Nature/ nurture debate Flashcards
What is the nature/ nurture debate ?
The relative importance of nature or nurture’s influence on behaviour
What is the nature side of the debate ?
- When a behaviour is innate and heredity
- Nativist
- Genes/ DNA based
- E.g. OCD - candidate genes - concordance of twins
What is the nuture side of the debate ?
- Born as a blank slate - ‘tabula rosa’
- Empiricist
- Observation/ experimental
- Conditioning (classical and operant)
What is the heritability coefficient ?
- Used to assess the nature/ nurture debate
- Ranges from 0-1
- 0 = purely environmental
- 1 = purely genetic
- Coefficient = 0.5 (a mix of environmental and biological)
What is the interactionist approach ?
- development of debate
- looks at the interaction between nature and nurture rather than looking at them in isolation
- E.g Diathesis stress model, niche-picking
- A holistic view
What do all of the approaches think about the nature nurture debate ?
Nature:
Biological - innate and genetically determind behaviours
In the middle:
Psychodynamic
Humanistic
Cognitive
Nurture:
Social learning theory
Behaviouralist
What are the strengths of the nature/ nurture debate ?
Twin studies:
Evidence for the nature side
Nestadt = Higher amounts of identical twins shared OCD than non-identical twins
Application to treatment
Biological treatments such as drug therapies (nature)
Talking therapies (nurture)
Understanding causes which lead to effective treatment
What are limitations of the nature/ nurture debate ?
Interactionist approach
Plomin niche picking
More beneficial to study the interactions between nature and nurture rather than in isolation
Deterministic
Nativists say that ‘anatomy is destiny’
Extreme determinism has negative implications because it tries to link ethnicity, genetics and low IQ
Can be used to support eugenic policies and social control
Empiricists also look at behaviour shaping
By reinforcing the desired behaviour to an extreme level can lead to social control by the state
