Nature nurture explanations

Question 1

What is this debate about?

Answer 1

Whether behaviour is the product of our genetics or our upbringings

Question 2

Nature explanations

Answer 2

Behaviour is determined by genetic inheritance (including unchanging biological factors) so innate factors dictate how we act

Question 3

Nurture explanations

Answer 3

Behaviour is determined and dependent on upbringings: past experiences, encounters, learnt behaviour s

Question 4

Strengths of the nature explanation

Answer 4

Supported by evidence that behaviour can be difficult to change
Research wouldn’t be ethnocentric since biological factors are same across cultures (species specific) so we don’t have to repeat in diff cultures
Useful for genetic modification

Question 5

Weaknesses of nature explanations

Answer 5

Limited use since it suggests it’s hard to change someone’s nature
Behaviour is too complicated to be attributed to genes (reductionist)
Socially sensitive by saying behaviours and problems can’t be changed

Question 6

Strengths of nurture explanations

Answer 6

Supported by evidence that behaviour is open to changing based on upbringing/learning eg behaviourism and brain plasticity
Can be useful by suggesting how to change behaviour due to upbringings

Question 7

Weaknesses of nurture explanations

Answer 7

Might be ethnocentric because cultures vary in upbringing so we cannot generalise findings from one study to all human behaviour
Socially sensitive by blaming parents/ external influences for negative behaviour

Question 8

Examples of studies that support nature explanations

Answer 8

Freud - argued that the stages of psychosexual development was a factor all children are born with, which explains little hans’s phobia
Baron-Cohen - argued a core deficit of autism (a disorder from birth) was theory of mind which is why autistic participants scored significantly worse on the eyes task

Question 9

Examples of studies that support nurture explanations

Answer 9

Maguire - found a positive correlation between volume of grey matter in posterior hippocampus and years spent as taxi driver. So therefore someone’s ability to memorise spatial information is a skill developed from practise over time (someone was ‘raised) and not what you’re born with
Lee - found that the culture (Chinese or Canadian) someone is raised in affects how positively or negatively they view telling the truth after pro social behaviour