The Nature-Nurture debate

Nature

Nature

The view that behaviour is a product of genetic or innate biological factors

Heredity

The process by which physical and psychological traits are genetically passed down from one generation to another (genetic inheritance)

Nurture

The view that behaviour is a product of environmental influences

Environment

Any influence on human behaviour that is not genetic, people, events and the physical world.This can include the environment in the womb through to cultural and historical influences

Interactionist-approach

The view that both nature and nurture interact and work together to shape human behaviour

Diathesis-Stress

A psychological theory that attempts to explain the cause of a disorder as the result of an interaction between a pre-dispositional vulnerability (diathesis) and a stress caused by life experiences

Neural plasticity

The brain’s tendency to change and adapt functionally and physically as a result of experience or learning

Outline the nature-nurture debate

To what extent should we consider human biology, e.g. genetic inheritance, (nature) or environmental factors (nurture) on human behaviour

Which characteristics are positively correlated with genetic relatedness? And what had this led psychologists to assess?

• height, weight, hair loss, life expectancy and vulnerability to specific illness

• This has led psychologists to investigate whether psychological characteristics are innate

How do nativists explain characteristic and differences that are not observable at birth but which emerge later in life?

They say that they are the product of maturation, as we have a ‘biological clock’ which switches certain behaviours on or off in a pre-programmed way

Nature- attachment

• Bowlby- children are born biologically programmed to to form attachments because this will help them to survive.

• Attachment behaviours are naturally selected and passed on as a result of genetic inheritance (heredity)

• This theory is supported by research by Lorenz and Harlow using animals

• Supports influence of nature

Nature- OCD

• Family, twins and adoption studies show that the closer the relatedness of two people the more likely it is that they will show the same behaviours

• Carey and Gottesmann found that monozygotic twins have higher concordance rates for OCD (87%) than dizygotic twins (47%), suggesting that genetics (nature) play a role

• This emphasises the importance of the contribution of genetics on behaviour and therefore provides evidence for the nativist position

What is the nurture view?

Behaviour is the product of environmental influences

Assumption of environmentalists/empiricists

Human mind is tabula rasa (a blank slate) and is gradually ‘filled’/shaped as a result of experience

Who first proposed the nature approach and who took it up?

John Locke and the view was then taken up by behavioural psychologists, e.g. Watson

How do environmentalists explain psychological characteristics and behavioural differences that emerge during infancy and childhood?

They are a result of learning

Nurture- attachment

Behavioural psychologists explain attachment in terms of classical conditioning

Food (UCS) is associated with mother (NS) and through many repeated pairings mother becomes a conditioned stimulus, who elicits a conditioned response of pleasure in the child

Child forms an attachment based on the pleasure experienced as a result of being fed

demonstrates role of nurture

Nurture- phobias

• environmental explanations of conditioning can be used to explain phobias

• Classical conditioning- negative experience(UCS) with phobic stimulus(NS) - phobia (CS) leading to fear (CR)

• Operant conditioning- maintains phobias- negative reinforcement- avoid situations in which phobic stimulus may be present in order to avoid anxiety and fear, reinforces phobia

• Role of nurture and environment in developing psychological disorders

Gene environment interaction

Interplay of genes (and more broadly genome function) and the physical and social environment

Passive Gene Environment interaction

Parents contribute to their child’s development by passing on their genes and providing an environment for the genetic predisposition to develop

Active Gene environment interaction

Child’s inherited traits lead them to make choices about their environment, known as niche picking or constructivism