Nature Vs Nurture Flashcards
whats the order of approaches from nature to nurture?
Biological
Psychodynamic
Cognitive
Humanism
Behavourism
what is the nature-nurture debate?
concerns the origin of our traits. its concerned with the extent to whixh aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics.
what does nature mean?
-view that behaviour is product of innate biological or genetic factors.
-psychologist have known certain physical characteristics such as eye colour, skin pigmentation and certain diseases are biologically determined and the result of heredity.
whats being on the nature side called?
-known as the nativist position
-basic assumption is that the characteristics of human species are product of evolution and
-individual differences ar result of each person’s each genetic code.
what is heredity?
-process in which traits are passed down from one generation to the next.
-characteristics like height, weight, hair loss to specific illnesses +vely correlated with genetic relatedness
how do we measure heredity?
-heritability coefficient is used to assess heredity.
-its numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1.0.
-indicates extent to which a characteristic has genetic basis.
what do family, twin and adoption studies show?
-show the closer the relatedness of two people, the more likely it is that they will show same behaviours.
-e.g risk of having schiz is 1%
Gottsman and Shields (1991)
-pooled the results of around 40 family studies and found that risk increases to 46% for those with two parents who have schizophrenia
Joseph (2004)
-pooled the data for schizophrenia studies conducted before 2001 and found an average concordance rate of 40.4% for MZ twins and 7.4% for DZ twins highlighting signifiant genetic component
what are evolutionary explanations?
-they also emphasise the importance of nature
-they assume that behaviours or characteristic which increase our chances of survival and reproduction will be naturally selected
-genes for these characteristics or behaviours will be passes on as they provide adaptive advantage.
what is the nurture view?
nurture is the view that behaviour is the product of environmental influences
what are people who take the nurture view called?
environmentalists or empiricists
what do empiricists believe?
-the mind is a blank state (tabula rasa)
-they state human characteristics are learnt and as a result of the environment.
what is the environment?
any influence on human behaviour that is non genetic
what did Richard Lener do?
first identified two levels of the environment: pre natal and post natal experiences.
this ranges from pre natal influences in the womb through to cultural and historical influences at a societal level.
behavioural psychologists
believe in nurture - classical conditioning
whats the interactionist approach?
-nature and nurture are linked so it doesn’t make sense to separate the two
-researchers instead study how they interact and influence each other.
-the approach argues that several levels of explanation are necessary to explain particular behaviour ranging from lower (biological) to higher (social and cultural)
what does diathesis mean?
-comes from Greek word for disposition.
-in the context of the mode this disposition is a factor that makes it more likely that an individual will develop a disorder following stressful life event.
whats the diathesis-stress model?
-suggests psychopathology is caused by biological/genetic vulnerability (the diathesis)
-which is only expressed when couples with biological trigger (the stress)
examples of diathesis stress model?
-traumatic early life experiences (loss of parent etc) can act as longstanding predispositions to psychological disorder.
-personality traits like high neuroticism can be referred to as ‘diathesis’
Theodore (2020)
diatheses can be situational factors Luke living in a low income household or having a parent with a mental illness.
schizophrenia with genetic components?
-schiz has strong genetic component.
-some individuals with genetic susceptibilities to disorder remain healthy
-so view held is that schiz requires genetic predisposition in combo with stress later in life which triggers shiz.
whats a neural diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia?
-attempts to explain how brain changes resulting from diatheses and stresses give rise to the disorder (Jones and Fernyhough (2007))
-diathesis stress model has support from neuroscience.
who supported the model?
-Tienari et al (2004)
-found in a group of Finish adoptees those most likely to develop schiz had biological relatives with it.
-and had relationships with adoptive families described as ‘dysfunctional’ (trigger)
how has the model been validated by research?
-Colodro-Conde et al 2018
-study found there to be interaction effect between genetic risk factors for depression and scores on an inventory of stressful life events in predicting depressive symptoms
what are epigenetics?
-refer to the change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code.
-process that happens throughout life an dis caused by interaction with the environment.
what are epigenetic marks?
-interactions w the environment cause epigenetic marks on our DNA
-which tell our body what genes to ignore and which to use which is then passed on.
-introduces the life experiences of previous generations
Dias and Ressler
-gave male lab mice an electric shock every time they were exposed to the smell of a chemical.
-mice showed a fear reaction as soon as scent was present
-mices children also feared the smell even though they hadn’t been exposed to the smell or given any shocks.
