nature vs nurture

• The nature-nurture debate considers the contributions of heredity or environment in determining behaviour.
• Heredity is when genetic traits are passed on through reproduction
• Nature suggests that behaviour is determined by genetics and heredity.
• Nurture suggests behaviour is caused by the environment.
• All approaches to psychology incorporate both nature and nurture
• Learning approaches such as behaviourism and social learning theory say that behaviour is mostly due to nurture
• The biological approach suggests behaviour is mostly due to nature and genetics but both genotype and environmental factors affect behaviour.
• Difficult to test the relative contributions of heredity and environment on behaviour. Ripke et al found there were over 100 alleles which were associated with schizophrenia making it difficult to test cause and affect between certain alleles and schizophrenia. This is problematic as it is difficult to establish relative contributions of heredity on behaviour.
• Difficult to study relative contributions of heredity and environment on behaviour. It is difficult to establish to what extent the environment was influenced by genes. This relationship is called a gene-environment correlation proposed by Robert Plomin. This is problematic as it is difficult to establish relative contributions on behaviour.
• The interactionist approach to nature-nurture suggests that we should study how heredity and the environment interact to determine behaviour.
• Gene-environment interaction is when the effect of someone's environment on their phenotype depends on their genotype
• Supporting evidence for interactionist approach. Gottesman conducted research on intelligence and found our genes determine our potential intelligence, and our environment determines where we end up within that range. This is positive as it supports the idea that heredity and the environment interact to determine behaviour.
• Supporting evidence for interactionist approach. The diathesis-stress model suggests that the effect of genes on behaviour depends on environmental factors and is an example of gene-environment interaction. This is positive as it supports the idea that heredity and the environment interact to determine behaviour.