Genes, Gestation, and Life Experiences: A Critical Comparison of Concepts and Methods Used in Analyses of Biosocial Development

SES 0327696彼得·泰勒，波士顿马萨诸塞大学，《基因、孕育和生活经历：生物社会发展分析中使用的概念和方法的批判性比较》每个人都知道基因和环境相互作用，但在这个“DNA时代”，遗传学经常被视为揭示行为和疾病的重要或根本原因的方法，或作为获得有效治疗技术的最佳途径。然而，一些科学潮流正在将环境在任何人一生中的行为和医学状况发展中的作用带回画面。这一趋势为科学技术研究(STS)提供了丰富的潜在问题和案例材料。特别提出的项目集中在三个领域的问题、概念和方法的比较上：妊娠规划研究，确定了宫内关键时期的营养与晚年疾病，包括心脏病、糖尿病和自杀死亡之间的关系；生活事件和困难研究，揭示了一个人一生中的严重事件和困难与精神或身体疾病的发病之间的关系；智商发展的互惠因果关系模型，在该模型中，特征与不断变化的特征发展环境相匹配，以便从一代到下一代既有高遗传力，又有巨大的收益。选择这些领域是为了揭示分析环境对发展的贡献的复杂性--这些领域以不同的方式使持久的对比复杂化：与生俱来的和不可改变的与环境和可变的；生物的和社会的。该项目旨在展示这些领域如何在关于生物决定论的长期辩论中挑战双方，也可以超越发展系统理论的一般指令进行讨论。这项研究的影响将来自两类出版物：1)面向广大受众的网络教材和文章，以及科学家和一些STS学者对遗传学和生物决定论进行批判性评论的传统，这些评论将寻求激发关于环境在发展中的贡献的更深层次的讨论。这些出版物还将引起STS学者对DNA时代的环境与发展领域的关注；以及2)专门针对STS受众的出版物，通过研究用于分析发展过程的概念和方法，说明进入这一一般领域可能出现的STS问题的方法。第一阶段的研究集中在三个领域的中心研究人员-巴克(妊娠编程)，布朗和哈里斯(生活事件和困难)，以及弗林(互惠因果)。对已发表文献的分析将通过对这些研究人员的采访来补充，这些采访涉及他们的概念-方法论发展的关键点。该研究的第二阶段通过对行为遗传学家、生物决定论科学评论员和其他研究人员的采访，进一步阐明了发展中环境贡献的复杂性，涉及他们对这三个领域的看法和这些领域在美国的接受程度。

SES 0327696Peter Taylor, University of Massachusetts, Boston"Genes, Gestation, and Life Experiences: A Critical Comparison of Concepts and Methods Used in Analysis of Biosocial Development" Everyone "knows" that genes and environment interact, but in this "Age ofDNA" genetics is often seen as the way to expose the important or root causes of behavior and disease or as the best route to effective therapeutic technologies. Several scientific currents, however, are bringing back into the picture environmental contributions in the development of behavioral and medical conditions over any individual's lifetime. This trend provides a wealth of potential issues and case material for science and technology studies (STS).The particular project proposed centers on a comparison of the questions, concepts, and methods of three fields: Research on gestational programming, which has identified associations between nutrition during critical periods in utero and diseases of late life, including heart disease, diabetes, and death by suicide; Life events and difficulties research, which has exposed relationships between severe events and difficulties over a person's life course and the onset of mental or physical illness; andReciprocal causation models of IQ development in which there is a matching of traits and the changing environments in which traits develop so as to allow both highheritability and large gains from one generation to the next.These fields have been selected to expose the complexities of analyzing environmental contributions in development-in different ways the fields complicate the persistent contrasts: inborn and unchangeable versus environmental and changeable; and biological versus social. The project aims to show how the fields challenge both sides in longstanding debates about biological determinism and can also take discussion beyond the general dictates of developmental systems theory. The impact of the study will derive from two kinds of publications:1) Web-based teaching material and articles for a range of audiences in the tradition of critical commentary by scientists and some STS scholars on genetics and biological determinism, which will seek to stimulate deeper discussions about environmental contributions in development. These publications will also draw the attention of STS scholars to the area of environment and development in the Age ofDNA; and2) Publications specifically for STS audiences illustrating the approach of entering the arena of possible STS questions in this general area through study of the concepts and methods used for analyzing developmental processes.The first phase of the study focuses on the central researchers in the three fields-Barker (Gestational Programming), Brown and Harris (Life Events and Difficulties), and Flynn (Reciprocal Causation). Analysis of published literature will be supplemented by interviews with these researchers on key points in their conceptual-methodological development. The second phase of the study further elucidates the complexities of the environmental contributions in development through interviews with behavioral geneticists, scientific commentators on biological determinism, and other researchers concerning their views on the three fields and the reception of these fields in the United States.