nature-nurture debate

• nurture

  • environmental influences in psychology is broad
  • is different levels e.g pre-natal or post-natal experiences
• heredity and environment

  • environmental influence begins as soon as born
  • little sense to separate nature and nurture as so intertwined
  • twin studies may be due to genetics or similar upbringing
• interactionist approach

  • innate temperament influences the way it is responded to
  • two way system
  • responses affect childs behaviour
• epigenetics

  • change in our genetic activity without changing out genetic code
  • caused by interaction with environment
  • e.g diet, smoking, war leave epigenetic marks on our dna which tell our bodies which genes to ignore
  • influences genetic codes of our children
• weakness

  • nativism has led to controversies with race, genetics and intelligence
  • empiricists suggest any behaviour can be shaped by altering environmental conditions
  • desirable behaviours reinforced leading to a model that controls people
• weakness/strength

  • siblings raised in the same family may have not have had the same upbringing
  • this is shared and unshared environments
  • parental divorce may have different affects depending on child age
  • explains why mz twins dont have perfect concordance
• strength/weakness

  • constructivism = elaborates the notion that genes and environment interact
  • people create their own nurture by selecting environments appropriate for their nature
  • naturally aggressive child will feel more comfortable around similar children
  • niche-picking