nature v nurture

• class studies : nature v nurture

  • sherif - prejudice and culture and nurture
  • Baddeley - memory is shaped by experienced which in turn is affected by nurture but memory is a universal human function that is innate
  • Raine- assumption of dysfunction behaviour as being due to prefrontal lobe function- nature
  • Watson and Rayner - learning is based on interactions with the environment or nurture
  • Rosenhan- psychopathology is a constructed set of ideas about mental illness which is culturally specific- nurture
• Biological psychology- nature

  • focuses on our behaviour in genes and hormones
• Cognitive approach- nature v nurture

  • neurocognitions argue that cognition are shaped by chemical processes within the brain ( NATURE approach)
  • supporters of learned cognition would argues that cognition are shaped by previous experiences
  • patients such as HM whose memories have been affected by brain damage to the medial temporal lobe
  • Clive wearing supports nurture debate as his illness prevented new memories from being made
• Learning approach- nature v nurture

  • takes a strongly nurture based perspective
  • Skinner and Watson argued that all human behaviour was learned from the environment and that there are no inbuilt characteristics other than the impulse to seek pleasure and avoid pain
  • such as Becker that studied eating disorders and how Fiji girls exposed to western TV
• social - nature v nurture

  • taken a nurture perspective
  • Milgram and Sherif suggest that individual differences like personality actually make very little difference in the presence of strong social pressures
  • regardless what we are like inside we all behave the same way
  • leading to a view of people as passive
  • social impact theory explains obedience in terms of the factors that are around the individual at current moment- nurture
  • NUTURE- Blass (2012) found little difference between obedience cross-culturally which suggests that a nature explanation underpins obedience to a certain extent.
• interactionist approach

  this is the view that the processes of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposition
• Sherif - nature v nurture

  prejudice focuses on nurture such as how some cultures are multicultural in their outlook who are less prejudiced. Group formation and competition over resources led to prejudice which is also about nurture as experiences of groups might lead to prejudicial attitudes BUT the tendency to favour in group and fight over scarce resources is innate- evolution
• Baddeley- nature v nurture

  Acoustic memory is based on our experiences and events through out life which affects recall and ltm
• Raine- nature v nurture

  Brain processing is assumed to be the same for everyone and such violence would therefore come from brain dysfucntioning NOT the situation
• Watson and Rayner- nature v nurture

  Assumes that all humans learn through classical conditioning principles associating things in the environment with reflexes and what we learn depends on nurture- what we encounter in stimulus and response associations. Little Alberts fear was through his experiences not nature
• Rosenhan- nature v nurture

  May be that the nurture of the hospital staff ment that diagnosis of psychosis was relevant to their culture or diagnostic algorithm- DSM more used in US therefore how institutions react may differ around the world