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INTERACTION OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT IN REGARD TO ‘MEASURED INTELLIGENCE’
Author(s) -
STOTT D. H.
Publication year - 1960
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1960.tb01663.x
Subject(s) - heredity , psychology , developmental psychology , temperament , disposition , population , facilitation , social psychology , personality , demography , sociology , genetics , neuroscience , biology
S ummary . Recent work in experimental biology suggests interaction in the form of the facilitation of genetic pre‐disposition by adverse conditions of gestation. This may explain not only how certain environmental factors may produce mental defect and physical malformation in human beings, but also certain more general findings of the Scottish Mental Survey. The greater resemblance in ‘measured intelligence’ of monozygotic twins can no longer confidently be attributed to ‘heredity.’ Interaction of this type presupposes a very great number of alternative modes of development. Congenital variations in temperament and motivation, by affecting the acquisition of mental skills, add further alternatives. The ‘contributions’ of heredity and environment can, consequently, be the subject only of retrospective estimate in individual cases; general quantitative estimates for a population are meaningless.