During this time of few messages on tips I thought I would alert Tipsters to 2 articles I found to be quiet interesting and related to things we have discussed on this forum. Both appear in the latest issue (July, 1999, vol. 125, number 4) of Psychological Bulletin. One article has to due with the evidence for psi using the ganzeld procedure. It is a review article by Milton & Wiseman and they conclude that recent research has failed to replicate the psi phenomenon as reported by Bem & Honorton in 1994. The second article concerns the repeated findings of behavior geneticists that shared environment (e.g., parental behavior) is a trivial influence on many important aspects of child development (personality traits, IQ, etc.). The author, Mike Stoolmiller, argues that, for adoption studies, shared environmental effects are significantly underestimated while genetic and nonshared environmental effects are overestimated due to the severely restricted range of family environments typically found in these studies. If corrections are made, shared family environment is found to be an important factor influencing child development. While the article focuses on adoption studies, a brief discussion of twin studies is included and suggests that related problems may exist in many of those as well. If Stoolmiller is correct, his findings have a significant implication for many of our "understandings" of genetic and environmental effects and, relating this to discussions we have had on tips, to Jean Harris' ideas in particular. She relies heavily on the fact that shared environment seem to matter little to support the need for an alternative explanation for environmental effects, namely peers. However, if shared environment indeed is a formidible cause of development, then the basis of her argument becomes much weaker. Interesting stuff. Jeff Nagelbush Ferris State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
