Discuss the nature-nurture debate in psychology.

Refer to at least two topics you have

studied in your answer.

20 marks

The nature nurture debate is about whether nature or nurture has a greater impact on our
behaviour. Nature is the idea that factors such as evolution, genetics, brain structures and
neurochemicals have the greatest role in behaviours. The biological approach supports a
nature perspective saying behaviour is from genes, hormones and evolution.

Whereas empiricists (nurture psychologists) believe behaviour is due to our environment,

upbringing and experiences. Psychologists from the behaviourist approach believes we’re as
conditioned by past experiences.

Over time, we have learnt not to see this as a debate where you take one side as another but
see that it is obvious that nature and nurture work together. Ways in which we can establish
the influence of nature and nurture are through adoption and twin studies. Adoption studies
are used before if they are more like their adopted family it is nuture and if they are more like
their biological family it is nature. Twin studies are used as MZ twins will have a 100%
concordance rate if it is down to nature.

The diathesis-stress model is an application of this suggesting that as opposed to working

separately. It is all linked. It says that people have a biological disposition to certain
behaviours which are triggered by stimulus in their environment. For example, one study
showed that adopted people were more likely to develop schizophrenia if their family have a
history of it and their adopted family were viewed as ‘dysfunctional’.

In biopsychology and plasticity, it can be seen that nurture can affect nature. In Maguire at al
study into taxi drivers showed that London taxi drivers have an increased hippocampus as
they use it more. This shows that the brain is plastic to change and the structure can change if
the environment requires it to.

In psychopathology phobias can be explained by the behaviourist approach that phobias are
learnt by association and maintained by consequence. However, this doesn’t explain why we
have phobias to things we have never come face to face with, like snakes. This can be
explained by nature and evolution as we have developed a biological preparedness to fear
things genetically dissimilar to us as they are a threat to our survival. This suggests both
nature and nurture are needed to fully explain human behaviour.