Nature/nurture

Question 1

What is the name for someone who believes in the nature side of the debate?

Answer 1

A nativist

Question 2

What is the name for someone who believes in the nurture side of the debate?

Answer 2

An empiricist

Question 3

What is the nature view?

Answer 3

Behaviour is a product of innate biological/ genetic factors.
Human characteristics are a product of evolution, individual differences are due to people’s unique genetic code.

Question 4

What did Rene Descartes argue about nature?

Answer 4

All human characteristics (even some aspects of knowledge) are innate

Question 5

Give an example of research into a mental illness which supports the nature viewpoint.

Answer 5

Schizophrenia risk = 1% for general population.
Gottesman and Shields: pooled results from 40 family studies.
Risk increases to 46% for those with 2 parents who suffer from it.

Question 6

What is the nurture view?

Answer 6

Behaviour is a result of experience and the environment.

Question 7

What did John Locke argue about nurture?

Answer 7

The mind is a ‘tabula rasa’ at birth which is then shaped by the environment.

Question 8

What did Watson argue about nurture?

Answer 8

That if given a dozen healthy infants he could raise them to be any specialist (beggar, doctor, lawyer, etc) regardless of their talents, penchants, abilities (what they were born with essentially).

Question 9

What does Lerner argue about environment?

Answer 9

There’s different levels
- prenatal factors (eg mother smoking, playing music)
- postnatal factors (social conditions they grow up in)

Question 10

Which approaches support the nurture view?

Answer 10

SLT (Bandura)
Behavioural (classical conditioning)

Question 11

What does heredity refer to?

Answer 11

Nature

Question 12

What is the interactionist approach?

Answer 12

That both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour.
So environment and heredity interact.

Question 13

Give an example of a disorder which demonstrates the interactionist approach and explain what it is.

Answer 13

Genetic disorder - PKU
Inherited - > unable to break down a certain amino acid which builds up in the brain and blood and causes mental retardation.
If child on low protein diet for 1st 12yrs, PKU (nature) is not expressed bc of an altered environment.

Question 14

AO3 - supporting evidence for interactionism

Answer 14

Epigenetics - a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code.
Caused by environment eg lifestyle
Tells our bodies what genes to use/ ignore, may affect our kids’ genetic code.
Ressler - mice electric shocked when exposed to a chemical in perfume -> showed fear, mice’s kids and grandkids also showed fear when exposed.
Shows how nurture affects nature.

Question 15

AO3 - contradictory evidence for interactionism

Answer 15

Hard to separate nature and nurture.
Researchers attempt to by using siblings but even they don’t experience the same upbringing.
Dunn and Plomin - individual differences (eg temperament) mean siblings experience life events (eg divorce) differently .
Explains why concordance rates for MZ twins is never 100%.

Question 16

AO3 - application of nature and nurture

Answer 16

Nativists explain OCD biologically - too little serotonin.
So use SSRIs to prevent reabsorption so serotonin continues to stimulate the p-s neuron, reducing OCD symptoms.
Empiricists explain behaviour via SLT - observing and imitating role models.
So films/ video games have age restrictions so aggressive/ sexual content won’t be observed and imitated by kids -> they develop more psychologically healthily w a safer society for them to live in.
Adds validity since based off the theories’ principles.