This Unit

 Ethnocentrism

Nature-nurture

Individual and situational explanations

Determinism and free will

Reductionism and holism

Psychology as a science

The usefulness of psychological research
Nature-Nurture
Issues and Debates
This powerpoint has been adapted from Garnette Watts and Terri-linzi King’s work.
Learning intentions

Outline the nature and nurture debate in Psychology.

Describe two pieces of research that support nature.

Describe two pieces of research that support nurture.

Discuss the strengths and limitations of nature and nurture in research.

Discuss the strengths and limitations of the nature-nurture debate in research.

Explain how the nature and nurture debate is useful to everyday life. (individuals and society).
Which side of the fence?
Nature
Nurture
Nature

Behaviour is caused by innate (animal instincts) characteristics :
The physiological/biological characteristics we are born with.

Behaviour is therefore determined by biology.

Determinist view- suggests all behaviour is determined by hereditary factors:
Inherited characteristics, or genetic make-up we are born with.
Nature
 All possible behaviours are said to be present from conception.
 Genes provide the blueprint for all behaviours; some present
from birth, others pre-programmed to emerge with age.
Nurture
 An individuals behaviour is determined by the environment-
the things people teach them, the things they observe, and
because of the different situations they are in.

Also a determinist view- proposes all human behaviour is the
result of interactions with the environment.

Born an empty vessel- waiting to be filled up by
experiences gained from environmental interaction.

No limit to what they can achieve:
-Depends on quality of external influences and NOT
genes.

The quality of the environment is KEY:
-You can become anything provided the environment
is right.
Watson (behaviourism)
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed,
and my own specified world to bring them up
in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random
and train him to become any type of specialist
I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man
and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his
ancestors
Nature - Nurture Interaction

Behaviour is often a result of the interaction between nature
AND nurture.

An individuals characteristics may elicit particular responses
in other people e.g.
Temperament: how active, responsive or emotional an infant
is influences in part determines their caregivers responses.
Gender: people tend to react differently to boys and girls due
to expectations of masculine and feminine characteristics.

Aggression: Displaying aggressive behaviour create particular
responses from other people.
Why these concepts?
Nature
Nurture
The perspectives?
Nature
Nurture
Developmental
Psychology
Individual
Differences
Social
Psychology
Evidence for nature and nurture
Nature
Personality
Language Acquisition
Nurture
Questions
Personality- The Jim Twins

Unlike most identical twins, Jim Springer and Jim Lewis share a first name instead of a last. The
two were separated at birth and adopted by separate families who, by coincidence, named their
respective sons James.

Both were adopted by families living in Ohio and grew up within 45 miles of each other.

Both had childhood dogs they named “Toy.”

Both were married twice — first to women named Linda, and then to women named Betty.

Both had boys one called his James Allan and the other James Alan.

They both smoked the same cigarettes.

Both bit their nails and suffered from migraines.

Both Jims enjoyed leaving love letters to their wives around the home.

Both had been employed as a Sheriff at one point in their life.
3 characteristics to describe you in relation
to your siblings?
http://www.parents.com/baby/development/social/birth-order-and-personality/
Firstborn
Middle Child
Last Born
Only Children
Reliable
People-pleasers
Fun-loving
Mature for their age
Conscientious
Somewhat rebellious
Uncomplicated
Perfectionists
Structured
Thrives on friendships
Manipulative
Conscientious
Cautious
Has large social circle
Outgoing
Diligent
Controlling
Peacemaker
Attention-seeker
Leaders
Achievers
Self-centered
Language Acquisition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmdycJQi4QA

45 seconds

4 minutes

10minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkX47t2QaRs
Genie the wild child
Evidence for
Nature
Personality
Language Acquisition
Nurture
Questions
Describe two pieces of evidence to explain the
nurture/nature debate (8 marks)

Now describe TWO studies that link with the ‘nurture/nature
approach’ to explaining behaviour.

