‘Nature and nurture interact; both are vital to understanding and
explaining human behaviour.’
Referring to this statement, discuss the nature-nurture debate in
psychology (16 marks)
Nature is the idea that out behaviours are pre-determined by our genetics,
hormones and chromosomes. Nurture suggests that behaviour is
determined by our environment.
Empiricism suggests that all leaning is the result of experience and
environmental factors. Nativism, however, suggests that our
characteristics are mostly caused by inheritance, as it proposes that
people’s characteristics are innate.
The heritability co-efficient is a method of assessing heredity. This is
based on a range of 0-1. A value of 1 would suggest that a trait is 100%
genetically determined.
A strength of the nature-nurture debate is that it allows for causes of
behaviour to be treated. In OCD, an SSRI can be taken to rebalance levels
of serotonin. This means that we are able to treat more patients, as their
genes can suggest the likeliness of them developing certain behaviours.
This, therefore, has real-life applications, making it beneficial to the
economy, as pre-determined conditions can be treated before having a
major impact.
However, this can also be a negative, especially in the criminal justice
system. For example, low activity of the MAOA-L enzyme may increase the
likeliness for aggressive and antisocial behaviour. This means that people
have wrongly been accused of committing a crime due to their biology. In
extreme cases, this has meant people have been imprisoned from birth to
reduce the risk of them committing a crime. Therefore, the nature debate
can have negative social implications, if used incorrectly.
Supporting evidence for the nature debate is also weakened, as it
predominantly comes from twin studies. Whilst twins have a similar
genetic make-up, they are also often brought up in the same environment.
This means that if twins have the same condition, we are unable to
determine if it’s due to the genetics or the environment. Therefore,
research based on the nature debate is correlational, making it too
biologically deterministic.
explaining human behaviour.’
Referring to this statement, discuss the nature-nurture debate in
psychology (16 marks)
Nature is the idea that out behaviours are pre-determined by our genetics,
hormones and chromosomes. Nurture suggests that behaviour is
determined by our environment.
Empiricism suggests that all leaning is the result of experience and
environmental factors. Nativism, however, suggests that our
characteristics are mostly caused by inheritance, as it proposes that
people’s characteristics are innate.
The heritability co-efficient is a method of assessing heredity. This is
based on a range of 0-1. A value of 1 would suggest that a trait is 100%
genetically determined.
A strength of the nature-nurture debate is that it allows for causes of
behaviour to be treated. In OCD, an SSRI can be taken to rebalance levels
of serotonin. This means that we are able to treat more patients, as their
genes can suggest the likeliness of them developing certain behaviours.
This, therefore, has real-life applications, making it beneficial to the
economy, as pre-determined conditions can be treated before having a
major impact.
However, this can also be a negative, especially in the criminal justice
system. For example, low activity of the MAOA-L enzyme may increase the
likeliness for aggressive and antisocial behaviour. This means that people
have wrongly been accused of committing a crime due to their biology. In
extreme cases, this has meant people have been imprisoned from birth to
reduce the risk of them committing a crime. Therefore, the nature debate
can have negative social implications, if used incorrectly.
Supporting evidence for the nature debate is also weakened, as it
predominantly comes from twin studies. Whilst twins have a similar
genetic make-up, they are also often brought up in the same environment.
This means that if twins have the same condition, we are unable to
determine if it’s due to the genetics or the environment. Therefore,
research based on the nature debate is correlational, making it too
biologically deterministic.
