Describe what each study tells us about how behaviour is learned or inherited.

Milgram’s study tells us that our behaviour is strongly influenced by people in Authority. It shows that even if people don’t want to act in a certain way, they do because they are simply obeying orders. Milgram’s results for his experiment were shocking and showed that people were prepared to carry out horrific actions if they were instructed by people in authority. The study implies that behaviour is learned because our decision to act in a certain way would be influenced by external factors.

Deregowski’s study investigates how different cultures perceive pictures differently. From his study Deregowski concluded that that the majority of people in western countries are 3D perceivers and the majority of people in LEDC’s are 2D perceivers. This suggests that some culture perceive things differently because of the surroundings they have been brought up in. For example if a black baby from one of the tribes in South Africa was brought to England, at the age of 2 months and raised here, the child will grow up to be a 3D perceiver. This is because the child will be used to watching T.V, using technology designed for 3D perceivers and will constantly be surrounded with paintings, pictures and images where depth cues are always present. This suggests that the way people perceive things isn’t dependent on their genes because if this was the case, an African child couldn’t be taught to be a 3D perceiver. This shows that the way people perceive things depends on their surrounding i.e. the Nurture debate.

Gould’s study tells us that different cultures around the world have different I.Q scores due to their genetic differences i.e. a person’s intelligence depends on the person’s country of origin- the nature debate. Gould found that blacks had a very low I.Q scores as did many countries of Eastern Europe and therefore there races were classed as being inferior to all other races. This theory of intelligence difference found from genes wasn’t proven as there were many other factors that could have affected how well different races did in the I.Q test.

The experiment was meant to measure native ...

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The experiment was meant to measure native intellectual ability (intelligence unaffected by culture and educational opportunities) but clearly it didn’t. The experiment had a cultural bias as a person who stayed longer in the USA scored better points so it was obviously affected by culture.

Even though Gould claimed that the experiment measured Native Intellectual ability (the Nature debate) it was clear that the results a person attained in a test was affected by culture and educational opportunities. So the test was actually measuring how well the participants absorbed information from everyday life in an American culture.

The Gardner and Gardner experiment is a good example of how behaviour is learnt as opposed to being inherited. Gardner and Gardner attempted to teach a chimp (Washoe) American Sign Language (ASL) so that communication between the chimp and humans could take place. Gardner and Gardner put Washoe into a different environment to what Washoe is used to and to an extent treated Washoe like a human e.g. Washoe had to brush her teeth every day. She was taught different signs and was encouraged to use sign language using various different methods. Washoe couldn’t use ASL before the experiment began but after 4 years, Washoe could use 132 signs. This is a good example of how anything can be taught how to do a certain thing (if they have the physical and mental apparatus to do so) if they are put in the correct environment. This study proves the Nurture debate correct.

Comment on the problems Psychologists have when they investigate whether behaviour is learned or inherited.

For years psychologists have debated and tried to find out how our individual behaviour is gained- are we born with it or do we gain it through experience? Many psychologists have tried to find ways in which they can measure if our behaviour is learnt or inherited but these psychologists have encountered problems while doing so.

One problem that psychologists have when investigating whether behaviour is learned or inherited is actually finding a task that can be given to all of the different participants. Psychologists carrying out an experiment to find out about behaviour usually have participants which are different in some way, for example different sexes, different cultures, different levels of intelligence. Deregowski conducted a cross cultural experiment to see if people from different cultures perceive pictures the same. He found that the African children spent a lot of time looking at the pen and paper as they had never before seen or used them in their life. The same task has to be given to all of the participants as the same dependant variable is being measured and this is a big problem as it decreases the reliability of the results.

Another problem is that it is very difficult to separate genetics and our experience as we begin learning from the moment we are born. This makes it hard to find a task that can measure just the intelligence we are born with because as long as we are on this planet, we are constantly learning new things that make us more intelligent. Gould carried out an experiment to measure people’s native intellectual ability (the intelligence we are a born with which is unaffected by culture and educational opportunities). The experiment clearly didn’t measure native intellectual ability, as you needed to know about American culture to answer the questions. Even thought the experiment was biased and favoured Americans, it is still a good example of how difficult it is to measure our native intellectual ability because Gould’s aim for the experiment was to measure this but this obviously proved to be very difficult. Other psychologists have tried to measure the intellectual ability we are born with but many have began to question whether we can ever make a task that measures our native intellectual ability.

The only way we come very close to separating our learned and inherited ability is if we separate two identical twins at birth and put them into different environments. We could put one into an environment where a very minimal amount of behaviour is learnt from experience. For example we could put the twin into an empty room with no contact with the outside world and hardly any human contact (somewhat like a prison). The other twin can lead a normal life by going to school, interacting with other people etc. We can then observe the two twins in later life and if their behaviour is very similar or the same, it proves that behaviour is inherited. If the twin who lived in the outside world is more developed that the twin who was shut away from the world, it would prove that our behaviour is gained through experience. This is the only ideal way to investigate whether behaviour is learned or inherited but is this method ethical?

Gardner & Gardner wanted to see whether a chimpanzee could communicate in American Sign Language and the only way they could investigate their aim was to treat a chimpanzee like a human and take it out of its natural habitat. They proved that a chimpanzee could communicate in ASL but the experiment was criticised by many people who thought it was unethical.