Remember you want to try and bring in the aim, method, results
and conclusions about the study but ALSO explain HOW it is
linked to the nature-nurture approach at all times (look back to
the key points of the assumptions).
What perspectives would be appropriate to use?
Studies
Nature
AS (1)
AS (2)
A2 (1)
A2 (2)
Nurture
Interactionist
(Question Slide 20)
Support for Nature

Physiological Approach:

MAGUIRE, E. A., GADIAN, D. G., JOHNSRUDE, I. S., GOOD, C. D., ASHBURNER,
J., FRACKOWIAK, R.S. & FRITH, C. D. (2000) Navigation-related structural
changes in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Science, USA. 97. 4398–4403

DEMENT, W. & KLEITMAN, N. (1957) The relation of eye movements during
sleep to dream activity. Journal of Experimental Psychology. 53 (5). 339–346

SPERRY, R. (1968) Hemisphere deconnection and unity in consciousness.
American Psychologist. 23. 723–733
Support for Nature

Language Acquisition (Chomsky, 1968)
- Chomsky maintained language is the result of innate cognitive structures in the
mind.
- Biologically based inborn brain mechanism
-Children are predisposed to make sounds and understand grammar.
- This does not happen from birth but language skills develop rapidly after a
certain period of time
Language acquisition follows the same sequence in all children= an inbuilt
genetic mechanism is responsible.

Identical genes exist in Identical Twins- Monozygotic (MZ) twins
share 100% of their genes.

Fraternal Twins- Dyzygotic Twins (DZ), share 50% of their genes.

Genetic effects can therefore be shown when the correlations within
each group is compared with the correlations between each group.

This can be added to the correlations found with other relatives.
Parents share 50% of genes, cousins share 12.5%.
Support for Nature
Genetic basis of Schizophrenia (Gottesman & Shields, 1976)
- A review of twin and adoption studies into schizophrenia between 1967 and
1976.
- In adoption studies: compared biological parents and siblings and adoptive
parents and siblings.
- In twin studies: compared concordance rates (how often both twins were
diagnosed with schizophrenia) for monozygotic (identical) and dyzygotic (nonidentical) twins.
Video
Support for Nature

Results
- Adoption studies found increased incidence of schizophrenia in adopted
children with a schizophrenic biological parent.
- ‘Normal’ children fostered to a schizophrenic parent and adoptive
parents of schizophrenic children showed little evidence of
schizophrenia.
- Twin studies found higher concordance rate for schizophrenia in MZ
twins (58%) than DZ twins (12%).

Conclusion
Significant genetic input into the onset of schizophrenia.
Genes responsible for predisposing a person to schizophrenia.
(Rosenthal, 1963) Genain quadruplets
Support for Nature

IQ scores
-Plomin (1988) studied MZ and DZ twins reared together and apart and
found that I.Q. has an overall heritability of 0.68- genetics are
responsible for about 68% of the variation in I.Q.
-MZ twins reared apart have I.Q. scores which correlate at about 0.74,
or 74%.
Evaluation point
However, variations between identical twins must
be due to environmental influences.
Support for Nurture
Social Psychology

MILGRAM, S. (1963) Behavioural study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology. 67. 371–378

REICHER, S. & HASLAM, S. A. (2006) Rethinking the psychology of tyranny.
The BBC prison study.

PILIAVIN, I., RODIN, J. & PILIAVIN, J. (1969) Good Samaritanism; an
underground phenomenon? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
13(4). 289–299
Behaviourist Perspective
Support for Nurture – Little Albert
Classical conditioning of fear- phobia acquisition:
 ‘Little Albert’ Aged 11 months (Watson & Raynor, 1920)
Before conditioning:
Little Albert showed no sign of fear response in any situation.

During conditioning:
Albert was presented with a rat. Each time he reached for the rat a steel bar
was hit.
1st time= he jumped + fell forward 2nd time= he began to whimper
The pairing/association process was completed a number of times.
After conditioning:
Albert reacted to the rat alone by immediately crying, turning, and crawling
away quickly.
Support for Nurture
After conditioning:
Stimulus Generalisation: Albert returned to see if the fear had transferred.
- Presentation of toy blocks (neutral stimulus) = playing
- Presentation of the rat followed by a rabbit, dog, fur-coat, Watson’s hair
and a Santa Claus = conditioned responses of crying, moving away from
stimulus and crawling.
Ethics: Little Albert’s mother was not given full informed consent, she also
removed Albert from the study before debriefing offered.
Support for Nurture

Conclusion
- After 5 paired presentations the conditioning of fear was evident: is
possible to condition fear through classical conditioning.
- The fear had been generalised to other similar objects.
- The fear had not been removed with time, nor was he debriefed.

