Question 1 Model Answer

Question 1.

1. Outline the nature-nurture debate in psychology.
2. How has this debate helped in understanding the following:
   Gender role
   schizophrenia
   Language development
   Phobias
   Brain development
   Intelligence
   Diathesis stress model
   

1. The nature-nurture debate in psychology focuses on the extent to which behavior is determined by biology, especially genetics and the environment. Psychologists argue that behavior is produced by a complex interaction between both factors.
2. Gender role is a set of expectations about how males and females behavior. The nature-nurture debate has helped us understand how our evolutionary past predisposes certain male gender roles like assertivenesses and toughness, but because gender roles vary across cultures and time, we understand how nurture plays an important role as well.
Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder characterized by a split from reality. We now understand that dopamine over activity and brain abnormality can play a role but other environmental factors are also important like separation from parents and poor peer relationships which can make a child high risk for acquiring the disorder.
Language development concerns they way we acquire language throughout the life span. Chomsky helped us understand that we are biologically prepared to learn words and use grammar but without interaction with language we can not develop our abilities fully.