nature and nurture

Higher Psychology

Course overview – an introduction to natu= re and nurture

Studying Higher Psychology, you will quickly be= come aware that the course is different to other Highers that you may be studyin= g, such as Maths or Biology. In psychology, as with other social science subje= cts, there are rarely ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answers to questions such as ‘why do we forget things?’ or ‘how do children’ learn. Instead, there may be a range of different theories = and views, all putting forward different possible answers. One of the major ski= lls that you will develop during this course is the ability to analyse and eval= uate different explanations – to say how good you think a particular explanation is, and why. You will often be asked to compare different expla= nations, and you will learn to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

One of the major div= isions in psychology is between theories based on ‘nature’ and theories based on ‘nurture’.

What do we mean by n= ature and nurture? Some examples are given over the page for you to consider: -

Allison is 2½ years old and growing fast= . Her mother says that she is ‘into everything’ and cannot be left al= one for a minute. Allison’s favourite toy is a soft doll called Janey, and she likes playing with Janey and watching Tellytubbies. Allison’s fat= her is a native Gaelic speaker and Allison will shortly start attending a Gaelic Day Nursery.=

John is 42 years old and suffers from schizophr= enia. He lives alone in a one bedroom flat in the Gorbals. John’s flat is i= n a high rise block scheduled for demolition; he tells his key worker that he h= ates the area and is afraid of the young men that hang around near his flats. John’s neighbours know about his illness and usually try to avoid him. John has been hospitalised regularly throughout his adult life and although= he has attended college, has never held down a permanent job.

Jacqui is 13 years old and lives with her mothe= r and 16 year old brother. Jacqui attends a local secondary school where she has a close group of 5 other friends, who call themselves the K gang. Jacqui is a= ware that her body is changing and is embarrassed by this; she often forges note= s or forgets her kit to avoid PE. Jacqui says she feels fat, and tries to avoid eating too much at mealtimes. She has to wear uniform to school but loves shopping for clothes at weekends; this is a constant source of arguments wi= th her mother, who says that they cannot afford designer labels.

Working in small gro= ups, think about the following questions for each of the examples given:

What problems or needs does this individual have? What could be done to address these?

To what extent is this individual’s situation influenced by “nature” – their genes and biological make-up, inherited from their parents or ancient ancestors?=

To what extent is their situation influenc= ed by “nurture” – their upbringing and environment?

It may help if you put the individual into another situation – e.g. if t= hey had been born into a different family, or born 100 years ago, or born in Ch= ina – how would they be different? How would they be the same?=

Further reading and websites

There are dozens of books and probably hundreds of websites that you could access= to read more about nature and nurture… don’t worry, I’m not going to list them all here!

In the next class, we will have an overview of the development of psychology, = and we will see how ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ theories have become popular at different times.

In the meantime, you may wish to look at the following websites:

Feral children

http://www.feralchildren= .com/en/index.php

One way of studying nature and nurture is to study feral children – child= ren who have been abandoned or neglected, and who have not experienced ‘nurture’ during the early years of their lives. Their often tr= agic – but thankfully very rare - stories are documented on this website.<= o:p>

BBC Psychology site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/= science/humanbody/mind/

This is a great site, with lots of interactive games and activities. Have fun, b= ut while you’re looking around, think about whether you could explain yo= ur answers using nature or nurture.

McGill University &#= 8211; the brain from top to bottom

http://www.thebra= in.mcgill.ca/flash/index_d.html

This is a brilliant website which divides up its level of explanation into begin= ner, intermediate and expert (it’s aimed at university students, so beginn= er is fine) and also level of organisation – if you click on a topic area such as ‘memory’, you can choose to have a social explanation – giving you an idea of a nurture appr= oach – or different levels of ‘nature’ explanation, e.g. neurological (focused on the brain= ), or molecular, getting right down to biochemistry.

Don’t be put off if you don’t understand everything on this site – we will come back to many of these topics in due course.