Behavior Genetics Principles: Perspectives in Development, Personality, and Psychopathology (Decade of Behavior)

Rating:
Summary: Behavior Genetics and I. I. Gottesman
Review: "A certain mother habitually rewards her small son with ice cream after he eats his spinach. What additional information would you need to be able to predict whether the child will: a. Come to love or hate spinach, b. Love or hate ice cream, or c. Love or hate mother?"

This quote from Gregory Bateson's preface to his Steps to An Ecology of Mind (1972) returns to haunt a fine chapter by Eric Turkheimer, Spinach and Ice cream: Why Social Science is So Difficult. The chapter is one of fourteen that summarize the current status of behavioral genetic research in development, personality, and psychopathology as they celebrate the career of one of the truly outstanding psychologists of our time, Irving I. Gottesman.

If any career can be said to be the defining touchstone of research into the genetics of mental disorder, especially schizophrenia, over the past half-century, it is that of Gottesman. Mention the genetics of schizophrenia to informed behavioral scientists anywhere on the globe, and Irv Gottesman is the first name that will come to mind. Since the publication of his Schizophrenia Genesis (1991), now dated because of its publisher's indolence in supporting a revision, the same can be said of many thousands of educated laypersons.

These chapters were initially prepared as presentations for a gathering of his colleagues and former students who are now themselves accomplished investigators in the field of behavior genetics, organized by the book's editor, Lisabeth DiLalla, in Minneapolis in June, 2001, on the occasion of Gottesman's retirement from the University of Virginia, and his return to his doctoral alma mater, the University of Minnesota (UM), after a forty year (and counting) career.

It is a tribute to Gottesman's influence that the contributions DiLalla invited and assembled here are much longer on the meat of good thinking, research, news, and informed outlook than on the soft flesh of praise and genteel honorifics. And for the nonspecialist reader like myself, there are some big surprises.

For example, Thomas Bouchard, et al. report and summarize research on the genetics of social attitudes. (Recall that Bouchard is the principal investigator of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart [MISTRA], a study that commanded worldwide attention in news reports of amazing similarities of twins separated at birth or shortly after and reunited as adults at UM. For example, the Jim twins, reunited 39 years after their separation at 4 weeks: both men had performed well at school at math but struggled with spelling, enjoyed mechanical drawing and carpentry, had first wives named "Linda" and second wives named "Betty," named their sons "James Allan," owned dogs names "Toy," got headaches at the same time of the day, drove the same color and model of Chevrolet, chain smoked Salem cigarettes, bit their fingernails, and vacationed in the same spot each year.) Of course, the heritability of things like IQ and personality traits such as introversion-extroversion have been known for some time, but social attitudes? The things one learns at mother's knee? Yes. Such attitudes as authoritarianism, religiousness, even political conservatism are shown to be strongly influenced by genetic factors. And there are other surprises that await the reader.

The book closes on a brief warm note by Gottesman himself, reflecting on his career, a few of his influences and colleagues, behavioral genetics and human rights, and the future.

A perfect book? No. I would have liked to have had a complete list of Gottesman's publications included. However, given their number, such a list would have added considerably to the length of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Behavior Genetics and I. I. Gottesman
Review: "A certain mother habitually rewards her small son with ice cream after he eats his spinach. What additional information would you need to be able to predict whether the child will: a. Come to love or hate spinach, b. Love or hate ice cream, or c. Love or hate mother?"

This quote from Gregory Bateson's preface to his Steps to An Ecology of Mind (1972) returns to haunt a fine chapter by Eric Turkheimer, Spinach and Ice cream: Why Social Science is So Difficult. The chapter is one of fourteen that summarize the current status of behavioral genetic research in development, personality, and psychopathology as they celebrate the career of one of the truly outstanding psychologists of our time, Irving I. Gottesman.

If any career can be said to be the defining touchstone of research into the genetics of mental disorder, especially schizophrenia, over the past half-century, it is that of Gottesman. Mention the genetics of schizophrenia to informed behavioral scientists anywhere on the globe, and Irv Gottesman is the first name that will come to mind. Since the publication of his Schizophrenia Genesis (1991), now dated because of its publisher's indolence in supporting a revision, the same can be said of many thousands of educated laypersons.

These chapters were initially prepared as presentations for a gathering of his colleagues and former students who are now themselves accomplished investigators in the field of behavior genetics, organized by the book's editor, Lisabeth DiLalla, in Minneapolis in June, 2001, on the occasion of Gottesman's retirement from the University of Virginia, and his return to his doctoral alma mater, the University of Minnesota (UM), after a forty year (and counting) career.

It is a tribute to Gottesman's influence that the contributions DiLalla invited and assembled here are much longer on the meat of good thinking, research, news, and informed outlook than on the soft flesh of praise and genteel honorifics. And for the nonspecialist reader like myself, there are some big surprises.