Provides evidence that the environment can be manipulated to create
a phobic response & behavioural change.
(See key study: A2 OCR textbook p.115)
Support for Nurture- Zimbardo

Zimbardo (1973) Stanford Prison Experiment
- 24 participants, described as “normal, healthy male college
students, predominantly middle class and white”.
- Randomly assigned to the role of ‘prisoner’ or ‘guard’ .
- A simulated prison was built in the basement of the psychology
building at Stanford University. It comprised of 3 small cells each
housing 3 men ,and 1 small unlit room for solitary confinement.
Video
Support for Nurture

Guards not told how to behave but were explicitly told that they
were not allowed to use physical punishment or physical
aggression.

Uniforms of both groups were intended to increase group identity
and reduce individuality.

Guards’ uniforms were intended to convey a military attitude, with a
baton and whistle for symbols of control and power.
Support for Nurture

The behaviour of the ‘normal’ students was affected by the assigned
role- seemed to believe in their allocated position.

Guards became verbally and physically aggressive.

Prisoners became increasingly depersonalised- several experienced
extreme depression, crying, rage and acute anxiety.

The experiment had to be stopped after just six days instead of the
planned 14 days.

The study demonstrates the powerful effect roles can have on
peoples’ behaviour.
Nature and Nurture Debate
Interactionist

Cognitive Psychology

Psychodynamic perspective

Developmental Psychology

Individual Differences
Nature and Nurture Interaction
Evidence

Rutter and Rutter (1993) Aggression hostility
- Described how aggressive children think and behave in ways
that lead other children to respond to them in a hostile
manner.
-This then reinforces the antisocial child’s view of the world.
Thus, aggressive children tend to experience aggressive
environments partly because they elicit aggressive
responses.
Nature - Nurture Interaction

Maguire et al. (2000)- Taxi driver study
- Structural MRI scans of the brains of licensed London taxi drivers were
compared with controls who did not drive taxis.
- Hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a
taxi driver
- The posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger
relative to those of control subjects.
- The posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the
environment and can expand regionally in people with a high
dependence on navigational skills.
See AS Psychology textbook: pp.68
Nature

Nurture Interaction
Maguire et al. Conclusion
- It appears the brain has the capacity for plasticity (the ability
to change)- the structure of the brain can alter in response to
environmental demands.
Studies
Nature
AS (1)
AS (2)
A2 (1)
A2 (2)
Nurture
Interactionist
Nature A2 Study

The nature approach highlights that biology can play a role in criminal
behaviour and in particular the role of genes in explaining behaviour.

Evidence from Christiansen (1977) looked at 3586 twin pairs in Denmark
and found a 52% concordance rate for criminality in MZ twins
(monozygotic twins) and a 22% concordance for DZ (dizygotic twins).

His study shows that genes influence one’s behaviour in particular
criminal behaviour as the concordance rate is higher for MZ twins
compared to DZ twins.

This study looks at crime in an objective manner whereby the relationship
between crime and genes may be established to some degree relating to
the nature approach.
Nurture AS Study

Bandura illustrated in his study how the environment does shape our
behaviour – in this case aggression. This relates to the nurture approach.

He conducted a lab experiment on 73 children and showed that social
behaviour (aggression) can be acquired through imitation and observation
through the environment rather than through genetics or physiological
factors. The influence of role models also plays a key role in aggression.

The study showed that children who were exposed to aggression
immediately imitated and displayed aggression towards the bobo doll
afterwards such as kicking and punching the bobo doll than those exposed
to non-violence did not display any aggression.

This study has social implications for how crimes may be imitated through
the media. This suggests that nurture may contribute to the development of
aggressive behaviour.
Nurture A2 Study

Farrington’s research relates to the social approach he looked at various
factors related to upbringing and the environment. He also focuses on the
developmental approach as he looked at the development of offending from
ages 8 to 48 using extensive interviews which once again relates to the
nurture side of the debate.

Farrington’s study considers a more ‘holistic’ approach by looking at the
influence of several factors affecting criminal behaviour in particular
environmental factors.

Farrington found that offenders from childhood to adulthood in families tend
to deviate in many aspects of their lives. The most importance risk factors are
criminality in family, poverty, poor child rearing and poor school performance.

This shows that nurture plays a significant role in criminal behaviour and early
intervention programmes are important in targeting those under 10.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Nature
Nurture
Nature- Nurture Debate
Weaknesses
12 mark questions
Here are Your Possibilities
What are the strengths and weaknesses of explaining behaviour:
 through the nature/nurture debate? (12 marks)
 from a nature viewepoint? (12 marks)
 from a nurture viewepoint? (12 marks)

You need 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses with EVIDENCE.

