Nature referred to innate influences, this is not only what a person is born with, but any ability determined

by genes.
This can be physical characteristics due to puberty or inherited diseases like Huntington's disease.
Genetic explanations like family, twin, and adoption studies show that the closer two people are genetically, the
more likely that both of them will develop the same behaviours. For example, concordance rates for mental
disorders like schizophrenia are approximately 40% for MZ twins and 7% for DZ twins. Since MZ twins are
genetically identical, this suggests that nature affects the development of this disorder.
Evolutionary explanations suggest that behaviour/characteristics that promote survival and reproduction will be
naturally selected. This is because they are adaptive and the genes for that behaviour/characteristic will be
passed onto offspring.
Nurture also known as environmental influences, are acquired interactions with the environment including both
the physical and social world and any experience experience, can affect infants even before birth so another
snowshoe drinks during pregnancy.
Behaviourism would suggest that infants are born as blank slates, and that all behaviour is learnt and can be
explained through experience. Skinner used classical and operant conditioning to explain learning. For
example, classical conditioning can explain how phobias are acquired and operant can explain phobia
maintenance.
Social learning theory suggests that behaviour is acquired by vicarious reinforcement (Bandura). The idea that
by watching others receiving reinforcement will motivate us to imitate the behaviour to receive the same
reward. Although he admitted biology must play a role (inherited aggression) he suggested that how the
person channels and expresses the anger is acquired from their environment.
Nature and nurture have been accepted as being inextricably entwined referred to as the interactionist
approach.

Psychologists now believe that nature and nurture cannot be separated. The inherited disorder
phenylketonuria (prevents the amino acid phenylalanine being metabolised, leading to brain damage) if it is
detected at birth, then the infant can be put on a special diet to avoid phenylalanine and therefore avoid brain
injury. This shows the influence of nature and nurture as being inextricably entwined.
A conceptualisation of the interaction is the diathesis-stress model is often used to explain the reason for
disease and mental health disorders. A diathesis is a biological predisposition/vulnerability (e.g. the candidate
gene 5HTT predisposes people to developing OCD) but research shows that not everyone with these genes
develop OCD. An environmental trigger is still required for the condition to develop, which is usually a stressor
experience also known as a precipitating factor.
Research has shown that nature can indirectly affect nurture. Plomin et al identified the passive influence (an
interaction): parents’ genes determine aspects of their behaviour (e.g. parent with predetermined mental illness
create an unsettled home environment too. So a child’s mental disorder could be due to indirect passive effects
of the parent’s gene. Research has also shown how nurture can affect nature: neural plasticity illustrates how
life experiences shape biology. E.g. Maguire studied London taxi drivers and found that the hippocampus
(associated with spatial memory) was larger than average, this wasn’t because they were born that way but
because the hippocampus responded to increased use.
Epigenetics refers to the material in each cell of the body that acts like a set of switches to turn genes on or off.
Life experiences, such as nutrition or stress, control these switches and these are passed on to future
offspring. This explains why cloning doesn’t produce identical copies. Cloning involves placing genetic copies
from one individual into a donor egg that has no nucleus. The donor egg then should grow into an identical
copy, but this doesn’t always happen because there is epigenetic material in the donor egg cell. This
epigenetic material is produced by environmental effects in the donor’s lifestyle. This is further evidence that
genetics and the environment are much less separate then was previously thought.