Defining Nature and Nurture

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the distinction between nature and nurture explanations for behaviour, focusing in particular on: (i) the example of aggression to contextualise this debate; (ii) the fact that modern perspectives on behaviour consider it largely too complicated to be explained by either nature or nurture factors alone; (iii) gene-environment interaction as a vital contributor to explanations for behaviour; (iv) the example of depression to highlight contributory factors, such as being biologically related to other sufferers, as well as experiencing negative life events.

About the lecturer

Dr Lydia Kearney is Deputy School Director of Education in the School of Psychology at the University of Kent. Dr Kearney’s research areas of interest are social anxiety and experiences of mental imagery, particularly how the two interact and impact attention and interpretation biases. Some of Dr Kearney’s recent publications include 'Observer perspective imagery in social anxiety: effects on negative thoughts and discomfort' (2011) and 'The intra and interpersonal effects of observer and field perspective imagery in social anxiety' (2013).