Nature-nurture debate

• This debate concerns how far human behaviour is the product of inherited characterstics and how far it is the product of the environment. Nativists such as Rene Descartes argued that all human characterstics are innate and the result of nature whereas empiricists such as Locke claimed that everyone is a blank slate when they are born and the environment writes unique characteristics onto us.
• Nature - behaviour is seen to be the product of innate factors

  e.g. Bowlby claimed that children are biologically programmed to form an attachment. They use innate social releasers to bring an attachment figure close.
• Nurture - behaviour is the product of environmental influence

  • e.g. behaviourist explanation of attachment where a child will assosciate their mum with food
• Interactionist

  • the view that nature and nurture interact rather than in opposition
• Heredity

  • the process by which traits are passed from parents to their offspring, usually referring to genetic inheritance
• Interactionist e.g.

  PKU is known as phenylketonuria which is a rare condition where a baby is born without the ability to properly break down an amino acid. It is genetic however if identified early can be treated with a controlled diet, which shows the nature nurture debate.
• A03

  Support comes from twin studies. However, the results for MZ twins never 100% which demonstrates that there must be environmental infleunce.
• A03

  A limitation of this debate is that it is hard to separate nature and nurture. The debate has become meaningless as it now focuses on the relative contribution of inherited traits and the role of the environment. Most psychologists believe that an interactionist approach which considers both nature and nurture is more suitable.
• A03

  Some areas of psychology show that it is useful to include both elements of nature and nurture. For example, the diathesis stress model to explain schizophrenia, e.g. Finnish adoptees that had biological relatives with the disorder developed schizophrenia if they had a dysfunctional family (stress)
• A03

  Studies have shown how nurture can affect nature. Maguire et al showed how life experiences can shape our biology with taxi drivers having a larger hippocampus to store increased spatial matter due to their need for knowledge of surroundings.
• A03

  The debate has controversial history. If an influential academic or policy maker takes an extreme view of nature, then it can lead to wider ethical implications for people and society. For example, taking one side of this debate must lead to very extreme ideas. Extreme views of nature have led to arguments for the use of genetics to improve the gene pool.
• A03

  Finally, Plomin (1994) takes a constructivist view and supports the idea of viewing the debate as a complex interaction through his concept of ‘niche picking’. He argues that individuals seek their own ‘nurture’ by actively seeking environments that suit their own ‘nature’. Therefore, separating the two influences is impossible as well as illogical. This suggests that there is little value in viewing the debate solely from either a nature or nurture perspective.
• Epigenetics refer to changes in genetic activity without changing the genetic code and is caused as an interaction from the environment - lifestyle leaves "marks" on DNA and this switches genes on and or off which explains why smokers still have impacts on their lifestyle even after they stop.