Nature-Nurture

• This debate is about the relative importance of heredity and environment in determining behaviour
• The nature view assumes heredity is more important, and is founded in nativist theory that abilities are innate
• The nurture view assumes environment and experience is more influential, and is founded in empiricist theory that knowledge derives from learning and experience- e.g. Locke viewed the mind as a 'tabularasa' (blank slate) on which experiences are to be written
• Interactionalists believe it makes no sense to separate nature and nurture, and consequently study how the two interact and influence one another
• What did Tienari find about biological children of parents with SZ to support the nature debate?

  Tienari found that biological children of people with SZ are more at risk than the general population, even if they grow up in an adoptive family- suggesting that for some conditions, nature may have a stronger influence than nurture
• How did Plomin's 'Niche-picking' show how hard it is to separate nature and nurture?

  Plomin researched 'niche-picking' and suggested that people create their own 'nurture' by selecting environments appropriate for their 'nature'
• There can be major implications of accepting nature or nurture as the primary drive- extreme nature has led to eugenics and extreme nurture has led to 'behaviour shaping' (e.g. aversion therapy can lead to extreme social control).
• The behaviourist approach takes the extreme nurture position and assumes that the environment forms behaviour (e.g. cupboard love in attachment where caregiver is associated with food)
• The biological approach assumes genetic make-up drives behaviour as the main cause of behaviour (nature)- but acknowledges to some extent the environment (nurture) does affect development (e.g. the phenotype).
• Twin studies have often been used to support the influence of nature on behaviour (e.g. 48% concordance for MZ for SZ and only 17% concordance for DZ twins)- however, this is difficult to use as strong evidence as the MZ twins may be more likely to have shared the same microenvironment than DZ twins