Origins of Individual Differences in Infancy: The Colorado Adoption Project (Developmental Psychology Series)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

PLOMIN, ROBERT

DeFries, John C.

Psychology & Counseling

Academic Pr

Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are

'Mind-blowing ... It is a hugely important book ... His story is crucial' Matt Ridley, The Times\nOne of the world's top behavioural geneticists argues that we need a radical rethink about what makes us who we are 
The blueprint for our individuality lies in the 1% of DNA that differs between people. Our intellectual capacity, our introversion or extraversion, our vulnerability to mental illness, even whether we are a morning person - all of these aspects of our personality are profoundly shaped by our inherited DNA differences. 
In Blueprint, Robert Plomin, a pioneer in the field of behavioural genetics, draws on a lifetime's worth of research to make the case that DNA is the most important factor shaping who we are. Our families, schools and the environment around us are important, but they are not as influential as our genes. This is why, he argues, teachers and parents should accept children for who they are, rather than trying to mould them in certain directions. Even the environments we choose and the signal events that impact our lives, from divorce to addiction, are influenced by our genetic predispositions. Now, thanks to the DNA revolution, it is becoming possible to predict who we will become, at birth, from our DNA alone. As Plomin shows us, these developments have sweeping implications for how we think about parenting, education, and social mobility. 
A game-changing book by a leader in the field, Blueprint shows how the DNA present in the single cell with which we all begin our lives can impact our behaviour as adults.

Penguin

A top behavioral geneticist makes the case that DNA inherited from our parents at the moment of conception can predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses.
In Blueprint, behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin describes how the DNA revolution has made DNA personal by giving us the power to predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses from birth. A century of genetic research shows that DNA differences inherited from our parents are the consistent life-long sources of our psychological individuality―the blueprint that makes us who we are. This, says Plomin, is a game changer. 
Plomin has been working on these issues for almost fifty years, conducting longitudinal studies of twins and adoptees. He reports that genetics explains more of the psychological differences among people than all other factors combined. Genetics accounts for fifty percent of psychological differences―not just mental health and school achievement but all psychological traits, from personality to intellectual abilities. Nature, not nurture is what makes us who we are.
Plomin explores the implications of this, drawing some provocative conclusions―among them that parenting styles don't really affect children's outcomes once genetics is taken into effect. Neither tiger mothers nor attachment parenting affects children's ability to get into Harvard. After describing why DNA matters, Plomin explains what DNA does, offering readers a unique insider's view of the exciting synergies that came from combining genetics and psychology.

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Mit Pr

A top behavioral geneticist makes the case that DNA inherited from our parents at the moment of conception can predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses.
In Blueprint, behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin describes how the DNA revolution has made DNA personal by giving us the power to predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses from birth. A century of genetic research shows that DNA differences inherited from our parents are the consistent lifelong sources of our psychological individuality―the blueprint that makes us who we are. Plomin reports that genetics explains more about the psychological differences among people than all other factors combined. Nature, not nurture, is what makes us who we are. Plomin explores the implications of these findings, drawing some provocative conclusions―among them that parenting styles don't really affect children's outcomes once genetics is taken into effect. This book offers readers a unique insider's view of the exciting synergies that came from combining genetics and psychology. The paperback edition has a new afterword by the author.

Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are (Mit Press)

The MIT Press

In light of work by quantitative geneticists, the authors reconsider the interaction of heredity and environment in the development of individual differences during infancy and early childhood. Quantitative genetics offers a general theory of the development of individual differences that suggests novel concepts and research strategies: the idea that genetic influences operate in age-to-age change as well as in continuity, for example. Quantitative genetics also provides powerful methods to address questions of change and continuity which are helpfully introduced in this study. Longitudinal quantitative genetic research is essential to the understanding of developmental change and continuity. The largest and longes longitudinal adoption study is the Colorado Adoption Project, which has generated much of the rich data on the progress from infancy to early childhood on which the authors draw throughout the book.

Nature and Nurture during Infancy and Early Childhood

Fulker, David W.

Mental Health

Cambridge University Press

* Brief, accessible overview of methods and findings of behavioral genetics written by a leading scholar in the field.

Nature and Nurture: An Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics

Brooks/Cole Publishing

The Relationship Code is the report of a longitudinal study, conducted over a ten-year period, of the influence of family relationships and genetic factors on competence and psychopathology in adolescent development. The sample for this landmark study included 720 pairs of same-sex adolescent siblings--including twins, half siblings, and genetically unrelated siblings--and their parents.  Using a clear expressive style, David Reiss and his coinvestigators identify specific mechanisms that link genetic factors and the social environment in psychological development. They propose a striking hypothesis: family relationships are crucial to the expression of genetic influences on a broad array of complex behaviors in adolescents. Moreover, this role of family relationships may be very specific: some genetic factors are linked to mother-child relationships, others to father-child relations, some to relationship warmth, while others are linked to relationship conflict or control. The specificity of these links suggests that family relationships may constitute a code for translating genetic influences into the ontogeny of behaviors, a code every bit as important for behavior as DNA-RNA.

The Relationship Code: Deciphering Genetic and Social Influences on Adolescent Development (Adolescent Lives)

Neiderhiser, Jenae M.

Hetherington, E. Mavis

Reiss, David

Harvard University Press

Divided into sections on cognitive disabilities, psychopathology, personality, health psychology and biopsychology, and the environment, the Third Edition emphasizes the clinical aspects of behavioural genetics that are most interesting to students, as well as the technological advances that are making the field more exciting than ever.

Behavioral genetics, a primer (A Series of books in psychology)

Evolution

W.H.Freeman

This reference provides a comprehensive overview of both animal and human behavioural genetics and discussions of controversial topics (such as the nature versus nurture issue). Features include a chapter on the role of the "new genetics" of recombinant DNA in behavioural genetic research; an introduction to model-fitting analysis; and a thorough introduction to the major areas of research in behavioural genetics.

Behavioral Genetics: A Primer (Series of Books in Psychology)

McClearn, Gerald E.

W.H.Freeman & Co.

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Books by PLOMIN, ROBERT