Nature and nurture

• What is the nature / nurture debate?

  This is the role of biology vs learning. It is impossible to fully separate the two as they are so closely linked as they influence each other.
• who are the psychologists for the nature vs nurture debate?

  Descartes = an early nativist who believes in nature and hereditary.

  Locke = an empiricist who argues that the mind is a blank slate at birth. He believes that learning and experience shapes us, which later turned into the behaviourist approach.
• what are epigenetics?

  This is the impact that the environment has on our genes, by interacting with our DNA. Lifestyles influences leave epigenetic marks on our DNA = diet, smoking, alcohol, war, pollution.
• what do epigenetic marks act as?

  They act as bookmarks which tell us which genes to use and which to ignore. This affects the genetic code of offspring and any future children.
• what do twin and adoption studies do?

  they are a way of investigating effects of nature and nurture on behaviour. Twin studies are nature, and adoption studies are nurture.
• the measurement of twin studies

  twin studies are measured using a statistic called the concordance rate. This helps to determine is the cause of behaviour is linked to nature or nurture.
• who researched twin studies?

  Gottesman
• Gottesman‘s research

  he found that MZ twins are 48% more likely to develop schizophrenia than DZ twins. This is because the concordance rates are higher for MZ twins, meaning that genetic influences are involved.
• what is the interactionalist approach?

  this approach considers how the nature and nurture approaches interact and influence each other.
• what is the diathesis-stress model?

  this suggests that psychological disorders arise from the interaction of an underlying vulnerability (diathesis) and external stressors.
• what is the ’stress’ part?

  This only gets expressed if it is mixed with a stressor
• what is the ‘diathesis’ part?

  this is when a person inherits a genetic predisposition from a parent
• the research of Tienari


  he studied the fact that adopted children who lived in dysfunctional families, and had a biological relative with schizophrenia were most likely to develop schizophrenia. This shows that there is an interaction between nature and nurture.
• what is the positive of nature and nurture?

  empiricist would suggest that if we can alter environmental conditions, we can change behaviour.
• what is the negative of nature and nurture?

  nativists suggest that ‘anatomy is destiny’, and we cannot avoid what our genes have determined for us. This is a very deterministic view and states that we have no choice over out behaviour, and that the environment has very little impact on our behaviour.