Nature and Nurture

• Interactionist approach

  Relative contribution of nature and nurture. Nature and nurture are usually combined or work together. Attachment can be explained in terms of parental love (Bowlby) or child's temperament (Kagan). Environment d heredity

  interact.
• Diathesis -stress model

  Behaviour is caused by a biological and environmental vulnerability (Mathesis ) which is only expressed when coupled with a biologial /environmental trigger (stressor). A person who inherits a genetic vulnerability for OCD may not develop the disorder, however if combined with a psychological trigger (traumatic experience) this may result in the disorder appearing; prenatal childhood sexual or physical abuse, family conflict or life changes.
• Epigenetics support interactionist approach

  A change in genetic activity without changing the genetic code. Our lifestyle and the events we encounter (smoking, diet, trauma) leave marks on our DNA -switching genes on or off. This has a lifelong influence and can be passed on to future generations. A study on rats ; lacked motherly attention and were unable to cope with stress and passed this on to newer generations of rats.
• Nature

  nativists; behaviour is caused by innate characteristics eg. biology

  Descartes argued that human characteristics are innate: a result of our genes. Psychological characteristics (intelligence and personality) are determined by biological factors .
• Nurture

  empiricists; behaviour is caused by the environment

  Locke argued the mind is a blank slate at birth and is shaped by interaction with the environment. Lerner identified different levels of the environment: prenatal terms (mother smoking, hearing music) and post natal experiences (social conditions a child grows up in).
• Measuring nature and nurture

  * Concordance = the ° to which people are similar on a particular trait

  * Heritability = proportion of differences between individuals in a population, with regard to a particular trait, due to

  genes. 0.01 (1%) means there is very little contribution, 1.0 (100%) means genes are the only reason. Plomin found the figure for heritability in IQ is about 0.5.