Nature-nurture debate Flashcards

1
Q

What is the nature-nurture debate?

A
  • concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics and also how they interact with each other > an interactionist approach
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2
Q

Why is it not a debate about one or the other?

A
  • because any behaviour/ characteristic arises from a combination of both e.g.
  • Bowlby > baby’s attachment type is determined by the warmth & continuity of parental love (environmental influence)
  • Kagan > baby’s innate personality (temperament) also affects attachment relationship
    nature creates nurture =interaction
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3
Q

How is the diathesis stress model an example of an interactionist theory?

A
  • it suggests behaviour is caused by biological or environmental vulnerability (diathesis)
    which is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental ‘trigger’ (stressor)
    e.g. a person with a genetic vulnerability for OCD may not develop disorder> combined with a trigger (traumatic experience) may result in the disorder
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4
Q

What is epigenetics?

A
  • refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves
  • caused by interaction with the environment
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5
Q

How does epigenetics occur and what does this lead to?

A
  • lifestyles or events e.g. smoking & diet to trauma leave ‘marks’ on our DNA which switch genes on and off
  • this changes the way genes are expressed and influences genetic codes of children and their children
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6
Q

What is nurture?

A
  • refers to inherited influences or heredity
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7
Q

What did early nativists argue?

A
  • Descartes argued that all human characteristics and even some aspects of knowledge are innate
  • psychological characteristics like intelligence or personality are determined by biological factors (genes) just as physical characteristics are
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8
Q

What is nurture?

A
  • nurture refers to the influence of experience and the environment
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9
Q

What did Lerner identify?

A
  • different levels of the environment
  • prenatal factors, e.g. how physical influences (smoking) or psychological influences (music) affect a foetus
  • postnatal factors influence development e.g. social condition child grows up in
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10
Q

What do empiricists argues?

A
  • John Locke argued that the mind is a blank state at birth ( tabula rasa) which is then shaped by the environment
    -important feature of behaviourist approach
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11
Q

How is nature and nurture measured?

A
  • the degree to which two people are similar on a particular trait can be represented by a correlation coefficient and is called concordance
  • concordance rates provide estimates about the extent to which a traits inherited - heritability
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12
Q
  • What is heritability?
A
  • this measures the proportion of differences between individuals in a population, with regards to a particular trait that is due to genetic variation
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13
Q

What does a figure of .01 and 1.0 mean?

A

.01 (1%) - means genes contribute almost nothing to individual differences
1.0 (100%)- means genes are the only reason for individual differences
- IQ is 0.5 across cultures

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14
Q

What is a strength of research into the nature-nurture debate?

A
  • use of adoption studies > they separate the competing influences of nature & nurture
  • if adopted children are found to be more similar to their adoptive parents- suggests environment is the bigger influence
  • if adopted children more similar to bio parents > genetics factors presumed to dominate
  • e.g. a meta- analysis of adoption studies by Rhee & Waldman > found that genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression
  • showing how research can separate the influences of nature & nurture
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15
Q

What is a counterpoint to the first strength of the debate?

A
  • However, research suggests that this approach may be misguided
  • nature and nurture are not two entities that can simply be pulled apart According to Plomin > people create their own ‘nurture’ by actively selecting environments that are appropriate for their nature
  • e.g. a naturally aggressive child is likely to feel more comfortable with children who show similar behaviours and will choose their environment accordingly > Then, their chosen companions further influence their development
  • refers to this as niche-picking
  • This suggests that it does not make sense to look at evidence of either nature or nurture separately
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16
Q

What is another strength of nature- nurture debate?

A
  • support for epigenetics
  • example of how environmental affects can span generations through epigenetic effects comes from WW2
  • 1944 Nazis blocked distribution of food to Dutch people, 22,000 died of starvation - Dutch hunger winter
  • Susser & Lin > women who became pregnant during famine went on to have low weight babies
  • theses babies were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia when they grew up compared to more typical rates
  • supports that life experiences of previous generations can leave epigenetic markers that influence health of offspring
17
Q

How does the nature-nurture debate have real-life application?

A
  • research suggests OCD is a highly heritable disorder e.g. Nestadt et al put the heritability rate at .76
  • understanding can inform genetic counselling > important to understand that high heritability does not mean it is inevitable individual will develop disorder
  • people with high genetic risk of OCD can receive advice about the likelihood of developing the disorder (prevention)
  • debate is important on a practical level