nurture in cognitive and biological psychology essay (12)
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Course
Unit 9 - Psychological skills
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
essay on issues and debates: to what extent does nurture influence cognitive and biological psychology (12), including 3 PEEL paragraphs and a balanced conclusion discussing both sides of the debate for top band marks.
To what extent does nurture influence cognitive and biological
psychology? (12)
Nurture may influence cognitive and biological psychology to some extent.
Nurture refers to factors in the environment that affect our behaviour and are
beyond our control. These include social pressure, upbringing, education and
culture. The case study of KC showed that he was unable to recall memories
he experienced previously in his life, but was still able to recall semantic
memories. This implies that his episodic memory was more affected than his
semantic memory as a result of the motorbike accident, as in he is still able to
retrieve facts and concepts but not personal experiences. This is a result of
nurture since the motorbike accident was an external factor beyond KC’s
control. Likewise, the case study of Phineas Gage revealed the change in
personality he experienced after an iron rod blew up and caused him brain
damage. His personality changed drastically from being reliable and calm to
being irritable, short tempered and aggressive. The iron rod accident was an
environmental factor that affected Gage’s personality and it was beyond his
control. This shows that nurture can significantly influence cognitive and
biological psychology. On the other hand, Phineas Gage’s memory, motor
and speech skills were unaffected and so were KC’s semantic memories,
conveying that nature may still have some effect in psychology, given that
the skills these individuals still had come from their biology - their brain
structure to some extent.
Nurture may not influence biological and cognitive psychology to a great
extent. This is because nature may have a significant impact as well, which
refers to the internal factors inherited by an individual that are present from
birth, such as genes and brain structure, that may influence behaviour. For
example, the multi store model proposes that memory is subdivided into 3
components: the sensory register, short term and long term memory. In
studies such as Baddeley (1966b), it has been indicated that these memory
components may be located in different parts of the brain. This is because
acoustically similar words did not affect recall in LTm but they did in STM. This
provides evidence for the role of nature in cognitions. Similarly, Freud in his
psychodynamic theory of personality argues that humans have the ID
element in their personality and hence want naturally to seek out pleasure
and gratification for their impulses. This element is naturally present at birth,
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