1
Q
What is nature?
A
- early nativists such as Descartes argued that human characteristics - and even some aspects of knowledge - are innate: the result of heredity
- in contrast empiricist including the philosopher Locke argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth upon which learning and experience writes: the result of the environment a view that was later to become an important feature of the behaviourist approach
- the heritability coefficient is used to assess heredity
- it is a numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1.0 which indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis with a value of 1 meaning it is entirely genetically determined
- the general figure for heritability in IQ is around 0.5 across multiple studies in varying populations
- this suggests that both genetics and the environment are important factors in intelligence
2
Q
What is nurture
A
- the concept of nurture and environmental influences in psychology requires further clarification as the environment is such a broad and all-encompassing concept
- helpfully, Lerner has identified different levels of the environment
- these may be defined in quite narrow pre-natal terms, for instance, The mother’s physical and psychological state during pregnancy, or more generally through post-natal experiences such as the social conditions the child grows up in and the cultural and historical context they are part of
3
Q
What is heredity?
A
-the genetic transmission of mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another
4
Q
What is environment?
A
- any influence on human behaviour that is non-genetic
- this may range from pre-natal influences in the womb through to cultural and historical influences at a societal level
5
Q
Why is the nature nurture debate difficult?
A
- in a practical sense, the nature-nurture question is impossible to answer because-as Lerner suggests -environmental influence in a child’s life begins as it is born and perhaps even earlier
- nature and nurture are so closely intertwined that, practically and theoretically, it makes little sense to try to separate the two
- for instance, in twin studies it is often very difficult to tell whether high concordance rates are more the result of shared genetics or shared upbringing
- as such the focus og the nature-nurture debate has changed in recent years, and psychologists are now more likely to ask what the relative contribution of each influence is in terms of what we think and what we do
6
Q
What is the interactions approach?
A
- in our year 1 book we have seen how attachment patterns between an infant and its parents are often the result of a two-way street in which the child’s innate temperament will influence the way its parents response to it - and their response will in turn affect the child’s behaviour
- thus nature in a real sense creates nurture, heredity and environment interact
7
Q
What is the diathesis-stress model?
A
- models of mental illness which emphasise the interaction of nature and nurture tend to be the most persuasive
- the diathesis-stress model suggests that psychopath is caused by a biological/genetic vulnerability the diathesis which only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental trigger
- Tienari et al found that in a group of Finnish adopters those most likely to develop schizophrenia had biological relatives with a history of the disorder the vulnerability and has relationships with their adoptive families that defined as dysfunctional which is the trigger
8
Q
What is epigenetics?
A
- refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code
- it is a process that happens throuought life and is caused by interaction with the environment
- aspects of our lifestyle, and the events we encounter - from smoking and diet to pollution and war - leave epigenetic marks on our DNA
- these marks - like highlighted text, or bookmarks - tell our bodies which genes to ignore and which to use, and in turn, may go on and influence the genetic codes of our children, as well as their children
- Epigenetics therefore introduces a third element into the nature-nurture debate: the life experience of previous generations
- Dias and Reseller gave male lab mice electric shocks every time they were exposed to the smell of acetophenone, a chemical used in perfume
- as any behaviourist would predict, the mice showed a fear reaction as soon as the scent was presented
- surprisingly the rats children also feared the smell even though they had not been exposed to the acetophenone before or received any shocks so did their grandchildren
9
Q
What are the evaluation points of nature?
A
-implications of nativism and empiricism
+even siblings raised in same family don’t have the exact same upbringing due to individual differences
+constructivism of your own environment depending on temperament
-genotype environment interaction: passive interaction, musical parents encourage children to be musical, evocative interaction means environment is shaped by genes, active
10
Q
How are implications of nativism and empiricism a weakness of the nature - nurture debate?
A
- nativists suggest that anatomy is destiny in that our inherited genetic make-up determines our characteristics and behaviour, whilst the environment has little input
- this extreme determinist stance has led to controversy such as that which attempted to link race, genetics and intelligence and the application of eugenics policies
- in contrast - but also controversially - empiricist would suggest that any behaviour can be changed by altering environmental conditions
- behaviour shaping, a behaviourist concept, has had practical application in therapy
- desirable behaviours are selectively reinforced and undesirable behaviours are punished or ignored
- in extreme terms this may lead to one to advocate a model of society that controls and manipulates its citizens sing these techniques
11
Q
How do shared and unshared environments support the nature - nurture debate?
A
- research attempting to tease out the influence of the environment is complicated by the fact that even siblings raised within the same family may not have experienced exactly the same upbringing
- the idea of shared and unshared environments, first introduced by Dunn and Polmin suggests that individual differences mean that siblings may experience life events differently for example age and/or temperament would mean that a life event such as parental divorce would have a different meaning to each sibling
- this would explain the finding that even MZ twins reared together do not show perfect concordance eaters which supports the view that heredity and the environment cannot be meaningfully separated
12
Q
How does constructivism support the nature - nurture debate?
A
- the notion that genes and environment interact is elaborated by constructivism
- people create their own nurture by actively selecting environments that are appropriate for their nature
- thus a naturally aggressive child is likely to feel more comfortable around children who show similar behaviours and will choose their environment accordingly
- this environment then affects their development
- Polmin refers to this as niche-picking and niche-building-further evidence that it is impossible and illogical to try to separate nature and nurture influences on the child’s behaviour
13
Q
how is genotype environment interaction a weakness of the nature-nurture debate?
A
- Scarr et al have put forward a theory of gene environment interaction that includes three types: -passive interaction (the parents genes influence the way they treat their children e.g. musically gifted parents are likely to engage their children with music)
- evocative interaction (the child’s genes influence and shape the environment in which they grow up e.g. the musically talented child will be picked for school concerts etc.)
- active interaction (the child creates its own environment through the people and experiences it selects e.g. the child choses musically talented friends and seeks musical opportunities)
