nature vs nuture

Socialisation

Behavior learned from family, peers, and education.

Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment

Demonstrates that children imitate aggressive behavior observed in others.

Feral children

Children like Genie who show how lack of socialisation limits development.

Cultural differences

Variations in norms across societies indicating environment shapes behavior.

Mead’s study of Samoan vs. American adolescents

Research showing different adolescent experiences and behavioral norms in different cultures.

Life experiences / trauma

Experiences that shape personality and behavior.

Widom’s longitudinal study

Research linking childhood abuse or neglect to adult aggression or mental health issues.

Genetic influences

Heredity impacts traits such as intelligence, aggression, and mental health.

Gottesman twin studies

Studies indicating that identical twins are more likely to both have schizophrenia than fraternal twins.

Biological predispositions

Innate behaviors or tendencies that affect actions.

Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar

Proposes that language acquisition is an innate ability.

Lorenz’s imprinting

Demonstrates innate behavior patterns in goslings.

Physiological factors

Hormones and brain structures that influence behavior.

Testosterone

A hormone linked to aggressive behavior in males according to prison studies by Dabbs et al.

Amygdala activity

Linked to aggression as shown by Raine et al.'s studies of violent offenders.

Diathesis-stress model

The theory that genetic vulnerability plus environmental stress can trigger depression.

Twin studies

Research showing that both genes and environment are significant, as identical twins are not 100% concordant for traits.