Nature nurture

Question 1

What is the nature side of the debate

Answer 1

• Refers to inherited influences or heredity
• Early natavists argued all human characteristics - even some aspects of knowledge - are innate.
• Psychological characteristics like intelligence or personality are determined by biological factors just as physical characteristics like eye colour or height are

Question 2

What is the nurture side of the debate

Answer 2

• Empiricists believe we are born with our minds as a blank slate and are shaped by environment = behaviourist approach
• Lerner identified levels of the environment which includes prenatal factors such as how physical influences e.g. smoking or psychological influences e.g. music affects the foetus. More generally development is influences postnatally in terms of for example the social conditions a child grows up in

Question 3

Evidence for nature

Answer 3

Twin studies
- concordance rates
- monozygotic vs dizygotic
e.g. offending, schizophrenia

Question 4

Evidence for nurture

Answer 4

For example, Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory states that aggression is learned from the environment through observation and imitation. This is seen in his famous bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961).

Question 5

Measuring nature and nurture

Answer 5

The degree to which two people are similar on a particular trait can be represented by a correlation coefficient and is called concordance. This provides an estimate about the extent to which a trait is inherited - called heritability. Heritability is the proportion of differences between individuals in a population with regards to a particular trait that is due to genetic variation.
- 0.01/1% = genes contribute almost nothing to individual differences
- 1.0/100% = genes are only reason

The general figure for heritability in IQ is about 0.5/50% across multiple studies in varying populations. This means 1/2 of a person’s intelligence is determined by genetic factors and the other half must be environmental

Question 6

What is the interactionist approach

Answer 6

o The interactionist approach argues for the interaction between Nativism and Empiricism.
o Our genes give us a predisposition which interacts with our environment. This is a two-way-street, so it is also possible for our environment to respond to our predispositions.
An example of the interactionist approach is intelligence; we have a genetic predisposition to attain a certain level of intelligence, but we can either reach our potential or underperform due to our environment (ideal learning environment vs factors such as poor diet, poor education, brain injury etc).

Question 7

What is the diathesis-stress model

Answer 7

Suggests behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability which is only expressed when accompanied by a biological or environmental ‘trigger’ (stressor).
e.g. Schizophrenia Tienari study

Question 8

What are epigenetics

Answer 8

o Epigenetics refers to a change in our genetic experience without changing our DNA. This happens due to an interaction with the environment.
o For example; a person who smokes, has lived through war, or is diagnosed with Behcet’s.
o Epigenetic changes can go on to influence the genetic code of our children, and therefore adds the life experiences of previous generations as a factor in the nature-nurture debate.

Question 9

Evaluation

Answer 9

Real world application – genetic counselling
P = A strength of the nature-nurture debate is that by investigating the relative importance of the factors, a useful therapy has been created.
E = Genetic counselling is where an individual with a high genetic risk of developing a disorder, such as OCD, due to their family background, is able to access and receive advice on the likelihood of developing the disorder and how they may prevent it (or lower the risks).
E = This shows that the debate is important on a practical level to understand the interaction between nature and nurture.

Using adoption studies to investigate the relative importance
P = One strength of research into the nature-nurture debate is the use of adoption studies.
E = Adoption studies are particularly helpful because they make it possible to separate the influences of nature and nurture. If an adopted individual is found to be more similar to their adopted family than their biological family then it suggests a greater relative importance of the environment (empiricism), whereas more similarity is found with the birth family then it suggests a greater relative importance of genes (nativism).
E = This allows better conclusions to be drawn on the relative importance of these two sides of the nature-nurture debate.

Support for epigenetics
P = Support for epigenetics comes from the descendants of pregnant women during the Dutch Hunger Winter, which was when the Nazis blocked access to food to the Dutch people, causing the death of around 22’000 individuals.
E = Susser and Lin (1992) found that women who became pregnant during the famine had low birth weight infants, and these babies were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia when they grew up than the standard population.
E = This supports that epigenetic changes can go on to influence the genetic code of our children, and therefore supports the importance of taking an interactionist approach to the nature vs nurture argument.