nature-nurture debate

• the debate

  looks at the relative importance of the two approaches, but modern psychologists understand the inderaction between the two factors is the most important

  • how do they interact?
  • it is almost impossible to determine how important the two factors are
• nurture - empiricists

  behaviour is the result of environmental influences

  • prenatal experiences
  • postnatal experiences
  • cultural and historical contexts of behaviour

  empiricism - developed based on the idea of a tabula rasa, key feature of behaviourism
• nature - nativists

  behaviour is the result of biological influences

  • importance of heredity - inherited innate biological processes
  • nativism - feature of biological approach
  • heritability can be measured and represented through correlation co-efficients
• interactionism

  nature and nurture interact and we are a product of both genetic and environmental influences

  • the important thing is to study how the two interact and influence each other which is the main component of the modern debate
  • eg. diathesis-stress model and epigenetics
• constructivism

  people seek out and construct an environment that suits their nature

  • plamin - niche picking
  • eg. people who are naturally more risk-taking may seek opportunities to take more risks
• epigenetics

  change in genetic activity brought on by environmental factors

  • environmental events leave epigenetic marks on our dna which is then expressed and likely to be passed on to the next generation
  • may explain why the concordance rate of schizophrenia in twins is only 50% (gottesman)
  • eg. pku - genetic disorder causing severe learning difficulties if not restricted by a low protein diet
• biopsychology

  maguire - london taxi drivers have significantly more volume in the hippocampus thank controls

  • longer they had been a taxi driver the larger the increase
  • the experience of driving causes physical changes to the brain
• the diathesis-stress model

  the model applied to mental illnesses like schizophrenia

  • to develop schizophrenia someone must have both a genetic vulnerability and experience an environmental trigger
  • gottesman - concordance rates for schizophrenia are 17% for dz twins and 48% for mz twins
  • tienari - having both a genetic predisposition and the environmental trigger for a hostile environment causes the biggest increase in risk of developing schizophrenia
• interactionism - offending behaviour

  christiansen - dz twins had a 12% concordance rate of criminality compared to a 33% for mz twins
• interactionism - attachment

  while there is some evidence that attachment behaviours are innate eg bowlby's monotropic theory the quality of attachment with a parent and who becomes a primary attachment figure is shaped by experience

  • both nature and nurture have an effect
• implications of the debate

  there are important implications for both extremes of the nature-nurture debate

  • nativists (nature) - suggests some people are born superior to others so links to eugenics
  • empiricists (nurture) - can be used through therapy but also as a form of social control, and suggests ethical issues through behaviour modification