The Nature - Nurture Debate Flashcards
What question is the nature - nurture debate based on?
The nature - nurture debate is based on whether characteristics (personality, intelligence, abnormality etc.) are cause by innate influences (nature) or the result of learning/environmental influences (nurture)
What do the nativists, Decartes, argue about the nature - nurture debate?
Nativists argue that human characteristics and knowledge are innate - hereditary
What do empiricists, Locke, argue about the nature - nurture debate?
Empiricists argue the mind is a blank slate at birth which is influenced by learning and experience, result of the environment
What is the heritability coefficient?
It is a numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1.0 which indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis
What is the general figure for IQ, based on studies in varying populations?
What does this figure suggest?
The general figure for heritability in IQ is around 0.5 across the varying populations. This suggest that both genetics and the environment are important factors in intelligence
What is an example of how nature affects children? (Piaget + child development with four stages)
Piaget suggested children’s development occurred in fixed stages. Every child passed through all four stages in the same order. There is no possibility for a child to miss a stage of development.
What does, Lerner, the nurture debate argue against the nature debate?
Nurture debate argues there are environmental influences. Lerner identified there are different levels of the environment
What were the different levels of environment that Lerner identified?
1) The mother’s physical and psychological state during pregnancy
2) Through postnatal experiences (eg. social conditions, cultural and historical contexts)
Is it difficult to separate nature and nurture as it is so closely intertwined.
Outline the twin studies that shows the difficult to separate the two aspects of the debate:
Gottesman and Shields reviewed studies exploring schizophrenia by using twin and adoption studies.
Findings showed higher concordance rates of schizophrenia in MZ twins (58%) than in DZ twins (12%)
These twin studies are difficult to tell whether high concordance rate are more the result of shared genetics or shared upbringing
What is a way to conclude a 16 mark question?
Practically, the nature - nurture debate is impossible to answer. This is because, as Lerner suggests, environmental influences begin as soon as a child is born - ultimately it is hard to separate nature and nurture as they are intertwined
What is the interactionist approach to the nature - nurture debate?
In attachments, patterns between infants and their parents are often a result of a two way process, in which the child’s temperament influences the way its parents respond to it. This shows nature creates nurture so heredity and environment interact
What does the diathesis - stress model suggest about psychopathology?
The diathesis - stress model suggests psychopathology is caused by a biological/genetic vulnerability (diathesis) which is only expressed when joined with a biological/environment trigger (sensor)
Outline the study that demonstrates the diathesis - stress model
A study by Tienari et al found in a group of Finnish adoptees, those most likely to develop schizophrenia had biological relatives with a history of the disorder (vulnerability) and has relationships with their adoptive families that they defined as dysfunctional (trigger)
What does epigenetics refer to?
Epigenetics refers to the change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code
How does epigenetics occur?
Epigenetics is a process that happens throughout life and is caused by interaction with the environment (like smoking, diets, pollution - leave epigenetic marks on DNA)
What do the epigenetics ‘marks’ on our DNA tell our bodies?
The epigenetic marks on our DNA tell our bodies which genes to ignore or use and in turn, may go on to influence the genetic codes of our children
What is the third aspect epigenetics introduces into the nature - nurture debate?
Epigenetics introduced the life experience of previous generations as an aspect in the nature - nurture debate
How did psychologists show how the life experience of previous generations could have an affect on people?
An experiment by Dias and Ressler where male lab mice were given electric shocks every time they were exposed to the smell of acetophenone and elicited a reaction of fear found the rats’ children also feared the smell even though they had never been exposed to the scent before or received any shocks and so did their grandchildren
What is a limitation of the nature - nurture debate? (siblings raised in same environment can have diff upbringing)
Research looking at the influence of the environment is complicated by the fact even siblings raised in the same environment may not have had the same upbringing. Dunn and Plomin suggested that the individual differences may not mean that siblings experience life differently. For example, age/temperament. This explains the findings that MZ twins raised in the same environment do not show perfect concordance rates - supporting the view that heredity and environment cannot be meaningfully separated.
What is a limitation of the nature - nurture debate? (niche picking and illogical to separate nature/nurture)
The notion that genes and environment interact is elaborated by constructivism. People create their own nurture by selecting environments that are appropriate for their ‘nature’. For example, an aggressive child may feel more comfortable around other aggressive people. Plomin calls this “niche - picking” and “niche - building”. This provides further evidence that it is impossible and illogical to separate nature and nurture
What is a limitation of the nature - nurture debate? (theory of gene - environment interaction)
Scarr and McCartney put forward a theory of gene - environment interaction, that included three types.
Passive interaction where the parents’ genes influence the way they treat their children, playing music to the child.
Evocative interaction where the child’s genes influence and share the environment the child grows up, the musically gifted child will be picked for school concerts.
Active interaction where the child creates its own environment through the people and experiences they select, so the child picks similarly musically talented friends.
This theory points towards how complex and multilayered the nature - nurture relationship is
