Nature Nurture Debate Flashcards
What is the ideal answer to the nature vs nurture debate in psychology?
Should be nature AND nurture (taking an interactionist approach)
- always mention this in any kind of conclusion at the end of a 16/8 marker
What is heredity?
Genetic transmission of both mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another
What is nativism?
Certain skills or abilities that you are born with
What is the empiricist theory and which side of nature/nurture does it lean on?
Behaviour/abilities come from learning and experiences (nurture), they aren’t innate traits
- the mind is viewed as a ‘tabula Rosa’ (blank slate)
Where do all of the psychological approaches lie in terms of nature/nurture/interactionist?
Nurture:
. Behaviourist
. SLT
Nature:
. Biological
Interactionist:
. Cognitive
. Psychodynamic
. Humanistic
What should you mainly talk about for the nature side of the nature/nurture debate?
. Begin with the biological approach as the foundation of the nature debate
. OCD, genetic and neural explanations
. Forensics, genetic and neural explanations
How can the things you talk about in the nature part be extended to nurture?
. Psychopathology can have phobias, cognitive treatments - these are based on behaviourism which is all about learning from ‘tabula rosa’, showing it is all about nurture
. Forensics has differential association theory
What evidence can you use for the interactionist approach?
. Maguire et al (biopsychology) - environment (doing the navigation) had an effect on the biological plasticity of the brain as more time spent doing the taxi driving was correlated with a posterior hippocampus
. Eysenck’s theory
. Diathesis stress in any context really, especially in OCD
- considering both the stressors of life that can make a genetically predisposing candidate gene actually present itself in life
What are the implications of favouring either the nature of nurture side of the debate, justifying why interactionist approach to behaviour is best?
Implications on criminal justice system:
. Emphasis on nature: this is biologically deterministic, claiming you can’t override your genes = don’t take responsibility for your actions as you can claim it wasn’t your fault
. Emphasis on nurture: this is environmentally deterministic, leading to people getting less sympathy for a crime as behaviour based on environment can lead to stereotypes that introduce discrimination and prejudice against individuals in certain environments.
What are the nature/genetic aspects of OCD?
. Candidate genes such as COMPT gene (to do with dopamine) and SERT gene (to do with serotonin) can predispose you to levels of serotonin
. OFC and the worry cycle
What is the nurture aspect of differential association?
Blames socialisation for the development of criminal activity
