Nature vs nurture

• Nature is the view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors
• nurture is the view that behaviour is the product of environmental factors
• nature vs nurture debate is centred around the relative contributions of biological factors and environmental factors on human development.
• Most psychologists accept that nature and nurture must interact, because behaviour and personality appears to be influenced by both. This is called the interactionist approach
• The diathesis stress model supports the interactionist approach to explaining behaviour. It suggests that genetic inheritance creates a diathesis or vulnerability to a particular disorder
• Gottesman investigated concordance rates between twins for schizophrenia
• Grottesman- found that MZ twins had a concordance rate for schizophrenia of 58% compared to only 12% in DZ twins.
• Gottesman research- provides strong support for a genetic influence on schizophrenia as the twin of a schizophrenic more likely to develop the disorder if they share all their co twins genes rather than just some.
• Grotesman- However the concordance rates were not 100% and so genetics cannot be the only influence on schizophrenia. It is likely that environment also plays a role too
• because MZ twins look the same, they are more likely to be treated the same and thus have more shared experiences and a more similar environment. I.e supporting the interactionist approaches suggest that behaviours are influenced by both environmental and genetic factors.
• Plomin identified 3 types of genotype-environment correlations
• Passive i.e people with similar genes
• plomin= Reactive- inherited characteristics might influence the experiences of an individual
• plomin= Active- people with specific inherited tendencies may seek out a certain environment which then shapes their behaviour, and thus genes determine the environment which determines behaviour.
• Zimbardo investigated conformity to social roles in a mock prison study in which participants were assigned the roles of either prison guard or prisoner
• Zimbardos Findings showed that prison guards became increasingly violent towards prisoners as punishment, who then became increasingly distressed and submissive
• Zimbardo concluded that the cause for the change in behaviour was due to the new environment and social role, supporting the nurture side of the debate as these ordinary people changed behaviour dramatically in response to being in prison
• A strictly nature or nurture approach to explaining behaviour is reductionist as it simplifies complex behaviours down to one single explanation
• The issue with a strict nature or nurture approach is that it means the explanation may ignore other influences on behaviour from the other side of the debate thus not giving a full explanation for behaviour.
• it is very difficult to control all variables in nature vs nurture studies
• researchers cannot control all nurture variables making it difficult to assume cause and effect between nature and behaviour.