nature-nurture debate

• nature is the idea that behaviour is the product of innate biological factors
• an example of nature is bowlby’s theory that we are biologically programmed to form attachments for survival
• nurture is the idea that behaviour is the product of environmental processes
• an example of nurture is the learning theory in attachment, associating the primary caregiver with food (classical conditioning)
• heredity is thee genetic transmission of both mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another
• nativists such as rené descartes argued that all human characteristics and even some aspects of knowledge are innate
• empiricists such as john locke argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth (tabula rasa) which is then shaped by the environment — basis of behaviourism
• the interactionist approach is a theory which discusses how nature and nurture interact
• the 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 is a change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves, this is caused by interaction with the environment

  for example smoking as it changes the way your genes will be expressed - life experience of previous generations