Nature Vs Nurture Flashcards
What is the nature Vs nurture debate
The extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics
What are the 3 parts of the nature Vs nurture debate
The interactionist approach, diathesis stress model and epigenetics
What is the interactionist approach
An explanation of behaviour using a range of factors such as biological and psychological ones and that they aren’t separate factors that just add in but rather they interact with each other
What is the diathesis stress model
Suggest that behaviour is caused by biological or environmental vulnerability which is only expressed when coupled with a trigger
What is a stressor
Biological or environmental trigger
What is epigenetics
It refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves
What is epigenetics typically caused by
interaction with the environment
What switches our genes on and off
Things that leave marks on our DNA
What type of things leave marks on our DNA
Smoking, diet, pollution ect
Can epigenetic changes influence next generations
Yes as the expression of the gene changes and the genetic code of our children get changed
What topic is the interactionist approach seen in
Attachment
How is the interactionist approach shown in attachment
As a child’s innate temperament will influence how a parent responds but the parents response will affect the child’s behaviour and therefore they interact together
What are the key concepts of the nature Vs nurture debate
Nature, nurture and measuring them
What is nature
The inherited influences or hereditary reasons for behaviour. That all human characteristics is innate and has a biological basis
What is nurture
Influences of experience and the environment such as social conditions, prenatal conditions ect
How is nature or nurture measured
Correlation coefficient and concordance rates
What can concordance be used to estimate
Heritability- the extent to which a trait is inherited
What is heritability
The proportion of differences between individuals and a population with regards to a particular trade that is due to genetic variation
What does a hereditary value of 0.1 mean
That the genes contribute to almost nothing to individual differences
What does a hereditary value of 1.0 mean
Means that genes are the only reason for individual differences
What is the general figure for heritability in IQ
0.5
What does the 0.5 heritability figure for IQ suggest
The about half a person’s intelligence is determined by genetic factors and the other half is determined by environmental factors
What psychologist found that the heritability figure for IQ was 0.5
Plomin
Which psychologist assisted with the concept of nurture
Lerner
What did Lerner identify
Different level of environment such as prenatal and postnatal experiences
What are the strengths of the nature Vs nurture debate
.use of adoption studies
.support for epigenetics
.real world application for heritability of mental disorders
What is the strength of how the nature Vs nurture debate helps with research for adoption studies
It’s useful because they separate competing influences of nature and nurture.
Adopted children found to be similar to the adoptive parents suggest that the environment (nurture) had a bigger influence
whereas with adopted children who are most similar to the biological parents then genetic factors (nature) are presumed to dominate
What did Rhee and Waldman research and what did they find
The conducted a meta analysis of adoption studies and found that genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression
What does Rhees and Waldmans research show
That influences of nature and nurture can be separated
What is the counterpoint of the strength of research into adoption studies
Research suggest that nature and nurture are not too entities that can be pulled apart.
According to Plomin, people create their own nurture by actively selecting environments appropriate for their nature. Eg. Aggressive kids will be more comfortable with similar behaving kids
Described as Niche-picking
Explain the strength of the nature Vs nurture debate supporting epigenetics
During world war II the Nazis block distribution of food to Dutch people and 22,000 died of starvation
The women who are pregnant during
the famine went on to have low birth weight babies and these babies were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia when they grew up compared to typical population rates
Supports the view that life experiences can leave epigenetic markers that influence offspring health
Explain the strength of the real world application of the nature Vs nurture debate
Research suggests that OCD is a highly heritable mental disorder ability rate was placed at 0.76 therefore showing that it has a high risk of being inherited genetically.
However it doesn’t mean that it is inevitable that the individual will go on to develop the disorder. This introduced genetic counseling where people with high genetic risk of OCD were able to receive advice about the likelihood of developing the disorder and how they might prevent this.
This shows that the debate is not just a theoretical theory but rather a concept that needs to be understood about the interaction between nature and nurture on a practical level
