Nature Vs Nurture

Question 1

3 key ideas of the nature side of the debate?

Answer 1

• Transmission of genetic information from parents to offspring.
• Behaviour has genetic basis
• We are biologically/ managed
  our behaviour is instinct - innate and unlearned

Question 2

What is the ‘nurture’ side of the debate?

Answer 2

We are shaped by our environment and lived experiences. The environment controls the expression of our genes.

Question 3

What psychological perspectives are very much empiricist? (nurture)

Answer 3

Cultural relativism (e.g Mead, 1935)

Learning theory (e.g Watson and Skinner)

Social learning theory (Bandura)

Cultural Psychology

Question 4

What psychological perspectives are closer to the middle of the debate?

Answer 4

Feminist psychology
Cognitive development theory
Psychoanalytic theory
Biosocial theory

Question 5

What psychological perspectives are very much nativist? (nature)

Answer 5

Evolutionary approaches: Ethology
Maturation
Evolutionary Psychology

Question 6

Name some key figures in the development of the idea of instinct.

Answer 6

Darwin, Lorenz and Tinbergen were all important

Question 7

Explain ‘Fixed Action Patterns’

Answer 7

The insistinct to enact a specific behaviour when viewing a particular stimulus cue. (instinctive behaviour)

e.g dogs chasing a cat or gulls feeding chicks

Question 8

Provide an example of an instinct which is shaped by learning. (nature and nurture)

Answer 8

Imprinting is ‘innate’ but the object of imprinting is not

This provides a clear example of an interaction between heredity and learning

Question 9

What is a ‘sensitive period’?

Answer 9

Period during which experience/ environment has string influence or behaviour is most likely to be acquired.

Question 10

Give examples of Seligman’s Biological Preparedness?

Answer 10

Wild rhesus macaques have fear of snakes whereas lab-raised animals do not

Viewing an adult reacting in fear to snake = young lab-raised macaques learn fear response immediately

Viewing an adult reacting in fear to a flower does mot cause infant to learn fear of flowers

Question 11

How does nature and nurture interact with each other?

Answer 11

Our instincts can be augmented by out learning/ environment AND our biology ca shape what we learn (e.g biological preparedness)

Question 12

Provide an example of how nature and nurture interact with each other (forensic psychology)

Answer 12

MAOA gene and anti-social behaviour. Low activity variant of this gene correlates with expression of anti-social behaviour. But this relationships is mediated by environment: criminality is more likely in people with low activity gene variant AND Who were mistreated/ abused as children.

Question 13

What does Behaviour genetics aim to do?

Answer 13

Aims to identify/ disentangle the role of genetics from environmental inputs to behaviour in order to understand the form of those interactions. There are no ‘genes for’ a behaviour.

Question 14

What is the key idea of behaviour genetics?

Answer 14

Almost all psychological traits have some genetic -inherited component but environment is also important in expression of all.

Question 15

What does heritability show us?

Answer 15

Tells us how much variation in an observed trait is due to genetic variation, on average, within that population.

Question 16

Genetic input is not ________

Answer 16

Deterministic. Genes provide a framework, environment fills in the details.

Question 17

What can’t you use population H to predict?

Answer 17

Cannot be used to predict individual outcomes. H of 40% in population simply means that 40% of variation in a trait ACROSS the population is down to genetics.

Question 18

Describe Plomin’s conclusions about Behaviour genetics.

Answer 18

All psychological traits measured show significant and substantial genetic influence.

No traits are shown to be 100% heritable

Heritability depends on many genes having small effects

Known correlations between behaviour often underlined by genetics (debatable)

Most measures of ‘environment’ may also include a genetic component (debatable)

Being in same family - shared environment - doesn’t make children more similar? This is very debatable

Question 19

Provide an example of heritability (GCSE scores) (Krapohl et al, 2014)

Answer 19

13,306 UK twins were studied and their scores were compared. GCSE results were found to be 64% heritable and 75% of that heritability was accounted for by genetic factors in nine domains.

Question 20

What are some environmental inputs/ influences?

Answer 20

Home life, school and education, peers, culture , socio-economic tstauys

Our lived experiences

Learned behaviour

Epigenetics

Question 21

Why is the nature - nurture debate so important?

Answer 21

It could be extremely helpful in identifying peoples’ strengths and weaknesses and predicting what areas of areas of their life they may require more encouragement in. It could also be really helpful in the early diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, possibly even preventing them from developing in the first place.

Question 22

Highlight a criticism of the nature - nurture debate?( humanistic)

Answer 22

If we were able to produce psychological profiles based on people’s genetic and environmental histories then a human’s fundamental right to free will will be violated. This is because if people were able to obtain information about what environments they are likely to thrive and fail in then they lose their right to choose their own path and lifestyle.

Question 23

Whose work was particularly pivotal in introducing the debate in the 19th century ?

Answer 23

Charles Darwin’s work on natural selection

Question 24

What did James propose about some aspects of human behaviours?

Answer 24

Some aspects are present from birth due to genetic predispositions . Instinctual behaviours such as love, parenting skills, sympathy, sociability. and the tendency to fight or defend oneself from threat and the fear of specific objects .

Question 25

What was Galton’s key method?

Answer 25

Twin studies using dizygotic and monozygotic twins to distinguish the relative contributions of heritability and the environment towards behaviour. Galton was interested to see if twins who were similar on traits initially became less so when they were separated and vice versa

Question 26

Explain eugenics and its major limitations

Answer 26

Galton believed so strongly that nature had the more dominant role to play that he proposed a way of improving the human condition through controlling genetics. A type of ‘artificial selection’ . Believed people with socially desirable traits should marry sooner and have as many children as possible to pass on these ‘good genes’. However this took a dark turn as it became a way for powerful people to target minority groups who were considered undesirable. This led to discrimination, segregation and even sterilisation as reflected by the Nazi party where compulsory sterilisation, deportation and eventually systematic murder was. applied to millions of people .

Question 27

What did cognitive psychologists suggest about humans’ cognitive abilities?

Answer 27

Humans seem to possess a range of specific cognitive abilities that are either unique to them i.e language or that are qualitatively or quantitatively different from those displayed by other species e.g problem solving, memory and perception

Question 28

What was Chomsky’s criticism of Skinner and behaviourism?

Answer 28

Chomsky argued that the biggest problem of Skinner’s approach was its failure to explain the almost endless creativity, originality and flexibility of human language. It is arguable that Chomsky was more broadly questioning all attempts by behaviourists to reduce and simplify psychology so that they could be explained solely within an extreme environmentalist framework

Question 29

What key idea of the behaviourist approach do cognitivists reject?

Answer 29

Rejects the blank slate idea because as Pinker (2003) convincingly puts it, a truly blank slate cannot do anything .

Question 30

What is biological preparedness? (Seligman)

Answer 30

Based on the evolutionary ideas that organisms able to identify and learn to fear genuine threats in their environment would have survival and reproductive advantages. Some behaviours and emotions are therefore easier to condition than others.

Question 31

How do humanists exercise their position as a critical voice in areas of psychology ?

Answer 31

They question whether traditional nomothetic methods of science are always the best or only way to study the this debate , encouraging the use of various alternative methodologies if these are appropriate and emphasising the importance of focusing on how individuals can initiate constructive change for the future.

Question 32

Why should we not make comparisons between different groups?

Answer 32

We should only later one thing at a time. It is acceptable to compare within groups instead.Context is important.