The Limits of Family Influence: Genes, Experience, and Behavior

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Most parents believe that their child's personality and intellectual development are a direct result of their child-rearing practices and home environment. This belief is supported by many social scientists who contend that the influences of "nature" and "nurture" are inseparable. Challenging such universally accepted assumptions, The Limits of Family Influence argues that socialization science has placed too heavy an emphasis on the family as the bearer of culture. Similarly, it reveals how the environmental variables most often named in socialization science - such as social class, parental warmth, and one- versus two-parent households - may also be empty of causal influence on child outcomes such as intelligence, personality, and psychopathology. In clear, accessible language, David C. Rowe critiques these basic assumptions and demonstrates how our reliance on them prevents us from fully comprehending personality development and the influence of different experiences. Structured to give evidence for this conclusion and to explore its many implications, the book first examines the theoretical basis of socialization science and then describes in great detail what behavior genetic studies can teach us about environmental influence. The volume opens with an overview of the weaknesses of socialization science, and immediately presents a blueprint for interpreting behavior genetic studies. Demonstrating the minimal effects of the family environment on personality, psychopathology, and human intelligence, the author persuasively argues that the measures we label as environmental, including social class, may actually hide genetic variation. He covers the lack of rearing influence on behavioral sex differences and finally, moving beyond empirical evidence to speculation, he considers why variation in family environment has so little effect on personality development. Taking a bold step toward a fuller understanding of child development, this text will be valuable for developmental psychologists, human development researchers, family sociologists, behavior geneticists, social scientists, and those with an interest in personality and development. It also serves as a text for graduate and undergraduate students of child development, personality, and behavior genetics.