The Nature-Nurture Debate

• What is nature?


  The view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors
• What is hereditary?


  The process by which traits are passed down from one generation to the next
• What is nurture?


  The view that behaviour is a product of environmental influences
• What is the environment?


  Anything outside of the body such as people, events and the physical world
• What is Bowlby's theory of attachment?


  Where attachment gives survival advantages, this attachment to a particular caregiver is seen as having central importance to a child's development.
• What is the learning theory of attachment?


  It uses operant conditioning to explain that babies cry to receive food. This leads to them being fed so crying is reinforced and repeated.
• What does Bowlby's theory support?


  Nature
• What does the learning theory of attachment support?


  Nurture
• What does the diathesis-stress model support?


  Interactionalist
• What is an example of the interactionalist approach?


  PKU
• What is PKU caused by?


  The inheritance of two reccessive genes
• How is PKU managed?


  Diet
• What is the interactionalist approach?


  The view that nature and nurture work together rather then in opposition
• What is the nature-nurture debate?


  The argument as to whether a person's development is mainly due to their genes or to environmental factors