At 08:39 AM 12/4/2006, you wrote:
I have to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Judith Rich
Harris's arguments. Yes, she provides evidence but it's based on
behavior genetics studies (with their inherent flaws and lack of
generalizability, plus the fact that they suggest at least half of
the influence is environmental), or personality questionnaires
(self-report). She does argue that parents have no lasting impact on
children's personality or adjustment when they grow up. She actually
suggests that if your child is ugly or unpopular, about the only
thing parents can do to correct this is provide plastic surgery. She
mentions parental influence on the peer group in terms of choosing
good neighborhoods, but discounts the developmental processes of
modeling, imitation, and cognitive mediation, which have so
definitively been shown to impact development in research using
diverse methodologies in many labs over many decades.
For example, Parke and Ladd (1992) wrote a tome about how complex
the impacts of parents on their children's peer relationships
actually are. For developmentalists, we are interested in PROCESS.
Why would peers affect children's long term outcomes but parents
not? What process would account for this that is not generalizable
to the parenting context? She also makes the outrageous claim that
child abuse is bad because it makes the current home situation
unpleasant but that it does not having lasting long term impacts.
The message to parents is clear: live in a good neighborhood and
help your child pick the right peer group because you yourself have
no lasting influence.
Harris did developmetal science a favor by making us do better,
genetically informed, and experimental research, but her main
arguments simply have not been supported. We cannot disentangle
genes from environments (nor would I argue this avenue is even
useful or itneresting), and even if something "is genetic" (which
most traits/behaviors are not, according to behavior and molecular
genetic studies), the environment in the form of parenting
interventions, etc., changes children's behavior!
==========================
Tasha R. Howe, Ph.D
Associate Professor of Psychology
Humboldt State University
1 Harpst Street
Arcata, CA 95521
Phone: (707) 826-3759
FAX: (707) 826-4993
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Webpage: http://www.humboldt.edu/~psych/fs/howe/howe.htm
"The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The
way to be happy is to make others so."
Shaker
proverb
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