Heredity and environment : a critical survey of recently published material on twins and foster children / by R.S. Woodworth ; a report prepared for the Committee on Social Adjustment.

  • Woodworth, Robert Sessions, 1869-1962.
Date:
[1941]
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Heredity and environment : a critical survey of recently published material on twins and foster children / by R.S. Woodworth ; a report prepared for the Committee on Social Adjustment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    importance of heredity in the human field. Sociologists and educators, dealing with environmental factors, are properly inclined to emphasize the importance of environment. Psy chologists are more divided in their interests and it is perhaps in the field of this science that the controversy between he- reditarians and environmentalists is most acute. The progress of investigation has however made it necessary for each party to recognize some merit in the claims of the other. Genetics is forced to admit that the genetic determination of such a hu man trait as intelligence is exceedingly complex and not easily to be controlled by eugenic measures. Educators and sociologists are forced to recognize the existence of large and obstinate individual differences in every important hu man trait. It would seem that the rapprochement between the two parties has gone far enough to enable them to join forces in investigation. In any competent study of the prob lem, at least with respect to human beings, it is necessary to combine a sound knowledge of genetics with a full apprecia tion of the possibilities of learning and adjustment to the physical and social environment. Because of the intricate interplay of heredity and environ ment in human behavior, it is easy to fall into the habit of interpreting all the differences among men in terms either of heredity or of environment. The same body of data will appear to one student as obviously resulting from the one cause, and to another student as quite clearly the result of the other. Musical ability runs in families—a clear instance of heredity to one student, of environmental influences to an other. The investigator's task is to produce a body of data which is susceptible to only one interpretation. He wishes to find some situation in which either heredity or environment is uniform, so that the differences which appear there can be attributed to the factor which varies. [*]