Discuss the nature-nurture debate in psychology. Refer to at least two topics you have studied in
your answer. (16 marks)
The nature-nurture debate concerns the effects environments, experiences and genetics have on
behavior. The nature side of the debate believes that all behaviour is predetermined and can be
explained by our genetics and inheritance – Rene Descartes argued that human characteristics are
innate. For example, early nativists argued that human characteristics are innate as a result that the
general figure for heritability of IQ was found to be 0.50 by Plomin (1989). As well as this Hottsman
and Shields (1991) pooled the results of around 40 family studies and found that the risk increases to
46% for those with two parents who have schizophrenia. The nurture side of the debate says that
environmental experiences shape our behavior and was argued by John Locke that the mind is a
blank state at birth upon which learning, and experience writes itself this was further addressed
Richard Lerner in 1986 where he researched the effects of the different levels of the environment,
ranging from the environment in the womb and the comparison to life outside the womb.
A strength suggesting that it is impossible to separate nature and nurture is niche picking This refers
to the notion that genes and environment interact as people create their own ‘nature’ by actively
selecting environments that are appropriate for their ‘nurture’. Therefore, demonstrating the idea
that a naturally aggressive child is likely to feel more comfortable around children who show similar
behaviours and will choose their environment accordingly. This environment will therefore affect
their growth and development as the age. This shows that it is impossible and illogical to try to
separate the influences that both nature and nurture have on behaviour. In addition to this a further
strength of the nature-nurture debate which further displays the idea that the two cannot be
separated, Dunn and Plomins study in 1990 on shared and unshared environments the research
suggests that individual differences that may occur between the upbringing of siblings (even if they
are being brough up in the same household) may cause the siblings to experience life events
differently. This would explain the finding that monozygotic twins reared together don’t show
perfect concordance rates. This supports the view that heredity and the environment can’t be
meaningfully separated.
A limitation of the nature side of the debate is that it can be vied as extremely unethical because of
the deterministic view, associated with the research. For example, pervious research suggests that
our ‘anatomy is destiny’ meaning that our inherited genetic makeup determines our characteristics
and behaviour whilst the environment has a very minimal influence. This is an issue because it had
led to controversy especially when being generalised to topics such as race, genetics and
intelligence. Shockley (1952) sparked controversy by claiming that there might be genetic reasons
that African Americas tended to score lower on IQ tests than whites was as a direct result of the
nature side of the debate this led to ethical implications, particularly when researching socially
sensitive subjects.
A limitation of the nurture side of the debate is that empiricists suggest that any behaviour can be
changed by altering the environmental conditions and ignoring genetics factors. This is shown by the
behvaiourist concept of behaviour shaping this has practical real life application as therapy shows
us that desirable behaviours are selectively reinforced, and undesirable behaviours are punished or
ignored. this may lead to a model of society that controls and manipulates its citizens using these
techniques. Therefore this weakens the credibility of the nurture side of the debate as it is
suggesting that humans have no power over their action which causes controversy.
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