Work

The Nature-Nurture Debate and Public Policy

Year: 2004

Type: article

Abstract: The contentious nature-nurture debate in developmental psychology is poised to reach a rapprochement with contemporary concepts of gene-environment interaction, transaction, and fit. Discoveries over the past decade have revealed how neither genes nor the environment offers a sufficient window into human development. Rather, the most important discoveries have come from unearthing the manner in which the environment alters gene expression (and how genes impose limits on environmental effects), how biology and the environment influence each other across time, and how maximizing gene-environment fit leads to optimal outcomes for children. The manner in which these factors operate in tandem should direct future scholarship, practice, and public policy.

Source: Merrill-palmer Quarterly

DOI: 10.1353/mpq.2004.0028

Author: Kenneth A. Dodge

Institution: Duke University

Language: English

Topic: Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse

Award: Adolescent Drug Use: Development, Prevention and Policy