Nature vs Nurture Flashcards
N vs N
Biological
Nature
- argues that behaviour is determine by biological factors
N vs N
Behaviourist
Nurture
- human beings are born as a tabula rasa and behaviour is learned
N vs N
SLT
Nurture
- behaviour is learnt via classical and operant conditioning
- doesn’t take into account biological factors
N vs N
Cognitive
Nature and Nurture
- information processing is modified as a result of experience
N vs N
Psychodynamic
Mostly Nature
- behaviour is caused by innate drives although early childhood experiences also shape our behaviour
N vs N
Humanistic
Mostly Nurture
- argues that humans have an innate drive to self-actualise however the environment and our experiences shape this journey
What is nature?
nativists argue that human characteristics are determined by heredity and the extent of this can be measured using a heritability coefficient
What is nurture?
Lerner identified different levels of the pre and post-natal environment
The interactionist approach
DIathesis stress model to explain schizophrenia
Epigenetics- Interactions between genes and the environment may affect future generations
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Nurture affects nature
Maguire et al study of London taxi drivers showed that the region of their brains with spatial memory was bigger than in controls, this is because the hippocampus had responded that way.
There was a positive correlation between increasingly pronounced changes and an increasing length of time that individuals had been taxi drivers
Demonstrates the interactionist nature of empiricism and nativism
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Diathesis Stress Model
Gives support for the interactionist approach
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Constructivism
Plomin suggested that an individual’s nature would determine their nurture through niche picking or niche building
Emphasises the multi-layered relationship between nature and nurture
