Search Results
Title: Under the Skin: On the Impartial Treatment of Genetic and Environmental Hypotheses
Resulting in 1 citation.
| 1. |
Rowe, David C. |
|
Under the Skin: On the Impartial Treatment of Genetic and Environmental Hypotheses American Psychologist 60,1 (January 2005): 60-70. Also: http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/amp60160.pdf Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA) Keyword(s): Genetics; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Racial Differences Environmental and genetic explanations have been given for Black–White racial differences in intelligence and other traits. In science, viable, alternative hypotheses are ideally given equal Bayesian prior weights; but this has not been true in the study of racial differences. This article advocates testing environmental and genetic hypotheses of racial differences as competing hypotheses. Two methods are described: (a) fitting means within structural equation models and (b) predicting means of interracial children. These methods have limitations that call for improved research designs of racial differences. One improvement capitalizes on biotechnology. Genetic admixture estimates--the percentage of genes of European origin that a Black individual possesses (independent of genes related to skin coloration)—can represent genetic influences. The study of interracial children can be improved by increasing sample size and by choosing family members who are most informative for a research question. Eventually, individual admixture estimates will be replaced by molecular genetic tests of alleles of those genes that influence traits. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Rowe, David C. "Under the Skin: On the Impartial Treatment of Genetic and Environmental Hypotheses." American Psychologist 60,1 (January 2005): 60-70.
|