nature vs nurture

Question 1

define nature

Answer 1

• Nature refers to inherited influences, or heredity.
  Early nativists such as René Descartes (1596-1650) argued that all human characteristics - and even some aspects of knowledge - are innate

Question 2

define nurture

Answer 2

• Nurture refers to the influence of experience and the environment.

Empiricists including the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth (tabula rasa), which is then shaped by the environment.

Question 3

what is the interactionist approach

Answer 3

the idea that behaviour/ characteristics arises from a combination of both nature and nurture

Question 4

what are the examples of the interactionist approach

Answer 4

• Bowlby (1958) :Claimed that a baby’s attachment type is determined by the warmth and continuity of parental love (an environmental influence).
• Kagan (1984): Proposed that a baby’s innate personality (temperament) also affects the attachment relationship. Thus, nature (the child’s temperament), in a real sense, creates nurture (the parents’ response), so environment and heredity interacts

Question 5

what is an example of the interactionist approach : diathesis stress model

Answer 5

This model suggests behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability (diathesis) which Is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental ‘trigger’ (stressor).

Question 6

what is epigenetics ?

Answer 6

This refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves.
It is a process that happens throughout life and is caused by interaction with the environment

Question 7

what is an example of epigenetics?

Answer 7

Dias and Ressler (2014) gave male lab mice electric shocks every time they were exposed to the smell of acetophenone, a chemical used in perfume.
Surprisingly, the rats’ children also feared the smell- even though they had not been exposed to acetophenone before or received
any shocks. So did their grandchildren.

Question 8

what is heritability?

Answer 8

A measure of how well differences in people’s genes account for differences in their traits.(how much a trait is down to genes)

Question 9

how to measure nature and nurture