The paper presents an experimental study that examines the conditions required for news about behavioral genetics to activate genetic essentialism beliefs. Nine hundred sixty-five adults living in the USA were randomly assigned to read either a control news article or one of the three versions of a news story about behavioral genetics. The…

Gilbert Gottlieb was an elegant experimentalist whose research was inspired in part by naturalistic observations of parent-offspring vocal-auditory interactions of waterfowl. Such observations are essential in identifying potential linear (obvious) as well as nonlinear (subtle) mechanisms underlying the development of species-typical behavior. His…

Paper presented at the Merrill-Palmer Conference on Research and Teaching of Infant Development, February 13-15, 1970. (JE)

Data are presented from families of monozygotic twin pairs which give evidence of genetic variance on the Block Design Test, a nonverbal measure of intelligence. Analyses of genetic and environmental effects on behavior are possible with this kind of information. (SA)

Examines the interplay between genes and environment and argues that the development of much individual variation can be explained in terms of relatively simple forms of underlying regulation. Looks at "sensitive periods," during which variation is produced by experience received at a particular age. Includes a discussion of the…

Describes seven myths regarding the role of genes in determining behavior and the modifiability of behavior that permeate the thinking of many educators and psychologists. Examines each myth, dispels it, and states what are believed to be correct conclusions from different kinds of behavior-genetic and related data, considering the implications…

Described is an ongoing study of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, separated in infancy and reared apart. Discussed are the procedures and results of this study with interpretations of the results. The effects of parenting, education, and other interventions are considered. (CW)

Although it is difficult to ascertain precisely the time at which the study of individual differences became recognized as a specialty within the psychological sciences, there appears to be much agreement among historians that its development was fostered primarily within the United States during the late 19th century. This paper examines the…

The contents of this book, an outgrowth of a symposium held at the meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington on December 30, 1966, are organized in three sections. Section one, "Behavior-Genetic Analyses and Their Relevance to the Construct of Race," includes the following essays: "The Construct Race and the…

Areas of agreement and disagreement concerning intellectual developmental and the problems of mental retardation espoused by the author and by Uzgiris are discussed in this paper. The importance of environmental factors, along with the genetic and/or constitutional nature of the organism on which these environmental events impinge, is seen as…

This issue of the IRCD Bulletin is devoted to commentaries on an article by Arthur R. Jensen on the nature-nurture controversy in a recent number of "Harvard Educational Review." Contents of the Bulletin are comprised of the following: "Education, Ethnicity, Genetics and Intelligence; Jensenism: Another Excuse for Failure to…

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…