Nature and Nurture

• Nature

  • the view that all our behaviour is determined by our biology and our genes.
• Nurture

  • the opposite view that all behaviour is learned and influenced by external factors such as the environment and how it is learneed
• the interactionist approach

  • nature nurture debate seeks to answer the question of whether our behaviour is more influenced by our nature or nurture
  • e.g. claimed a baby attachment type is determined by the warmth and continuity of parental love (environmental influence)
  • how do nature and nurture interact (interactionist approach)
• diathesis stress model

  • suggests behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability which is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental trigger
• epigenetics

  • refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves.
  • process that happens throughout life and caused by an interaction with the environment
  • aspects of our lifestyle we encounter leaves "marks" on our DNA
  • this suggests why factors such as smoking have a lifelong influence even after you stop - they have changed the way your genes will be expressed
• strengths AO3

  • use of adoption studies, they are useful because they separate the competing influences of nature and nurture.
  • support for epigenetics, events of ww2, the nazis blocked the distribution of food to the dutch people and 22,000 died of starvation, women who became pregnant during the famine, had low birth weight babies, they were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia
  • real world application such as OCD which is a highly heritable mental disorder