Nature Vs Nurture

Question 1

What is the nature Vs nurture debate

Answer 1

The extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics

Question 2

What are the 3 parts of the nature Vs nurture debate

Answer 2

The interactionist approach, diathesis stress model and epigenetics

Question 3

What is the interactionist approach

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is the diathesis stress model

Answer 4

Suggest that behaviour is caused by biological or environmental vulnerability which is only expressed when coupled with a trigger

Question 5

What is a stressor

Answer 5

Biological or environmental trigger

Question 6

What is epigenetics

Answer 6

It refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves

Question 7

What is epigenetics typically caused by

Answer 7

interaction with the environment

Question 8

What switches our genes on and off

Answer 8

Things that leave marks on our DNA

Question 9

What type of things leave marks on our DNA

Answer 9

Smoking, diet, pollution ect

Question 10

Can epigenetic changes influence next generations

Answer 10

Yes as the expression of the gene changes and the genetic code of our children get changed

Question 11

What topic is the interactionist approach seen in

Answer 11

Attachment

Question 12

How is the interactionist approach shown in attachment

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What are the key concepts of the nature Vs nurture debate

Answer 13

Nature, nurture and measuring them

Question 14

What is nature

Answer 14

The inherited influences or hereditary reasons for behaviour. That all human characteristics is innate and has a biological basis

Question 15

What is nurture

Answer 15

Influences of experience and the environment such as social conditions, prenatal conditions ect

Question 16

How is nature or nurture measured

Answer 16

Correlation coefficient and concordance rates

Question 17

What can concordance be used to estimate

Answer 17

Heritability- the extent to which a trait is inherited

Question 18

What is heritability

Answer 18

The proportion of differences between individuals and a population with regards to a particular trade that is due to genetic variation

Question 19

What does a hereditary value of 0.1 mean

Answer 19

That the genes contribute to almost nothing to individual differences

Question 20

What does a hereditary value of 1.0 mean

Answer 20

Means that genes are the only reason for individual differences

Question 21

What is the general figure for heritability in IQ

Answer 21

0.5

Question 22

What does the 0.5 heritability figure for IQ suggest

Answer 22

The about half a person’s intelligence is determined by genetic factors and the other half is determined by environmental factors

Question 23

What psychologist found that the heritability figure for IQ was 0.5

Answer 23

Plomin

Question 24

Which psychologist assisted with the concept of nurture

Answer 24

Lerner

Question 25

What did Lerner identify

Answer 25

Different level of environment such as prenatal and postnatal experiences

Question 26

What are the strengths of the nature Vs nurture debate

Answer 26

.use of adoption studies
.support for epigenetics
.real world application for heritability of mental disorders

Question 27

What is the strength of how the nature Vs nurture debate helps with research for adoption studies

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What did Rhee and Waldman research and what did they find

Answer 28

The conducted a meta analysis of adoption studies and found that genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression

Question 29

What does Rhees and Waldmans research show

Answer 29

That influences of nature and nurture can be separated

Question 30

What is the counterpoint of the strength of research into adoption studies

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Explain the strength of the nature Vs nurture debate supporting epigenetics

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Explain the strength of the real world application of the nature Vs nurture debate

Answer 32

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