A Conceptual and Social History of Behavioral Genetics

kenneth F. Schaffner, George Washington University“A Conceptual and Social History of Behavioral Genetics”，该项目旨在研究和撰写一部行为遗传学的通史，并将重点放在1960年至2000年这一时期。将包括关于1960年代以前工作的介绍性章节和关于2000年以后发展的附言。其目的是涵盖概念或智力发展以及该学科的社会层面，以及影响该领域及其社会影响的主要社会因素。该项目将侧重于人类研究，但也将包括显著的动物行为学进展。人类研究将包括心理和精神遗传学，并将处理经典的双胞胎，收养和家庭研究方法和结果，以及该学科自20世纪90年代初发展起来的分子方法和结果。我们将回顾这一时期（1960-2000）在该领域发表的主要文章，并对行为遗传学的主要贡献者和次要贡献者以及行为遗传学评论家进行访谈，录音和转录，并将其用作历史材料。将审查档案来源。将出版一系列关于重大历史问题的文章，并将以草稿形式完成一本介绍历史的书。虽然通过训练以概念和内部主义历史为导向，但PI对科学的重要社会层面很敏感，也很了解。对于在多大程度和什么时候他会发现社会或概念影响，或两者的结合，控制行为遗传学领域的变化或停滞，PI是不可知论的。对于一个像行为遗传学这样公开可见的领域来说，没有关于该领域的书面历史是令人费解的。系统的书目检索只能得到零散的综述文章。PI和其他人对该领域的概念和方法论表明，行为遗传学家和该领域的评论员对经验结果和基本概念和方法采取了相当不同的立场。历史可以澄清这些不同观点的基础，以及谁在哪些学科中接受了什么以及为什么接受。一个系统的历史，说明为什么该领域的领导者支持，或强烈反对，或采取中间立场，詹森，Herrnstein和默里的有争议的工作还没有写。行为遗传学中使用的方法的多样性，以及它们如何可能或可能不适合在一起，应该能够揭示科学哲学中关于科学方法的统一性和多样性的持续辩论。行为遗传学产生了强烈的公众兴趣和社会关注，基于早期在绝育计划和大屠杀中滥用假定的行为遗传学特征。自20世纪60年代以来，该学科经历了重大的科学发展，特别是随着20世纪90年代分子生物学的持续革命。批判性的历史可以为理解遗传和环境对人类特征的复杂性提供一个框架。这本历史将是一本包容的历史，承认女性研究人员和该领域的批评者的贡献，它将为历史学家和科学哲学家而写，但也应该对行为遗传学家、其他对行为遗传学感兴趣的科学家、医生和政策制定者有重大兴趣。开发的材料将在PI和其他人的课程中进行测试。从项目的一些文章将写，将有广泛的吸引力，并将提交给广泛阅读的流行期刊。PI将继续与华盛顿特区的决策组织，包括专业协会、国会和国会工作人员密切合作，提供历史背景材料，供社会政策利用。

Project AbstractSES 0324367Kenneth 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.