Issues and debates 20 mark essays UNIT 1
STRUCTURE: 1x AO1, 4x A03 For and Against (counter) with examples from Unit 1 or 2
Nature/nurture
AO1: Nature relates to innate characteristics such as genes, hormones, and the brain. Nurture
relates to environmental factors such as drugs, disease, and diet. Psychologists are interested in the
nature-nurture debate to find the source of behavioural traits in individuals. If we know if behaviour
is caused by nature or nurture, we can establish suitable strategies for modifying behaviours. Social
psychology explains human behaviour through the influence of groups and personality. Cognitive
psychology attempts to explain how memory works using models such as the multi store model
which emphasises nurture in the need for attention and rehearsal.
AO3: Nature: Aggression
Evolutionary theorists believe that behaviours, such as aggression have evolved through natural
selection. This suggests therefore that aggression must be determined by nature as more aggressive
males would have been more likely to survive and pass on their genes There is research to support
this view that aggression is determined by biology. Cross-culturally, human violent aggression and
murder is far more common in males, against other males (Daly and Wilson 1988). Whereas Buss
and Dedden (1990), suggest that female aggression is likely to be more verbal against other women
using criticism of the physical unattractiveness of other females and their promiscuity (for men
looking for long-term mates with sexual fidelity) to lower their appeal in the eyes of men. However,
these evolutionary theories of behaviour can be criticised as they are ‘post hoc’. We cannot possibly
know what the behaviour was of early humans, we can only infer this from archaeological records.
Therefore the suggestion that aggression is caused by the process of evolution and natural selection
is flawed. Therefore, nurture arguments may be better explanations of human behaviour.
Nurture: Learning Theories
The theories of learning each suggest different ways in which our environment determines our
behaviour. For example for classical conditioning we learn through associating different
environmental stimuli with specific responses and social learning theory suggests that we are
influenced by our environment through our observation and imitation of role models.
There is much research supporting the behaviourist notion that all behaviour is learned through our
environment. Research by Bandura in the 1960’s has demonstrated how easily children can learn
aggressive behaviour from adult models. The children in his study performed the same aggressive
actions towards the Bobo doll that they had observed in the adults. When they saw an adult model
being rewarded for their aggression they were even more likely to imitate this behaviour. However,
this nurture argument can be criticised as an incomplete explanation. Not all of the children in
Bandura’s study acted aggressively even though they were all subject to the same environmental
influences. Therefore, an interactionist approach may be more appropriate, for example Brendgan et
al. (2005) suggested that physical aggression may be controlled by nature whereas social aggression
is controlled by nurture.
Nature: Schizophrenia
Some mental disorders seem to run in families, suggesting there might be a genetic cause. Studies
on twins are used to demonstrate the influence of genes on disorders such as schizophrenia by
looking at concordance rates. Research has shown that schizophrenia must have a genetic basis as
MZ twins have a higher concordance rate than DZ twins as Gottesman found that MZ twins had 43%
and DZ twins had 9% of concordance rates. But these aren’t 100% suggesting that the environment
, does affect the findings as MZ twins are treated much ore similarly than DZ twins. Overall, perhaps it
is too difficult to separate the influence of nature from nurture with disorders such as schizophrenia.
Nurture: Social influence
The modern world exposes us to wide ranging influences from TV, Magazines and Social Media.
Some disorders such as anorexia may have their roots in these types of social influence. Research
evidence from Becker (2002) shows that the introduction of TV to the island of Fiji in 1995 had a
significant effect on the incidence of disordered eating behaviours. None of the girls reported
using purging (induced vomiting) to control weight in 1995, but 11.3% reported this in 1998. Dieting
is not a part of traditional Fijian culture, but in 1998 74% reported they felt too big or too fat
and 69% reported they had dieted at some point. 83% felt that television was an influence in terms
of body weight or body image and 40% linked losing weight to future success. However, a study
found that on PET scans individuals with anorexia had elevated serotonin levels suggesting that a
biological interaction does seem to affect AN.
Psychology as a science
AO1: Science may be defined as ‘the systematic study of behaviour based on observation,
experiment and measurement. The use of a scientific approach in psychology is important because
people might claim for example that men are more aggressive than women or that a certain drug
cures depression. In order to support such claims, evidence is demanded. Science therefore refers to
the knowledge based on systematic and objective methods of data collection. Scientific knowledge is
gathered via the scientific method which involves formulating a hypothesis testing this hypothesis
and either verifying or falsifying it. Much of psychology is based on empirical evidence, psychology
tends to use genuine scientific methods such as experiments which are tightly controlled and
standardised so that they can replicated in order to check for reliability. Psychology should be
objective which means that all sources of bias are minimised and that personal or subjective ideas
are eliminated. This may be difficult as people in studies may display demand characteristics.
In addition, interpretations of observed behaviour may be subjective to the researcher.
AO3: On the one hand psychology is scientific because of the use of the empirical method where the
data that is directly observed by the researcher is recorded and analysed. This involves using
scientific procedures such as experiments where there is deliberate manipulation of one variable
while keeping other variables constant. For example, Raine uses PET scans to collect empirical data
to show aggression is linked to brain abnormalities in individuals and so his experiment can be
considered scientific. However, unstructured interviews using qualitative data such as the F-scale
questionnaires by Adorno et al is less controlled and empirical than standardised experiments and
therefore considered less scientific.
One the other hand, Psychology is not a science due to a lack of falsification. Karl Popper suggested
that for a theory to be scientific it must be falsifiable which means that theories can be proven true
or false. The idea is that no theory I’d completely correct, however it can be accepted to be tue if it
can be shown to both falsifiable as well being supported with evidence. For example, concepts such
as the id/ego/ superego though they may seem intuitively reasonable, cannot be proven to exist.
Freud’s theory suggests that if these areas of personality are not balanced then an individual can
