Home > Individual Differences: Personality & Intelligence
Question: ‘Nature-nurture is a false dichotomy.’ Explain this statement using examples from either Book 1 Chapter 4, or Book 1 Chapter 5.
Answer: The question of whether genetics (nature) or environment (nurture) determine human behaviour is at the centre of a debate that dominated psychology between the mid 1950s and the early 1980s (EPoCH CD-ROM, 2002) and is still present in current psychology. Nature or nurture is a false dichotomy as it is nature and nurture that together, in interaction, are essential to life and development.
To illustrate the above notion that the influence of biology and environment are equally important, firstly we shall look at the evidence that our personality can be linked to our biology. Starting with the individual differences approach to personality – in particular the idea of consistency of behaviour across time and situations. Introducing the study of heritability will help us to see the relative...(short extract)
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- Subject: Psychology
- Course: Personality and Intelligence
- Level: Degree
- Year: 1st
- Mark: 72%
- Words: 1447
- Date submitted: February 05, 2009
- Date written: Not available
- References: Yes
- Document type: Essay*
- Essay ID: 2877
