Nature vs Nurture

• Nature - Nativists

  Nativists believe our behaviour is explained by heredity - e.g. genetics. The biological approach tends to fall on this side of the debate
• The heritability coefficient

  The heritability coefficient is a way to quantify the extent to which a characteristic is determined by genetics. A heritability coefficient of 1 means the characteristic is 100% genetic, whereas 0 means the characteristic has nothing to do with genetics
• Nurture - Empiricists

  Empiricists believe the mind is a blank slate at birth, so all behaviour is learned from the environment.
• Epigenetics

  Lifestyle choices and environmental effects 'switch on' certain genes and 'switch off' others, showing how genes and environment interact
• AO3-Supporting evidence

  - twin studies, family studies, adoption studies, and gene mapping all show genetics play an important role in psychology disorders and behaviour
• AO3-Conflicting evidence

  even among identical twins (who share 100% of their genes), concordance rates for psychological disorders and behaviours are much less than 100%
• AO3 - confounding variables

  sibling and non-identical twin studies assume the environments of siblings and twins are identical and so all differences are due to genetics. But this is unlikely e.g Siblings who both experience parental divorce will experience it at different ages.