nature nurture ID Flashcards
The nature nurture debate
concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics
Heredity
the genetic transmission of both mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another
Environment
any influence on human behaviour that is not from genetics
Interactionist approach
a way to explain the development of behaviour in terms of a range of factors, including both biological and psychological ones
interactionist apporoach
It is not really a debate because behaviour/characteristics are often a combination of both. For example, Bräuer and Chopra found that eye colour is 0.80 percent heritable.
Bowlby claimed that a baby’s attachment type is determined by the warmth and continuity of parental love, which is an environmental influence BUT
Kagan proposed that a babies innate personality also affects their attachment relationship. Thus nature (a baby’s temperament) creates nurture, so the environment has a hereditary interaction.
Diathesis-stress model
- Suggests that behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability
- Vulnerability only expressed when coupled with a ‘trigger’ or stressor
- Eg a person who develops a genetic vulnerability to OCD does not always develop the disorder
epigenetics
refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves. The process happens throughout life and is caused by interaction with the environment. Lifestyle choices like smoking leave ‘marks’ on our DNA, which switch genes on and off.
epigenetic changes can…..
influence the genetic codes of our children, thus introducing a third element into the nature-nurture debate → the life experiences of previous generations.
nature key concepts
- Inherited influences/heredity
- Descartes argued that all human characteristics are innate
nurture key concepts
- Influence of experience and the environment
- Empiricists like Locke argue that the mind is a blank slate at birth then is shaped by the environment
- Important feature in behaviourist approach
- Lerner identifies different levels of the environment (parental factors or social conditions in childhood)
measuring nature and nurture
The degree to which two people are similar on a particular train can be represented by a correlation coefficient and is called concordance. This then provides an estimate on the extent to which a trait is inherited.
adoption studies
strength
- Separate nature and nurture
- If child is more similar to adopted parents then this supports nurture and vise versa
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Rhee and Waldman did a meta-analysis and found genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression
Shows how research can separate the influences of nature and nurture.
counterpoint to adoption studies - This approach may be misguided
limitation
- Plomin says people create their own ‘nurture’ by selecting environments that are appropriate for their ‘nature’
- So a naturally aggressive child is likely to feel more comfortable with other aggressive children
- So their chosen friends further influences their development (niche-picking)
It does not make sense to look at evidence of either nature vs nurture
epigenetics
strength
- The events of WW2 display how environmental effects can span across generations
- Nazis blocked food to dutch people and 22,000 people died of starvation
- Susser and Lin says that women who were pregnant at this time had low birth rate babies
- These babies were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia
Life experiences of previous generations can leave epigenetic ‘markers’ that influence the health of their offspring
