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faber - debates Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the nature - nurture debate?

A

the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics

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2
Q

What is the nature side of the debate?

A

the view that behaviour is the prodduct of biological, innate or genetic factors (eg. genes or other hereditary factors)

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3
Q

What is heredity?

A

The genetic transmission of both mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another

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4
Q

What is heritability?

A

measure of how well differences in people’s genes account for differences in their traits

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5
Q

What is the heretability coefficient for IQ?

A

0.5

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6
Q

What does the 0.5 heritability coefficient for IQ mean?

A

both our genetics and the environment influence our intellegence

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7
Q

What is an example for the nature side of the debate?

A

bowlby - social releasers
-> children come into the world biologically programmed to form attachments which will help them survive
-> this suggests that attachment behaviours are naturally selected and passed on as a result of genetic inheritance

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8
Q

What is an example for the nature side of the debate?

A

the view that environmental factors (including early childhood experiences or the way one was raised up) affect behaviour and who we are

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9
Q

What is environment for the nature side of the debate?

A

any influence on human behaviour which is non-genetic and relates to our experience (eg. upbringing)

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10
Q

What is an example for the nurture side of the debate?

A

bowlby - learning theory of attachment
-> attachment is acquired through classical conditioning assosiating mother with pleasure via food according to behaviourists

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11
Q

What is the interationist view on the debate?

A

nature and nurture are interlinked and intertwined
-> these two factors cannot be separated
-> researchers should study how they interact

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12
Q

What are three examples of the interactionist approach?

A
  1. diathesis stress model
  2. epigenetics
  3. pku
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13
Q

What is the diathesis stress model?

A

an approach that says behaviouris caused by a genetic vulnerability (the diathesis) which is only expressed when coupled with a social or environmental “trigger” (the stressor)

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14
Q

What is an example of the diathesis stress model?

A

tienari et al: adoption studies of schizophrenics
-> more likely to get schizophrenia if they biological parents had it (nature)
-> or they went into dysfunctional adoptive families (nurture)

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15
Q

What is epigenetics?

A

how our experiences influences which of our genes are expressed on our behaviour which can then result in us passing this information on to influence the genetic codes of our offspring

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16
Q

What is pku?

A

-potentially serious inherited disorder (nature)
- people with pku cannot break down amino acids -> builds up in blood and brain -> leads to brain damage
- if children have a low protein diet for their first 12 years they will not be affected by this disorder (nurture)

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17
Q

What is concordance rate?

A

the extent to which both twins share the same characteristics

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18
Q

What is a strength of nature and nurture being able to be separated?

A

support of adoption studies
-> rhee and waldman found in a meta analysis of adoption studies that genetic influences accounted for 41% of variance in agression
-> this shows that nature and nurture can be seen as able to separately influence behaviours

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19
Q

What are some strengths towards the viewpoint that nature and nurture cannot be separated?

A

+ support of constructivism (interactionism)
-> children create their own nurture by selecting environments appropriate to their nature accordingly (niche picking)
-> therefore, it is impossible and illogical to separate nature and nurture influences on behaviour

+ support of epigenetics
-> susser and lin found that women who were pregnant during the famine had low birth weight babies who were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia
-> this implies that life experiences of previous generations can leave epigenetic “markers” that influence the health of their offspring

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20
Q

What is a strength for the interactionist view?

A

both positions taken to extremes may have negative consequences for society so a moderate, interactionist position is preferred
- the extreme nativist stance is determinist and has led to controversy -> eg. linking race, genetics to intellegence
- empiricists suggest that any behaviour can be changed by altering environmental conditions - may lead to a society that controls and manipulates its citizens

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21
Q

What is free will?

A

the idea that we can play an active role and have choice in how we behave
-> the assumption is that individuals are free to choose their behaviour and are self determined

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22
Q

What is determinism?

A

the view that free will is an illusion and our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces which we have no control
-> consequently, our behavior is viewed as predictable

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23
Q

What are the types of determinism?

A
  1. soft determinism
  2. hard determinism
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24
Q

What is soft determinism?

A

The view that behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological makeup but only to a certain extent and that there is an element of free will in all behaviour

