Common Fallacies About Heredity, Environment, and Human Behavior. [Report No.: ACT-RR-58

Autor/in	Anastasi, Anne
Institution	American Coll. Testing Program, Iowa City, IA. Research and Development Div.
Titel	Common Fallacies About Heredity, Environment, and Human Behavior. [Report No.: ACT-RR-58
Quelle	(1973), (15 Seiten)Verfügbarkeit
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Behavior Development; Behavior Problems; Biological Influences; Cognitive Development; Congenital Impairments; Environmental Influences; Genetics; Heredity; Individual Characteristics; Individual Development; Intellectual Development; Intelligence Differences; Physical Characteristics; Racial Differences; Sex Differences + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Biologischer Faktor; Kognitive Entwicklung; Environmental influence; Umwelteinfluss; Humangenetik; Erblichkeit; Personality characteristic; Personality traits; Persönlichkeitsmerkmal; Individuelle Entwicklung; Mental development; Geistige Entwicklung; Körperliche Erscheinung; Rassenunterschied; Sex difference; Geschlechtsunterschied
Abstract	Much of our thinking about contemporary social problems reflects tacit presuppositions regarding the operation of heredity and environment in human behavior. These beliefs have important implications for practical decisions. Advances in genetics, psychology, anthropology, and other disciplines have contributed much to a clarification of the operation of hereditary and environmental factors in human development. Thus, it behooves us to bring the presuppositions into the open and reexamine them periodically in the light of pertinent research findings. Failure to understand what a heritability ratio can--and what it cannot--tell us may lead to highly fallacious conclusions, as illustrated by some of the popular misinterpretations of the Jensen article. Heritability ratios are applicable to populations, not individuals; they are descriptive of existing conditions in a specified population and cannot be generalized to other populations or to the same population under different conditions; and they do not indicate the degree of modificability of a trait. The operation of heredity concerning behavior can be described in terms of a continuum of indirectness. In most situations, the appropriate question is not whether heredity or environment operated, nor the proportional contribution of each--both are meaningless questions from the standpoint of the individual. Rather what we need to identify is the specific etiological mechanism or causal chain that led to a given condition. (Author/JM)
Anmerkungen	American College Testing Program, Research & Development Div., Box 168, Iowa City, Ia. 52210 ($1.00)
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2004/1/01