Reports on the findings of several studies into the genetic similarities of twins. Focuses on the relationships between personality and behavioral genetics and argues that genetic similarity seems to be a better predictor than environmental factors. Discusses psychopathology, cognitive abilities, and personality. (TW)

Points out the untestability of a heredity explanation for the differences in IQs of Black children and those of White children. Suggests an environmental explanation, arguing that Black children, simply have not had the opportunity to develop their potential for abstract thinking. (HTH)

Neutral summary of "The Bell Curve" (Herrnstein and Murray) by a former student of Herrnstein. Focuses on the emergence of a cognitive elite in the United States; relationships between IQ and poverty, educational attainment, unemployment, divorce, illegitimacy, welfare dependency, parenting competence, criminal behaviors, and voting;…

Key components of human behavioral genetics and Sandra Scarr's work of the past two decades are critically reviewed based on scholarship in animal neuropsychology and clinical and educational psychology. Scarr's opinion that interventions to enhance intellectual development are ineffectual for children from abuse- and neglect-free backgrounds is…

A multivariate hierarchical model of specific cognitive abilities was fitted to data from 196 adopted and 213 nonadopted children from the Colorado Adoption Project and 120 of their siblings to assess genetic influence on specific mental abilities. Genetic effects occur in middle childhood that differentially influence mental ability scores.…

This curriculum module explores genes, environment, and human behavior. This book provides materials to teach about the nature and methods of studying human behavior, raise some of the ethical and public policy dilemmas emerging from the Human Genome Project, and provide professional development for teachers. An extensive Teacher Background…

That there is a significant degree of observable average difference in the intelligence quotients of blacks and whites is an established fact. The explanations for this offered by Herrnstein and Murray ("The Bell Curve," 1994) ignore the equally well-established facts of discrimination and disadvantage over centuries. (SLD)

Takes the position, contrary to that of Sandra Scarr, that the details of socialization patterns are crucial to an understanding of normal and deviant development. Research is cited to support the argument that better than adequate parenting optimizes the development of both normal and vulnerable children and that parents' belief in their own…

Explores differences between males and females and their manifestation in biology and culture. Cultures differ, not in whether they cope with the socialization of males to invest in child rearing, but in how they deal with this problem. Issues of gender and power and gender and child rearing are discussed. (SLD)

The strongest recent statement that inequality in America is the natural result of a free market came in "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life" by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray. These authors argued that intelligence determines how well people do in life, and the rich are rich largely because they are…

Pseudoscience, or the process of persuasion by establishing a pretense of scientific discovery, is examined in this book in an effort to dispel false notions about the validity of various measures of intelligence and the correlations of genetics to mental ability. The history and development of concepts related to hereditary intelligence and…

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…

Once again intelligence tests are being used as the major basis to establish the genetically determined limitations of minority and economically disadvantaged groups. By reviewing the arguments regarding the I.Q. test and the hereditability of intelligence, the author compares these with two sets of phenomena: the I.Q. test scores and the…

In his book, "I.Q. in the Meritocracy," Richard J. Herrnstein (1973) calls on a classic article by Barbara S. Burks (1928) to support his position that a large part of the variation in intelligence can be accounted for by variation in heredity, as distinguished from variation in environment, and from covariation of heredity and…

A review of the twin literature and analyses of two large twin samples found identical twin correlations higher than fraternal twin correlations by about .20 for a variety of traits of ability, personality and interests. This was interpreted as indicating that about half of the variation among people in a broad spectrum of psychological traits is…