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Exam questions. In the context of the holism and reductionism debate – outline one strength and one weakness of holistic explanations of behaviour. (4 marks) Outline why some psychologists favour reductionist explanations of human behaviour (4 marks).
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Exam questions • In the context of the holism and reductionism debate – outline one strength and one weakness of holistic explanations of behaviour. (4 marks) • Outline why some psychologists favour reductionist explanations of human behaviour (4 marks)
Try to identify for each characteristic below, the general view in society of the extent to which each results from nature, or nurture or an interaction of both. Extroversion Eye colour Eye sight Aggression Weight Motivation
Background? • Thompson and Venables grew up in circumstances which had both striking similarities and profound differences. Both boys had parents who had separated; each had difficulties with attendance, learning and behaviour at school. They bunked off, they shoplifted, they were violent; all these pieces in a pattern that made up a pair of empty, broken young lives. Ann Thompson was portrayed as an incompetent alcoholic, while Susan Venables was painted as a loose woman whose neighbours "noted a procession of men friends for Mrs Venables".
Personality Neighbours told of pigeons having their heads shot off with an airgun, of rabbits being tied to railway lines, of dawn rollerbooting sessions. There were tales of charity collection boxes being stolen and of children being assaulted in the classroom.
Background • mixed-race heritage, once insecure about his place in the world, • His mother Ann Dunham, a white woman originally from Kansas and the most important influence on the future President's life. she was good fun, extremely hardworking and had a great sense of humour," "She was also serious about giving young Barack the kind of start in life that might help him succeed." Ann had met and fallen in love with a handsome Kenyan student at university, Barack Obama, and they were married. It was a time of racial tension in America in the early 1960s and with mixed marriages outlawed in more than half the states of the union, though not in Hawaii. • Ann was anxious to instil in her son a sense of self worth, that he should never be ashamed of who he is. He was woken up at four in the morning," Alice told me, "so Ann could home school him, so that he could get the kind of education that would give him a chance to help people, and it worked." • The self confidence and belief in his own abilities that have helped shape Barack Obama's destiny, were the fruits of a doting mum. a shocking revelation for the son when he made an emotional pilgrimage to Kenya in the late 1980s. He found that the father whom he had placed on a pedestal had died a washed-up drunk, bitter and alone. • The younger Obama has written about how he sat by his father's grave and wept, vowing never to make the same mistakes, that he would not to squander his life.
Experiences • Political motivation His closest friends and colleagues during his time as a community organiser in the poor, deprived Southside area of Chicago, the period in his life when he realised his future was in politics, say that Obama never forgot the conflicts of his mixed race heritage. Gerald Kellman gave Obama the job in Chicago and told me Obama identified with other outsiders. "And that was a good connecting point for people who were poor," he said. "People who faced racial discrimination - it helped him identify with their lives." During Obama's time at Harvard some black students thought he was a sell out when he reached out to whites on the Harvard Law Review. Later on, the fall-out of the Reverend Wright affair threatened to bring him into conflict with the African-American community. And despite the seemingly effortless political ascent there was an election defeat along the way, to former Black Panther and congressman Bobby Rush. Obama learned some fundamental lessons from this defeat, lessons that made him a stronger campaigner and political operator
Michael Jackson Between his terrifying plastic surgery and legal woes, Michael Jackson has plenty of problems — some of which he blames on his father, Joe Jackson. Michael says that as the starring member of his family's famous musical group, the Jackson Five, he never had a childhood, and that his father beat him into working harder. While certainly his father's discipline helped propel the group, and Michael, into international stardom, Jackson has said in the past that just thinking about his dad makes him want to throw up. Joe may also be the catalyst for Jacko's cosmetic surgery O.D. — the troubled pop star says his father criticized him for having a "big nose." The nose is "fixed," so to speak, but not the relationship. Nonetheless, both his mother and father supported him after he was charged with molesting children.
Heredity – Environment debate Nature – Nurture debate Nativism – empiricism debate
Nativism – Rene Descartes 1600’s • He believed all our behaviours are innate – he believed we were born with some aspects of knowledge, i.e. God. At this time so it was believed that not genes caused our behaviours - instead our human characteristics and knowledge was simply what it was to be human. • Of course now we know about in genetic influences and how certain characteristics are heritable.
Empiricism – JohnLocke 1600’s. • He was of the view that at birth the human mind is a ‘tabular rasa’ (blank slate) which is filled through learning and experience. Your thoughts, behaviours and personality etc…
The question is then… How much do each debate contribute to our understanding of human behaviour?
Interactionism • It seems impossible to separate the two, nor does it make sense to adopt extreme positions of either simply environment or heredity - instead we should acknowledge how both interact in a complex way. • Nature is expressed in nurture, i.e. genes for walking on two legs, using our lungs to breathe in oxygen, etc …both are necessary for us to survive. • Can you think of more examples of nature expressed in nurture from the topics you have studied?
Interactionism • Each individual is a unique genetic mosaic (Tavris and Wade, 1995) with unique experiences in history… • Thus a genius at playing the violin could be to do with a number of factors, inherited musical talent, raised by a musical family or inspiration from a opera at an early age…..It could be more of one or all of the above….
Methods of investigating the contributions of nature nurture… • Heritability; • Twin studies are used to determine a heritability estimate • Heritability estimate – a statistical estimate of the variance of a trait within the whole population and the extent to which that trait can be attributed to genetics.
Support for Nature • PKU – phenylketonuria: This is an inherited metabolic disorder where certain proteins are not processed properly which leave a poisonous substance in the blood that can cause brain damage.
However • If PKU is detected early (and all newborns are tested) then the particular proteins ca be eliminated from the child’s diet and there is no brain damage. Thus if the childs environment contains no proteins, no damage will occur. Thus this is an interaction of NN.
Support for Nature • Gibson and Walk (1960) showed in their classic ‘visual cliff’ experiment that baby infants are born with innate depth perception. Infants who had just began to crawl with no previous experience of falling off a flat surface into a deep space would not crawl onto the clear glass which gave the perception of a deep hole.
Support for Nature • The degree of similarity between MZ twins compared to DZ twins is a clear indicator of a genetic influence. Twin studies by Gottesman (1991) has shown this for sz, intelligence and temperament. • Bouchad and Mc Gue (1981) found that when pairs of MZ and DZ twins have been reared apart
however • High concordance rates may be due to similar upbringings. For example, Schiffman et al (2002) found that it was commonly found that parents of sz clients had three characteristics in common, high levels of family conflict, difficulties with communication and parents are usually highly critical of their children. So maybe it is these reasons for SZ not genetics.
Howevers…. • Plomin et al (1997) showed that personality characteristics such as neuroticism and assertiveness have a heritability coefficient between 0.15 and 0.50. If a value of 0.1 means the trait or characteristic is determined solely by genetics and a value of zero that genetics plays no role then what does this mean?
howevers • There is no such thing as pure nature. People argue that abilities present at a babies birth is nature, but by this time the baby has already had 9 months worth of experience in the womb. • Even before conception the state of the infant is not all nature as illustrated by something called the ‘transgenerational effect’; if a woman has a poor diet – or drinks lots then this will effect the baby – this is because the eggs already in a woman’s fallopian tubes could be aversely affected – so what seems inherited was actually environmentally caused
homework • Explain the nature nurture debate in psychology (4 marks) • Choose on topic in psychology in which the contributions of nature nurture have been investigated. Briefly discuss the nature side of the argument (4 marks) • Read the handout and make notes on how depth perception supports nature, how intelligence, sz and height are also the result of nature (or not as the case may be?)
