NATURE NURTURE

Question 1

define nature

Answer 1

behaviour is the product of innate biological or inherited genetic factors, e.g, eye colour, skin colour, skin pigmentation

Question 2

define heredity

Answer 2

process in which traits are passed down genetically from one generation to the next

Question 3

define evolution

Answer 3

characteristics of the human species that are a product of evolution; individual differences are the result of a person’s unique genetic code

Question 4

what are examples of evolution in the nature vs nurture debate?

Answer 4

reproduction, survival, natural selection (e.g, bowlby)

Question 5

explain the key research in the nature vs nurture debate?

Answer 5

• schiz affects 1% of the population
• gottesman and shields found an increased risk of 46% for developing schiz when both parents. they found a concordance rate for SZ: for MZ twins = 48% and for DZ twins 17%
• mcguffin found c rates for major depressive disorder to be MZ 46% and SZ 20%

Question 6

define nurture

Answer 6

behaviour is the product of environmental influences (e.g, anything outside the body such as people, events, the world)

Question 7

define tabula rasa

Answer 7

the concept of the human mind as a “blank slate” that it gradually filled as a result of human experience

Question 8

how is bowlby key research for the nurture debate?

Answer 8

• children believed to have social releases: behaviours that increase the chances of care and therefore the chances of survival (e.g, crying and smiling)
• adults are driven to provide care during offspring’s critical period, which increases the survival of the gene pool

Question 9

what is an interactionist?

Answer 9

the view that both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour

Question 10

what is key research for interactionists?

Answer 10

• attachment patterns between an infant and its parent are often the result of a two-way street, in which the child’s innate temperament (nature) will influence the way its parents respond to it (nurture)
• bandura and the bobo doll research found that observation and imitation plus the biological urge to be aggressive

Question 11

what is the diathesis stress model?

Answer 11

suggests that psychology is caused by a biological vulnerability which is only expressed when couples with a biological or environmental trigger

Question 12

what is key research for the diathesis stress model?

Answer 12

tienari (2004) found that in a group of finnish adoptees, those most likely to develop schiz had biological relatives with a history of the disorder (vuln) and had relationships with their adoptive families that were dysfunctional (trigger)

Question 13

what is epigenetics?

Answer 13

• a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code
• aspects of our lifestyle (smoking, diet, pollution, war) we encounter could leave “epigenetic marks” on our DNA, these marks could then influence the genes of our children. (like the effects of radiation)
• this introduces a third element into the nature-nurture debate: the life experiences of previous generations

Question 14

what are 4 eval points for the nature-nurture debate