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25
What is hard determinism?
The view that forces outside of our control (eg. biology or past experiences ) shape our behaviour -> hard determinism is seen as incompatible with free will
26
What are the three types of hard determinism?
1. psychic 2. biological 3. environmental
27
What is psychic determinism?
Behaviour that we have no control of - eg. forensics
28
What is biological determinism?
Behaviour that is controlled by aspects of biology - eg. ocd (nastadt et al)
29
What is environmental determinism?
Behaviour is learnt or determined by external influences
30
What are two topics that can be linked to free will?
1. humanism - forensic 2. humanism - depression
31
How is forensic in humanism support free will?
This would explain the reason a person commits crime -> to satisfy basic psychological / safety needs - mother stealing food to feed child -> motivation to self actualise / be rich / achieve the best in life - person might turn to crime (eg. fraud to get money) - a person can choose how they behave and whether they want to commit crime or not
32
How does depression in humanism support free will?
This explains depression as being as a person having low self esteem, incongrunce and an inabilty to accept oneself -> blocking the personal growth and self actualisation -> when a person becomes unhappy when they arent achieving what they want - Because a person has the ability to choose what to aim to achieve
33
What are the two topics that can be linked to soft determinism?
1. depression 2. social learning theory
34
How does depression support soft determinism?
beck (1987) suggested negative schemas develop in childhood from overly critical authority figure -> provide a cognitive framework for viewing events pessimistically -> result in a distnict way of thinking such as overgeneralisation -> these thought processes can be modified - you cannot choose which authority figures you meet but you can control the influence they cause on you
35
How does social learning theory support soft determinism?
we tend to imitate the behaviour of other people (models) -> more likely when the individual sees the model being rewarded -> cognitive mediating factors are involved in the process - you cannot control if someone is rewarded but you can control whether you imitate their behaviour or not
36
What are two topics that support hard determinsim?
1. schizophrenia 2. psychodynamic approach
37
How does schizophrenia support hard determinism?
Gottesman: concordance rates for dz twins are 48% and people with one schzophrenic parent have a 1/8 chance of develop the disorder - people who have schizophrenia have no choice on whether they want it or not
38
How does the psychodynamic topic link to hard determinism?
the three types of superego will determine offending behaviour -> weak, overharsh and deviant if you have a weak superego +there is an absence of the same sex parent in the phallic stage of development -> child has no one to identify with so they dont internalise morals -> there is little understanding of right and wrong - because a person has no control over their unconscious mind
39
What is a science? (6)
- replication - generalisation - cause and effect - prediction and control - using past experiences to predict future events - nomothetic: looks for laws that apply to all in the same way
40
What are casual explanations?
where one thing is determined by another
41
What is an example of casual explanation?
an extrovert is going to be particularly talkative at the party (cause and effect)
42
Does free will have a place in psychology being classed as a science?
Free will does not have a place in psychology being classified as a science and it goes against the idea of casual explanations (core part of science)
43
What is a strength of free will?
Has practical value -> Robert et al looked a adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism (lives were decided outside their control) were at greater risk of developing depression -> people with an internal locus of control are also more likely to be optimistic compared to those who have an external locus of control -> suggests that even if we dont have free will, the belief that we do may have a positive impact on our mind and behaviour
44
What is a limitation for free will / strength for determinism?
Support of evidence -> libet et al measured brain activity when participants were asked to randomly flick their wrist and say when they felt the will to move -> the unconscious brain activity came half a second before the participants conscious decision to move -> shows that our basic experiences of free will are actually determined by our brain before we are aware of them HOWEVER, it is not surprising that the brain is involved in decision making as our consciousness is a read out of our unconscious decision making -> this evidence is not appropriate to challenge free will
45
What is a limitation for determinism?
Incompatible to the legal system -> means that people doesnt have to be responsible for their actions
46
What are some other strengths for determinism?
- equal footing with other more established sciences - has valuable real world applications
47
What is ideographic?
- comes from the greek word "idios" which means "own" or "private" - focuses on the individual and recognises the uniqueness of the person in terms of their experiences, feelings, developmental history, aspirations and motivations in life - holistic and puts emphasis on the individuals conscious experience - suggests that everyone is unique and therefore should be studied in an individual way - no general laws are possible because of chance, free will and the uniqueness of the individual
48
What is nomothetic?
- comes from the greek word "nomos" which means law - focuses on the similarities between people and attempts to establish general laws of behaviour and thought that can be applied to large groups of people
49
Which approach links to idiographic?
humanism
50
What approaches link to nomothetic?
- behaviourist - biological (ocd, depression) - social learning theory
51
What approaches are in the middle ground of idiographic and nomothetic?
- cognitive - psychodynamic
52
What is an example from the memory topic?
case study of patient kf proved that the multi store model to be too simple
53
What are some methods used by idiographics?
qualitative methods - unstructured interviews - case studies - self report measures - introspection - reflection of the psychodynamic techniques of free association and dream analysis
54
What are some methods used by nomothetics?
quantitative and scientific methods - eg experiments to test hypotheses that are derived from theories about human behaviour
55
Who stated the three types of general laws?
Radford and Kirby
56
Where did the general laws come from?
the nomothetic approach
57
What are the three types of general laws?
1, classifying people into groups 2. establishing principles 3. establishing dimensions
58
What are some examples of classifying people into groups?
- the dsm - 5 classifies people experiencing psychological disorders - people with low levels of serotonin display low mood, lack of motivation and other symptoms - people who have a high level of dopamine show symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions
59
What does it mean to establish principles?
Means that finding behaviour that can be applied to people in general
60
What are some examples of establishing principles?
- all behaviour is learned through the consequences of behaviour (rewarded behaviour will be repeated) - all behaviour is learned through the association of stimulus response links
61
What does it mean to establish dimensions?
Means that criterias are found which people can be placed and compared
62
What are some examples of establishing dimensions?
- IQ scores - different attachment types (secure or insecure) - personality (introvert or extrovert)

psychology (17 decks)

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