nature nurture debate

• At one extreme, nativists believe our behaviour is pre-determined by nature. Nativists believe our behaviour is explained by heredity – i.e. inherited biological characteristics such as genetics.
• Twin studies provide a way to assess the heritability of behaviour. Monozygotic twins have identical genetics and so, if nativism was 100% correct, you would expect them to behave identically too. However, monozygotic twins often have different personalities and preferences, suggesting environment plays a role in behaviour too.
• Nurture (environment)- At the other extreme, empiricists believe humans are born as blank slates with no innate nature. So, because humans don’t come with any pre-programmed traits or nature, any behaviour must be learned from the environment.
• The learning approach to psychology leans towards the nurture side of the debate. Skinner, for example, explained behaviours as a result of operant conditioning and so different conditioning leads to different behaviour (regardless of genetics). For example, if someone who learned to do their homework because of positive reinforcement did not receive that positive reinforcement, then they would have behaved differently (i.e. not done their homework).