The structure should be PCEC.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of explaining
behaviour through a nature viewpoint?

STRENGTHS
•
Explaining behaviour from a nature viewpoint is objective as methods used to look at
behaviour are usually physiological in nature.
•
Explaining behaviour through the nature approach helps to see a clearer cause & effect
between behaviour.

WEAKNESSES

A weakness of explaining behaviour from a nature viewpoint is that it creates the ‘labelling
effect’ whereby individuals feel that they have no control over their behaviour.

Reductionist explanation as it only explains behaviour from a situational point of view and
ignores developmental and social factors in explaining behaviour.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of explaining
behaviour through a nurture viewpoint?

STRENGTHS

Point: Considers a wide range of factors within the situation that can influence one’s
behaviour. This allows for intervention programmes to be implemented.

Point: The nurture approach uses studies that adopt a wide range of methods to explain
behaviour so data gathering is more holistic.

WEAKNESSES

Point: Reductionist explanation as it only explains behaviour from a situational point of view
and ignores biological and cognitive factors in explaining behaviour.

Point: Harder to establish cause & effect as a number of variables are looked at
simultaneously.
What are the strengths of explaining behaviour through a nurture
viewpoint?
Strength:
Point: The nurture approach uses studies that adopt a wide range of factors that contribute to the
behaviour. This suggests a more holistic approach to explaining behaviour.
Comment: This is a strength because…
Evidence: Farrington’s study shows that various factors play a role in explaining crime. This includes
family background, interaction with others, type of parenting, siblings and environment.
Comment: This is a strength because behaviour is being looked at from different angles and hence a
range of suitable treatment programmes can be implemented to deal with the individual. This does
not limit behaviour to just one factor.
What are the strengths of explaining behaviour through the naturenurture debate?

STRENGTHS

Point: It views human behaviour from a holistic approach, acknowledging that both biological
and environmental factors can influence our behaviour.

Point:

WEAKNESSES

Point: It is difficult to separate whether human behaviour is caused by nature or nurture as
sometimes it is a combination of both. Both viewpoints on its own are reductionist as they limit
behaviour to one explanation.

Point:
Weaknesses of the debate

Point: It is difficult to separate whether human behaviour is caused by nature or nurture as sometimes it is
a combination of both. Both viewpoints on its own are reductionist as they limit behaviour to one
explanation.

Comment: This is a weakness because….

Evidence: Bandura’s study showed that children who observed a aggressive model behaved more
aggressively towards the bobo doll. However, they also found that boys displayed more physical aggression
than girls and this could account for the nature side of the debate since boys by nature have more
aggressive hormones than girls.

Explain: Evidence does suggest that there is a definite connection between the hormonal effects of
testosterone and the outward expression of aggressive behaviour. Therefore the concept of nurture
influencing behaviour is not fully valid as nature could have a role too.

Comment: What implication does this have for us in every day psychology?
Conclusion

Human behaviour is far too complex to pick one side of
an approach in explaining behaviour and therefore an
interactionalist approach should be adopted.

Genes do play a surprisingly important role for almost
all complex traits, whether behavioural or medical.

But individual differences in complex traits are due at
least as much to environmental influences as they are
to genetic influences.
Applications/ Usefulness of the naturenurture debate.
Topic
Nature
Nurture
Treatment for mental
illness
Medication
Therapy and social
support
Links to other debates?
•
Reductionism/ holism
•
Determinism
•
Ethics (only with some)
Links to perspectives and approaches?
• What perspectives have we been looking at
predominately? Why?
Links to research methodologies?
• Twin studies
Homework: Exam style question (40 marks)
A.
Outline the nature and nurture debate in Psychology (4 marks)
B.
Describe two pieces of evidence that support the nature debate (8
marks)
C.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the nature/nurture
debate? (12 marks)
E: Discuss how research on nature/nurture is useful in our
understanding of everyday life (8 marks)
E: Using evidence, discuss how the nature explanation can be seen as
reductionist? (8 marks)
Reflection: Thinking routines
What makes you YOU? Nature vs Nurture
How is the nature-nurture debate like growing a tree?
Learning Intentions:

Outline the nature and nurture debate in Psychology.

Describe two pieces of research that support nature.

Describe two pieces of research that support nurture.

Discuss the strengths and limitations of nature and nurture in research.

Discuss the strengths and limitations of the nature-nurture debate in research.

Explain how the nature and nurture debate is useful to everyday life. (individuals and
society).