Neuroscience
From The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker:
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
Are these the most important discoveries in the history of psychology?
From The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker:"The three laws of behavioural genetics may be the most important discoveries in the history of psychology. Yet most psychologists have not come to grips with them... It is not because the laws are abstruse: each can be stated in a sentence, without mathematical paraphernalia. Rather, it is because the laws run roughshod over the Blank Slate [the idea that everything is learned, nothing innate], and the Blank Slate is so entrenched that many intellectuals cannot comprehend an alternative to it, let alone argue about whether it is right or wrong.Later Pinker explains the implications the laws have for psychological research. For example:
Here are the three laws:
- All human behavioural traits are heritable.
- The effect of being raised in the same family is smaller than the effect of the genes.
- A substantial proportion of the variation in complex human behavioural traits is not accounted for by the effects of genes or families."
"The First Law implies that any study that measures something in parents and something in their biological children and then draws conclusions about the effects of parenting is worthless, because the correlations may simply reflect their shared genes (aggressive parents may breed aggressive children, talkative parents talkative children)."Previously on the Digest: Switching the parents around.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Harsh Discipline Makes Aggressive Children Worse
Parents should avoid harsh, combative ways of disciplining their aggressive children. That's according to psychologists whose new research shows that harsh parenting makes children more aggressive in the long run. Michael Sheehan and Malcolm Watson...
- Investigating The Role Of Genes In Boys' And Girls' Science Ability
Former Harvard president Larry Summers caused a storm in 2005 when he suggested part of the reason women are under-represented in science is because of innate, biological differences between the sexes. Now, for the first time, researchers in London have...
- To Grasp Physics, Students Need To Know About Knowledge
The beliefs students hold about scientific knowledge can affect their ability to understand physics - a finding that researchers say has implications for the way students are taught. Greek psychologists Christina Stathopoulou and Stella Vosniadou tested...
- Dissecting Good Parenting
How affectionate parents are towards their children, and how they respond to their children’s distress are two distinct aspects of good parenting that each have a unique effect on a child’s development, psychologists at the University of Toronto...
- Quotes Of Whoa #4: Genetic Destiny?
"Once we realise that the basic wiring plan of the brain is under genetic influence, it's easy to see how not only animals but also people can have very similar brains and yet be so different, right from the start of their lives. Genetic forces, operating...