The Nature - Nurture debate

Nature

any influence on behaviour which is genetic eg neurochemistry

Heredity

traits are passed from parents to their offspring

Interactionist approach

view that the processes of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposition

The nature-nurture debate

the argument as to whether a person’s development is mainly due to their genes or to environmental influences

Environment

everything that is outside our body, any influence on behaviour which is non-genetic

Lerner

identified different levels of the environment, ranging from pre-natal and post-natal experiences

Locke

aruged the mind is a black slate at first and that learning and experience shapes us

Descartes

believed human characteristics and some aspects of knowlegde are innate - the result of heredity

Examples of the influence of nature

Genetic explanations

Evoluationary explanations

Examples of the influence of nurture

Behaviourism

SLT

Diathesis-stress model

Diathesis: suggests mental illness is caused by a biological vulnerability - a person inherits a genetic predisposition

stress - this only gets expressed if it is mixed with a stressor

Tiernari 2004 - support interactionist approach

found children who lived in dysfynctional homes and had biological relative with schizophrenia were most likely to develop a disorder

shows that there is an interaction between nature and nurture

Implications of emipricism and nativism

empiricism - if we alter the enviro we can change our behaviour (sz token economies) - unethical, manipulation to behave in a way people want us to behaviour

nativism - forensics - genes - socially sensitive, eugenics - people with desirable traits to breed people without discouraged to breed

Evaluation of debate - epigenetics

Dias and Ressler 2014 - gave rats electric shocks everytime they were exposed to acetophenone - rats eventually showed fear every time smell was present - so did their children and grandchildren

Epigenetics brings in another element to debate - life experiences and previous generations

limitation of debate - cannot separate two factors

we cannot separate our genes from our environment and therefore cannot fully understand the relative importance of hereditry (nature) and environment (nurture)

results highlight the need for an interactionist approach