Nature v Nurture

• Interactionist

  The view that the process of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposition
• Nativist

  Extreme nature
• Empiricist

  Extreme nurture
• Relative contribution

  How much each (nature and nurture) influence us, not which one - more modern approach
• Heritability coefficient

  Number between 0 and 1 that represents the extent to which a trait is inherited (1 being completely genetic)
• Nature debate

  • innate
  • abilities/personality are determined by genes
• Genetic explanations

  • twin adoption studies show that closer genetics are more likely to display the same behaviour
  • there are also genetic explanatios for schizophrenia and criminal behaviour
• Evolutionary explanations

  Behaviour/characteristics that promote survival and reproduction will be naturally selected
• Evolutionary explanations

  • Evolutionary theory of attachment (Bowlby) - attachment is adapted for survival and is naturally selected through genetics
• Nature political implications

  Nazi party (eugenics/selective breeding)
• Nurture explanation

  • abilities/personality are determined through experience and environmental factors
• Behaviourism

  Behaviour is determined by experience alone and acquired through conditioning
• Behaviourism examples

  • Skinner and Pavlov’s research into explanations for attachment 
  • Phobia explanations 
• Social learning theory

  Behaviour is acquired through learning and vicarious reinforcement, but a person's biology may have an impact
• Social learning theory example

  • Bandura's doll study
• Richard Lerner - attempted to break down levels of influence from the environment (e.g. social conditions of childhood, historical/cultural context)
• Epigenetics

  Changes in our genetic expression without changing the underlying genetic code
• Epigenetics

  • Dias and Ressler – study with shocking mice, found generations of influence.

  This complicates the picture as it shows genes influence behaviour, but experience can influence genes. 
• -       Alternative explanations

  A limitation for the two separate concepts is that they don’t address that they are both key contributing factors to behaviour and that interactionism may be a real explanation. The Diathesis-stress model is an example of an interactionist approach where it takes an environmental event to trigger a genetic vulnerability.
• +   There is supporting evidence for the complex relationship between nature and nurture. Scarr and McCartney proposed a theory of gene-environment interaction:

  Indirect- parents genes influence how they treat their children.

  Passive influence- the child’s genes influence the experience they have or can access.

  Active influence- the child creates its own environment by actively choosing experiences and people.
• +   Supporting evidence for the close relationship between nature and nurture (epigenetics)

  Epigenetic material is inherited, and passed on through generations – explaining why cloning doesn’t produce identical copies.

  --> genetics and the environment are much less separate than once thought