For example, Thomas Bouchard, et al. report and summarize research on the genetics of social attitudes. (Recall that Bouchard is the principal investigator of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart [MISTRA], a study that commanded worldwide attention in news reports of amazing similarities of twins separated at birth or shortly after and reunited as adults at UM. For example, the Jim twins, reunited 39 years after their separation at 4 weeks: both men had performed well at school at math but struggled with spelling, enjoyed mechanical drawing and carpentry, had first wives named "Linda" and second wives named "Betty," named their sons "James Allan," owned dogs names "Toy," got headaches at the same time of the day, drove the same color and model of Chevrolet, chain smoked Salem cigarettes, bit their fingernails, and vacationed in the same spot each year.) Of course, the heritability of things like IQ and personality traits such as introversion-extroversion have been known for some time, but social attitudes? The things one learns at mother's knee? Yes. Such attitudes as authoritarianism, religiousness, even political conservatism are shown to be strongly influenced by genetic factors. And there are other surprises that await the reader.

The book closes on a brief warm note by Gottesman himself, reflecting on his career, a few of his influences and colleagues, behavioral genetics and human rights, and the future.

A perfect book? No. I would have liked to have had a complete list of Gottesman's publications included. However, given their number, such a list would have added considerably to the length of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Behavior Genetics and I. I. Gottesman
Review: "A certain mother habitually rewards her small son with ice cream after he eats his spinach. What additional information would you need to be able to predict whether the child will: a. Come to love or hate spinach, b. Love or hate ice cream, or c. Love or hate mother?"

This quote from Gregory Bateson's preface to his Steps to An Ecology of Mind (1972) returns to haunt a fine chapter by Eric Turkheimer, Spinach and Ice cream: Why Social Science is So Difficult. The chapter is one of fourteen that summarize the current status of behavioral genetic research in development, personality, and psychopathology as they celebrate the career of one of the truly outstanding psychologists of our time, Irving I. Gottesman.

If any career can be said to be the defining touchstone of research into the genetics of mental disorder, especially schizophrenia, over the past half-century, it is that of Gottesman. Mention the genetics of schizophrenia to informed behavioral scientists anywhere on the globe, and Irv Gottesman is the first name that will come to mind. Since the publication of his Schizophrenia Genesis (1990), now dated because of its publisher's indolence in supporting a revision, the same can be said of many thousands of educated laypersons.

These chapters were initially prepared as presentations for a gathering of his colleagues and former students who are now themselves accomplished investigators in the field of behavior genetics, organized by the book's editor, Lisabeth DiLalla, in Minneapolis in June, 2001, on the occasion of Gottesman's retirement from the University of Virginia, and his return to his doctoral alma mater, the University of Minnesota (UM), after a forty year (and counting) career.

It is a tribute to Gottesman's influence that the contributions DiLalla invited and assembled here are much longer on the meat of good thinking, research, news, and informed outlook than on the soft flesh of praise and genteel honorifics. And for the nonspecialist reader like myself, there are some big surprises.

For example, Thomas Bouchard, et al. report and summarize research on the genetics of social attitudes. (Recall that Bouchard, is the principal investigator of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart [MISTRA], a study that commanded worldwide attention in news reports of amazing similities of twins separated at birth or shortly after and reunited as adults at UM. For example, the Jim twins, reunited 39 years after their separation at 4 weeks: both men had performed well at school at math but struggled with spelling, enjoyed mechanical drawing and carpentry, had first wives named "Linda" and second wives named "Betty," named their sons "James Allan," owned dogs names "Toy," got headaches at the same time of the day, drove the same color and model of Chevrolet, chain smoked Salem cigarettes, bit their fingernails, and vacationed in the same spot each year.) Of course, the heritability of things like IQ and personality traits such as introversion-extroversion have been known for some time, but social attitudes? The things one learns at mother's knee? Yes. Such attitudes as authoritarianism, religiousness, even political conservatism are shown to be strongly influenced by genetic factors. And there are other surprises that await the reader.

The book closes on a brief warm note by Gottesman himself, reflecting on his career, a few of his influences and colleagues, behavioral genetics and human rights, and the future.

A perfect book? No. I would have liked to have had a complete list of of Gottesman's publications included. However, given their number, such a list would have added considerably to the length of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Knowledgeably compiled and professionally edited
Review: Knowledgeably compiled and professionally edited by psychologist and academician Lisabeth DiLalla (Associate Professor, School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University) Behavior Genetics Principles: Perspectives In Development, Personality, And Psychopathology is a compilation of contributions by experts in the field of behavior genetic research. Behavior Genetics Principles is a superbly organized and presented introduction to the cause/effect connections between genes, personality development, and the frontiers of research into genetically based psychopathologies. Behavior Genetics Principles is a seminal work and strongly recommended for academic library collections and supplemental reading lists in the fields of genetics and human behavior.