A Conceptual and Social History of Behavioral Genetics

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Abstract SES 0324367 Kenneth F. Schaffner, George Washington University "A Conceptual and Social History of Behavioral Genetics" This proposal is to research and write a general history of behavioral genetics with a focus on the period from 1960 to 2000. An introductory chapter on pre-1960s work and a postscript touching on post-2000 developments would be included. The intent is to cover both conceptual or intellectual developments as well as the social dimensions of the discipline, and the major societal factors affecting the field and the field's social implications. The PI would focus on human studies, but would include salient animal behavior advances as well. The human studies would encompass both psychological and psychiatric genetics, and would deal with classical twin, adoption, and family study methodology and results, as well as the molecular methods and results that the discipline has developed since the early 1990s. The major articles published in the field in this time period (1960-2000) will be reviewed, and interviews, with both major and minor contributors to behavioral genetics and critics of behavioral genetics, will be conducted, taped, and transcribed, and used as material for the history. Archival sources will be examined. A series of articles on major historical topics will be published, and a book providing an account of the history will be completed in draft form. Though oriented toward conceptual and internalist history by training, the PI is sensitive to and knowledgeable about the significant social dimensions of science. The PI is agnostic as to what extent and at what points he will find social or conceptual influences, or a combination of both, controlling changes or stasis in the field of behavioral genetics. For a field as publicly visible as behavioral genetics, it is puzzling that there is no written history of the field. A systematic bibliographic search yields only scattered overview articles. Conceptual and methodological of the field by the PI and others indicate that there are quite significantly different positions taken on empirical results and on fundamental concepts and methods by behavioral geneticists and commentators on the field. A history could clarify the basis of those divergent views and who, in which disciplines, has accepted what and why. A systematic history indicating why leaders in the field sided with, or strongly disagreed with, or took intermediate positions on, the controversial work of Jensen, Herrnstein, and Murray is yet to be written. The diversity of the methods employed in behavioral genetics, and how they may or may not fit together, should be able to shed light on the ongoing debate in philosophy of science about unity and diversity of methods in science Behavioral genetics generates both intense public interest as well as social concerns, based on earlier abuse of putative behavioral genetics traits in sterilization programs and in the Holocaust. The subject has undergone major scientific development since the 1960s, especially so with the continuing revolution of molecular biology in the 1990s. A critical history can provide a framework for understanding the complexities of genetic and environmental contributions to human traits. The history will be an inclusive one, recognizing the contributions of women researchers and critics of the field, and will be written for historians and philosophers of science, but also should be of significant interest to behavioral geneticists, and other scientists, physicians, and policy makers with an interest in behavioral genetics. Materials developed will be tested in the PI's and others' courses. Some articles from the project will be written that will have broad appeal and will be submitted to widely read popular journals. The PI will continue to work closely with policy-making organizations in the Washington, DC area, including professional societies and Congress and Congressional staff, to make available historical background materials for social policy utilization.