Nature-Nurture debate

• Nature - behaviour seen to be a product of innate (genetic) factors. Refers to any ability determined by genes.

  Psychological characteristics such as intelligence or personality are determined by genes.

  Supported by the biological approach - genetic explanation of OCD
• Nurture - behaviour seen to be a product of environmental factors. It is believed that the mind is a blank slate at birth and is then shaped by the environment.

  Supported by learning approaches - behavioural explanation to phobias (conditioning)
• Nature-nurture debate:

  Refers to relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors.

  Behaviour arises from a combination of both.

  Example - Ainsworth came up with attachment types determined by parental sensitivity (nurture), however innate temperament also affects the relationship. Nature affects nurture and environment and heredity interact.
• Relative importance of heredity and environment:

  Nature and nurture are so closely intertwined, there is little sense trying to separate the two.
• Twin studies - often difficult to tell whether high concordance rates are due to shared genetics or shared upbringing.

  The nature-nurture debate now focuses more on how they each contribute in terms of our behaviour not which is most important.
• Interactionist approach:

  Behaviour is a product of genetic and environmental working together

  Diathesis stress model - suggests people inherit a vulnerability like OCD but this will only be expressed if the person is exposed to environmental triggers. This is an example of interactionist approach.

  Epigentics - refers to change in our genetic activity due to our environment without changing genes themselves.
• A03 - implications of taking a nature or nurture stance

  An extreme nature stance has attempted to link race, genetics and intelligence, the idea that intelligence is linked with race and genetic makeup is a socially sensitive topic.

  An extreme nurture stance suggests that any behaviour can be changed by changing environmental conditions. Can lead to misuse and a model may control and manipulate citizens in extreme terms.

  Negative implications taking an extreme view either side.
• A03 - Adoption studies (strength)

  They separate competing influences of nature and nurture. If adopted children are found to be more similar to adoptive parents this suggests environment may be a bigger influence. If adopted children are more similar to biological parents this suggests genetic factors are more dominated.
• A03 - Real world application

  There are benefits to finding out heritability rates.

  Nedstadt found the heritability rate for OCD is .76. This understanding can inform genetic counselling because high heritability rates do not necessarily mean a genetically vulnerable person will develop to disorder. People at high risk can be educated about prevention and this shows at a practical level why we need to know interaction between nature and nurture
• A03 - support for interactionist approach comes from research into epigenetics

  Susser and Shang Lin reported that babies of women who became pregnant during the Dutch Hunger Winter were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia when they are up compared to typical population.

  This supports the view that life experience of previous generations can leave epigenetic markers that influence the health of their offspring