nature-nurture debate

• Environment


  Everything that is outside our body, including people, events and the physical world. Any influence on behaviour which is non-genetic.
• Levels of environment

  Lerner identified different ‘levels’ of the environment, which ranged from pre-natal experiences (e.g. the mother’s physiological and psychological state during preganancy) to post-natal experiences (e.g. the socio-historical context within which the child grew up in). The view that the mind is a ‘blank slate upon which experience writes upon’ is typical of an empiricist/behaviourist approach e.g. John Locke.
• Nature


  Any influence on behaviour which is genetic e.g. the action of genes, neurochemistry, neurotransmitters and neurological structures.
• Heredity

  The process by which traits are passed from parents to their offspring, usually referring to genetic inheritance. The heritability coefficient can be used to quantify the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis. For example, intelligence appears to have a heritability coefficient of 0.5 (Plomin et al, 1994) and so the influences of nature and nurture are equal.
• Interactionist approach


  With reference to the nature-nurture debate, this is the view that the processes of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposition. They are linked in such a way that it does not make sense to separate the influences of the two.
• Nature - Nurture Debate

  The argument as to whether a person’s development is mainly due to their genes or to environmental influences. Most researchers accept that behaviour is a product of the interaction between nature and nurture.
• Examples of the influence of nature

  Genetic explanations — The more closely related two individuals are, the more likely that they will develop the same behaviours.

  Evolutionary explanations — These are based on the principle that a behaviour which promotes survival will be naturally selected e.g. running away from fire or avoiding deep water. This is because such behaviours are adaptive, so the individual is more likely to survive to adulthood and reproduce.
• Examples of the influence of nurture

  Behaviourism — Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be explained in terms of experience alone.

  Social learning theory — Bandura proposed that behaviour is acquired indirectly through operant and classical conditioning but also by directly through vicarious reinforcement.
• Evaluation of the nature - nurture debate

  (+) Diathesis-Stress Model, (+) Nurture affects nature, (+) Epigenetics, (+) Constructivism