Neuroscience
After forty years doing research on nature and nurture in psychology, there are two crucial (not just nagging) things I want to understand. One is about nature and one is about nurture.
About nature: Behavioural genetic research has shown that genetics is important throughout psychology. I want to find these genes in order to use them to explore the nature-nurture interface in psychology. During the past decade methods have become available that can identify specific genes but it has proven extremely difficult to find these genes; the most likely reason is that many genes are involved and each gene has a very small effect.
About nurture: Behavioural genetic research has shown that environmental influences in psychology generally make children growing up in the same family different, called non-shared environment. I want to know why children growing up in the same family are so different but this has also proven difficult.
Robert Plomin is MRC Research Professor in Behavioural Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, where he is deputy director of the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre. In 2002, he was listed among the twentieth century's most influential psychologists by the Review of General Psychology.
--
Return to menu for One Nagging Thing.
- Mike Posner: Learning Difficulties
Why have I had such a hard time learning to change a light bulb, fix a car and cook dinner, while for others it seems such a breeze? Generally I did pretty well in school but ran into deep problems with analytic geometry, inorganic chemistry and differential...
- The Influence Of Genes On Exceptional Mental Ability
We know a great deal about the relative genetic and environmental influences on average intelligence and on learning disabilities, but far less about the role of genes in exceptional cognitive ability – in lay terms, what we might call genius or innate...
- Switching The Parents Around
Judith Rich Harris: "In a 1995 paper in Psychological Review, I proposed a new theory of child development, based on the idea that children's personalities are shaped, not by their parents, but by the environment they encounter outside the home. This...
- Why Psychologists Study Twins
In the second of our on-going series of guest features for psychology students, Dr. Angelica Ronald of London's Institute of Psychiatry describes the use of twin studies in psychology. Psychologists are often trying to control one thing to look at...
- Multiple Sclerosis
From a National Institutes of Health press release issued on the 29th: After a Decades-Long Search, Scientists Identify New Genetic Risk Factors for Multiple Sclerosis A pair of large-scale genetic studies supported by the National Institutes of Health...
Neuroscience
Robert Plomin: Nature, Nurture
After forty years doing research on nature and nurture in psychology, there are two crucial (not just nagging) things I want to understand. One is about nature and one is about nurture.
About nature: Behavioural genetic research has shown that genetics is important throughout psychology. I want to find these genes in order to use them to explore the nature-nurture interface in psychology. During the past decade methods have become available that can identify specific genes but it has proven extremely difficult to find these genes; the most likely reason is that many genes are involved and each gene has a very small effect.
About nurture: Behavioural genetic research has shown that environmental influences in psychology generally make children growing up in the same family different, called non-shared environment. I want to know why children growing up in the same family are so different but this has also proven difficult.
Robert Plomin is MRC Research Professor in Behavioural Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, where he is deputy director of the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre. In 2002, he was listed among the twentieth century's most influential psychologists by the Review of General Psychology.
--
Return to menu for One Nagging Thing.
- Mike Posner: Learning Difficulties
Why have I had such a hard time learning to change a light bulb, fix a car and cook dinner, while for others it seems such a breeze? Generally I did pretty well in school but ran into deep problems with analytic geometry, inorganic chemistry and differential...
- The Influence Of Genes On Exceptional Mental Ability
We know a great deal about the relative genetic and environmental influences on average intelligence and on learning disabilities, but far less about the role of genes in exceptional cognitive ability – in lay terms, what we might call genius or innate...
- Switching The Parents Around
Judith Rich Harris: "In a 1995 paper in Psychological Review, I proposed a new theory of child development, based on the idea that children's personalities are shaped, not by their parents, but by the environment they encounter outside the home. This...
- Why Psychologists Study Twins
In the second of our on-going series of guest features for psychology students, Dr. Angelica Ronald of London's Institute of Psychiatry describes the use of twin studies in psychology. Psychologists are often trying to control one thing to look at...
- Multiple Sclerosis
From a National Institutes of Health press release issued on the 29th: After a Decades-Long Search, Scientists Identify New Genetic Risk Factors for Multiple Sclerosis A pair of large-scale genetic studies supported by the National Institutes of Health...