the environment e.g. social learning explanation of aggression using Bobo doll
What does SLT propose (nurture)?
That much of what we learn is through observation and vicarious reinforcement e.g. Bandura shows this
He found that children who watch an adult role model being rewarded for aggression towards the doll tended to imitate the behaviour when later on their own with the doll - supports that personality is determined by nurture rather than nurture, provides us with a model of how to behave
Such behaviour becomes part of an individuals behavioural repertoire through direct reinforcement - when a behaviour is imitated it receives direct reinforcement
What is another assumption of the nurture approach?
That there is the double bind hypothesis which explains schizophrenia - they suggests that schizophrenia develops because children receive contradictory messages from their parents
What is the strength of the nurture approach?
Empirical evidence shows that behaviour is learnt and can be modified through conditioning
What is the limitation of the nurture approach?
Behaviourist accounts are all in terms of learning, but even learning itself has a genetic basis e.g. research has found that mutant flies missing a crucial gene cannot be conditioned (Quinn et al)
What are most psychological researchers now interested in instead of defending extreme nature/nurture views?
The ways in which nature and nurture interact as it is limiting to describe behaviour solely in terms of either nature or nurture, and attempts to do this underestimate the complexity of human behaviour
What is an example of nature and nurture interacting?
In psychopathology this means that both a genetic predisposition and an appropriate environmental trigger are required for a mental disorder to develop therefore it makes more sense to say the differences between two peoples behaviour are mostly due to hereditary factors or mostly due to environmental factors
The Diathesis-stress model of Schizophrenia suggests that although people may inherit a predisposition to Sz, some sort of environmental stressor is required in order to develop the disease (explains why Sz often occurs in late teen/early adulthood - times of stress
Why is the nature-nurture debate impossible to answer?
From the moment we are born they are intertwined e.g. difficulties with twin studies
Now the focus of psychologists is the relative contribution of each to a person
What will an interactionist approach look at?
How behaviour will impact on how people are treated e.g. temperament will influence the way you are treated. Also need to consider the diathesis stress model
What does epigenetics refer to?
A change in genetic activity without changing the genetic code, this happens throughout life and is influenced by the environment. Aspects of our life leave a genetic mark on our DNA and these in turn may go on to influence our children - epigenetics therefore introduces a third element into the debate
What is an example of a study highlighting epigenetics?
Dias and Ressler gave male rats an electric shock every time they were exposed to acetophenone, as behaviourists predicted they would show a fear response every time it was squirted
Their babies were also afraid even though they had never been exposed to it - as were their grandchildren
What are the implications of nativism and empiricism?
Nativists suggest that anatomy is our destiny and the environment has little impact - this has led to controversy, particularly is the area of eugenics
Empiricists would suggest that any behaviour can be changed by the environment - behaviour shaping has a practical application in therapy, desirable behaviours are reinforced , however it may lead one to advocate a model of society that controls and manipulates its citizens using these techniques
What is the significance of shared and unshared environments?
Complications rise as even siblings raised in the same environment experience it differently.
Dunn and Polmin suggested the idea of unshared environments and that siblings may experience life events differently e.g. divorce may be experienced differently - this would explain why MZ twins do not show perfect concordance rates
What is constructivism?
People create their own ‘nurture’ by selecting environments that are appropriate to their ‘nature’. Thus naturally aggressive children will be happier in the environment of those who show similar behaviours
Plomin refers to this as niche-picking and niche-building which demonstrate that it is illogical to separate nature from nurture
Who conducted the study for genotype-environment interaction?
Scarr and McCartney- gene-environment interactions
What are passive interactions?
Parents gene’s influence the way they treat their children
