Lesson 4.3.1.3

4.3.1.3 The nature-nurture debate Quiz: AQA Psychology, Unit 3

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.3.1.3, The nature-nurture debate: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Psychology (7182), Unit 3: Issues and options in Psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is the nature-nurture debate?

    • The debate about whether research should be qualitative or quantitative
    • The debate about whether animals or humans are more intelligent
    • The debate about whether a single case study can be generalised
    • The debate about the relative contribution of heredity and environment to behaviour

  2. What is the interactionist approach?

    • The view that only learning and experience influence behaviour
    • The view that behaviour is random and not influenced by either factor
    • The view that behaviour results from the interaction between genes and environment
    • The view that only genes influence behaviour

  3. Which of these is on the 'nature' side of the debate?

    • Cultural norms passed down by teaching
    • Learned behaviour through reinforcement
    • Inherited genetic and biological factors
    • Experiences encountered only after birth

  4. Which of these is on the 'nurture' side of the debate?

    • Heredity and genetic inheritance
    • Hormone levels present in the womb
    • Brain chemistry fixed at conception
    • Experience and environmental influences such as learning and upbringing

  5. What does a heritability estimate measure?

    • The proportion of variation in a trait across a population that is due to genetic differences
    • The exact number of genes that cause a trait in one individual
    • The likelihood that a trait will appear in any child at all
    • The percentage of a trait that one person inherits from a single parent

  6. Why are twin studies used in nature-nurture research?

    • Identical twins share the same genes, so differences between them point to environmental influence
    • Twins are always raised apart, which makes them ideal for experiments
    • Twins can be used only to measure hormone levels
    • Twins always share their environment, so genetic differences are isolated

  7. Which method is commonly used to compare genetic and environmental contributions to a trait?

    • Comparing concordance rates of identical and non-identical twins
    • Measuring reaction times in a laboratory
    • Calculating the mean age of a sample
    • Recording the ranks of participants' scores

  8. Identical twins have a concordance rate of 50% for a trait and non-identical twins have 20%. What does this suggest?

    • The trait is entirely environmental in origin
    • The trait is entirely genetic in origin
    • The trait cannot be inherited at all
    • Genetic factors contribute to the trait, but environment also plays a role because concordance is not 100%

  9. A child adopted at birth shows the same behaviour as their biological parents but not their adoptive parents. Which side of the debate does this support?

    • Neither nature nor nurture affects this behaviour
    • Environment is the only influence on this behaviour
    • The behaviour is random and unrelated to family
    • Heredity has a stronger influence on this behaviour than the adoptive environment

  10. A researcher finds a correlation of 0.8 between parent and child scores on a trait and warns that this does not show cause. Which idea is this?

    • A correlation does not establish that genes cause the trait, because a shared environment could also explain it
    • A correlation of 0.8 is too weak to mean anything at all
    • The correlation proves the trait is purely genetic
    • Correlation can only be used in experiments with random allocation

  11. A child with a genetic predisposition for shyness becomes more shy when raised in a critical environment. Which concept does this example illustrate?

    • Hard determinism
    • Idiographic investigation
    • The interactionist approach
    • Holism

  12. Which approach would best separate genetic and environmental influence in a study?

    • Studying one family with no comparison group
    • Studying adopted children and comparing them with their biological and adoptive relatives
    • Using a single self-report questionnaire
    • Asking participants to describe their own genes

  13. A psychologist says that aggression is 'all in the genes'. Which position on the debate does this represent?

    • An interactionist position
    • A holistic position
    • An extreme nativist position that emphasises heredity
    • An extreme empiricist position that emphasises environment

  14. A behaviourist claims that all behaviour is learned through reinforcement. Which side of the debate does this represent?

    • Nurture
    • Holism
    • Nature
    • Interactionism

  15. A heritability estimate of 0.6 for a trait means what?

    • About 60% of the variation in the trait across the population is associated with genetic differences
    • The trait is 60 times more likely to be inherited than not
    • 60% of the trait is caused by genes in every individual
    • Genes account for 40% of the trait in every individual

  16. Which limitation of the heritability estimate is most important?

    • It proves genes cause behaviour without any environmental influence
    • It describes variation within a population and cannot be applied to explain differences in a single individual
    • It is always 100% in twin studies
    • It can only be calculated for animal populations

  17. Why is the nature-nurture debate often described as a false dichotomy?

    • Because nature and nurture are identical in every study
    • Most behaviour results from heredity and environment together, which interact rather than act separately
    • Because genes do not exist in psychological research
    • Because environment never influences behaviour

  18. Which methodological issue is most significant for twin studies?

    • Twin studies cannot use questionnaires
    • Identical twins often share more similar environments than non-identical twins, which can confound the comparison
    • Identical twins cannot be compared with each other
    • Twins are always raised in different countries

  19. Animals raised in enriched environments show differences in brain structure compared with animals raised in barren environments. What does this support?

    • The role of environment in shaping biological structures, supporting an interactionist view
    • The view that nurture is irrelevant to nature
    • The view that environment has no role in biology
    • The view that genes alone determine brain size

  20. Which strength of interactionist explanations is most often identified?

    • They ignore individual differences between people
    • They prove that nature always outweighs nurture
    • They avoid oversimplifying behaviour as the result of only one cause
    • They explain behaviour without any need for evidence

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