Genetics and Sociology

Dalton Conley, Jason Fletcher, Christopher Dawes

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

For close to a century, the social and biological sciences have treated the role of biology and genetics in the explanation of human behavior in different ways; while the social sciences have tended to privilege "nurture" as the cause for variations, biological sciences have leaned toward foregrounding "nature." Increasingly, scholars in both fields are viewing the roles of genetics and environment as complementary, a perspective that is also contributing to the breakdown of disciplinary barriers. Contemporary sociologists, for example, often take into account the potential role of genes in analyses of social behavior. This article describes the history of interactions of the disciplines of sociology and genetics and reviews the development of intellectual discourse of the relative roles of genes and environment, highlighting recent contributions by contemporary sociologists.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationInternational Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition
PublisherElsevier Inc.
Pages984-989
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9780080970875
ISBN (Print)9780080970868
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 26 2015
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Social Sciences

Keywords

  • Economic behavior
  • Nature-nurture
  • Social behavior
  • Twin studies

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