Gary Greenberg

Handbook of developmental science, behavior, and genetics

FOREWORD. Gilbert Gottlieb and the Developmental Point of View (EvelynFox Keller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). I. INTRODUCTION. 1. Developmental Systems, Nature-Nurture, and the Role of Genesin Behavior and Development: On the Legacy of GilbertGottlieb (Kathryn E. Hood, The Pennsylvania State University,Carolyn Tucker Halpern, University of North Carolina at ChapelHill, Gary Greenberg, Wichita State University, Richard M. Lerner,Tufts University). 2. Normally Occurring Environmental and Behavioral Influences onGene Activity: From Central Dogma to Probabilistic Epigenesis(Gilbert Gottlieb). II. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENTAL STUDY OFBEHAVIOR AND GENETICS. 3. Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on BehavioralGenetics and Developmental Science (James Tabery, University ofUtah, Paul E. Griffiths, University of Sydney). 4. Development and Evolution Revisited (Mae Wan Ho, Instituteof Science in Society). 5. Probabilistic Epigenesis and Modern Behavioral and NeuralGenetics (Douglas Wahlsten, University of North Carolina atGreensboro). 6. The Roles of Environment, Experience, and Learning inBehavioral Development (George F. Michel, University of NorthCarolina at Greensboro). 7. Contemporary Ideas in Physics and Biology in Gottlieb sPsychology (Ty Partridge, Wayne State University, GaryGreenberg, Wichita State University). III. EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT ANDGENETICS. 8. Behavioral Development during the Mother-Young Interaction inPlacental Mammals: The Development of Behavior in the Relationshipwith the Mother (Jay S. Rosenblatt, Institute of AnimalBehavior, Rutgers). 9. Amniotic Fluid as an Extended Milieu Interieur (Scott R.Robinson, University of Iowa, Valerie Mendez-Gallardo,University of Iowa). 10. Developmental Effects of Selective Breeding for an InfantTrait (Susan A. Brunelli, Columbia University Medical Center,Betty Zimmerberg, Williams College, Myron A. Hofer, ColumbiaUniversity Medical Center). 11. Emergence and Constraint in Novel Behavioral Adaptations(Kathryn E. Hood, The Pennsylvania State University). 12. Nonhuman Primate Research Contributions to UnderstandingGenetic and Environmental Influences on Phenotypic Outcomes acrossDevelopment (Allyson Bennett and Peter J. Pierre, Wake ForestUniversity). 13. Interactive Contributions of Genes and Early Experience toBehavioural Development: Sensitive Periods and Lateralized Brainand Behaviour (Lesley J. Rogers, University of New England,Armidale). 14. Trans-Generational Epigenetic Inheritance (Lawrence V.Harper, University of California, Davis). 15. The Significance of Non-Replication of Gene-PhenotypeAssociations (Carolyn Tucker Halpern, University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill). 16. Canalization and Malleability Reconsidered: TheDevelopmental Basis of Phenotypic Stability and Variability(Robert Lickliter and Christopher Harshaw, Florida InternationalUniversity). IV. APPLICATIONS TO DEVELOPMENT. 17. Gene-Parenting Interplay in the Development of InfantEmotionality (Cathi B. Propper, The University of North Carolinaat Chapel Hill, Ginger A. Moore, The Pennsylvania State University,W. Roger Mills-Koonce, The University of North Carolina at ChapelHill). 18. Genetic Research in Psychiatry and Psychology: A CriticalOverview (Jay Joseph, Licensed Psychologist). 19. On the Limits of Standard Quantitative Genetic Modeling ofInter-Individual Variation: Extensions, Ergodic Conditions and aNew Genetic Factor Model of Intra-Individual Variation (Peter C.M. Molenaar, The Pennsylvania State University). 20. Songs My Mother Taught Me: Gene-Environment Interactions,Brain Development and the Auditory System: Thoughts on Non-KinRejection, Part II (Elaine L. Bearer, University of NewMexico). 21. Applications of Developmental Systems Theory to BenefitHuman Development: On the Contributions of Gilbert Gottlieb toIndividuals, Families, and Communities (Richard M. Lerner,Michelle J. Boyd, Megan K. Kiely, Christopher M. Napolitano, andKristina L. Schmid, Tufts University). Name Index. Subject Index.

The Failure of Biogenetic Analysis in Psychology: Why Psychology is Not a Biological Science

Many define psychology as a biological science and emphasize brains and genes as major determinants of behavior. Instead, it is argued here that psychology is a unique biopsychosocial science able to stand on its own. Biogenetic processes are indeed relevant but are simply participating, not causal, factors in behavioral origins. Long neglected by biologists and social scientists, the importance of developmental processes is emphasized. The author takes issue with behavior geneticists and argues that development is bidirectional—internal and environmental phenomena influence behavior—probabilistically. The author favors a relatively new model with roots in ideas from contemporary physics: emergence and self-organization—“relational developmental systems.”

