Nature-Nurture

• A debate in psychology is the nature-nurture debate, which is about the relative contributions of heredity and environment in determining behaviour.
• Heredity is another name for when genetic traits are passed on through reproduction.
• According to the cognitive approach heredity determines the structure of out mental processes while we develop schemas by interacting with our environment.
• We saw in the biological approach that both genotype and environmental factors affect phenotype.
• All the approaches to psychology incorporate both nature and nurture. In particular, the learning approach says that behaviour is mostly due to nurture and that the biological approach says that behaviour is mostly due to nature. The biological also states that both genotype and environmental factors affect phenotypes.
• On your exam, you can evaluate the nature-nurture debate by discussing why it’s difficult to test the relative contributions of heredity and environment on behaviour.
• Evaluation of the nature - nurture debate


  Ripke et al found that there were over 100 alleles which where associated with schizophrenia and due to this it is very difficult to determine a cause and effect relationship between certain alleles and schizophrenia. (overall cant establish hereditary)
• What is the Gene-environment correlation?


  Where someones environment may have been influenced by their genes causing an impact on their phenotype.

  • Created by Robert Plomin
• Why is it difficult to study relative contributions?

  1. Many be many alleles associated with a behaviour
  2. To what extent was environment influenced by genes?
• What is it called when the effect of someone’s environment on phenotype depends on their genotype?

  Gene-environment interaction
• What does the interactionist approach to nature nurture state?


  We should study how heredity and environment interact to determine behaviour.
• What is an example of an interactionist approach (genetic potential)


  Irving Gottesman's research on intelligence suggests that our genes determine our potential intelligence, and our environment determines where we end up within that range.
• What are 2 examples of an interactionist approach?


  1. Genetic potential
  2. Diathesis-stress model
• what is the diathesis stress model?


  The diathesis-stress model is an example of gene-environment interaction in which is someone is predisposed genetically to addictive behaviours and have enough stress impacting they could develop a mental disorder.