Integrative Levels, the Brain, and the Emergence of Complex Behavior

The aim of this article is to bring clarity and unification to the question of how certain complex behaviors, such as feeding, learning, language, culture, and neural complexity, are related. Three critical ideas—the organizing principle of integrative levels, the tendency for increased complexity with evolutionary change, and the contextual nature of behavioral events—are central to the discussion. A theoretical framework is presented that synthesizes existing knowledge in a meaningful way. Data are drawn from the behavioral, neuroanatomical, cognitive, and linguistic sciences and integrated within an organized and unified theoretical perspective referred to as developmental dynamic systems theory.

Emergence, Self-Organization, and Developmental Science: Introduction

Developmental science is undergoing a true Kuhnian paradigm shift, away from early 20th century gene-based ideas of instinct toward modern biophysical ideas of holism and epigenesis. These ideas can be traced from the early work of Zing Yang Kuo to the early- and mid-20th century writing of J. R. Kantor and T. C. Schneirla and the later work of Gilbert Gottlieb, Willis Overton, and Richard M. Lerner. All emphasized experiences through development as the sources of behavior and understood psychology to be a biospychosocial, natural, science. The contemporary iteration of this is referred to relational developmental systems.

The limitations of behavior-genetic analyses: comment on McGue, Elkins, Walden, and Iacono (2005).

This article takes issue with the behavior-genetic analysis of parenting style presented by M. McGue, I. Elkins, B. Walden, and W. G. Iacono. The author argues that the attribution of their findings to inherited genetic effects was without basis because McGue et al. never indicated how those genetic effects manifested themselves. Instead, McGue et al. neglected important, and inevitable, developmental effects that most developmental psychologists understand to influence parent and adolescent behavior. The author also suggests that there is great merit in adopting the approach of developmental systems theory in understanding McGue et al.s findings in particular and all developmental phenomena in general.

How New Ideas in Physics and Biology Influence Developmental Science

This article reviews how ideas from 20th century physics and biology have come to play important roles in the study of development and how these ideas have informed a relatively new paradigm in developmental science: relational developmental systems, a synthesis of developmental biology and developmental psychology. Employing concepts such as emergence and self-organization, epigenetics and epigenesis, and an ontological framework that stresses levels of increasing organization and complexity, the relational developmental systems paradigm embraces a thoroughly holistic and nonreductionistic account of development and behavioral origins. It furthermore promotes psychology as a unique science, irreducible to biological science—though genes, brains, and other biological processes are factors that participate in the developmental process, such factors do not cause behavioral origins and are only explicable in the context of the developing system as a whole.

Psychology Without the Brain

This paper presents a critique of the currently dominant neurological reductionism that pervades contemporary psychology. The argument is made that while the brain is certainly involved in behavior it is not the source of it. Rather, a more parsimonious approach to understanding the behavior of organisms can be found in an epigenetic orientation. It is suggested that the concept of evolution holds much promise for theoretical advance within psychology.

The Relationship of Marihuana Usage to Personality and Motivational Factors

Summary The 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire (16 PF), Motivation Analysis Test (MAT), and a marihuana usage questionnaire were administered anonymously to 104 undergraduate students. Raw scores were converted to sten scores to eliminate sex and age differences. Product-moment correlations were computed on data from the questionnaires. An iterative principal axis solution was applied to the correlation matrix followed by Kaiser Varimax orthogonal rotation and graphical oblique rotations. The most significant finding was that marihuana users were not a homogeneous group in terms of personality and motivational structure. Four identifiable personality and motivational patterns were found to be related to such use: (a) an antisocial norm group; (b) a frustrated upper-middle class group; (c) a hostile rebel group; (d) a follower group. None of these indicate pathological patterns.

Replication report: No spontaneous alternation in gerbils

Twelve male Mongolian gerbils were tested for spontaneous alternation in a T maze, a U maze, and a parallel-arm maze. Alternation rates did not exceed chance in any of the mazes. Albino rats, on the other hand, did alternate in the T and U mazes but not in the parallel-arm maze. It is suggested that the vestibular system of the gerbil may be associated with their failure to display spontaneous alternation.

Emergence, Self-Organization and Developmental Science

Our understanding is that psychology is a biopsychosocial science as well as a developmental science. Behavioral origins stem from ontogenetic processes, behavioral as well as biological. Biological factors are simply participating factors in behavioral origins and not causal factors. Psychology is not a biological science; it is a unique psychological science, a natural science consistent and compatible with the principles of the other sciences. Accordingly, we show in this chapter how principles and ideas from other sciences play important roles in psychology. While we focus on the concepts from physics of self-organization and emergence, we also address the cosmological and evolutionary biology idea of increased complexity over time, the organizing principle of integrative levels, and the epigenetic processes that are in part responsible for transgenerational trait transmission. Our discussion stresses the developmental science concepts of embodiment and contextualism and how they structure thinking about psychological processes. We conclude with a description of how these ideas support current postpositivist conceptions of relational processes and models in contemporary developmental science.