Nature, Nurture and the Future of the Analysis of Variance<sup>1</sup>

Abstract

Various studies in behavioral genetics have shown that the shared environment does not explain a large part of the variation in the behavior of children. From this finding it is concluded that the family does not have much impact on the development of children. This conclusion (and similar ones) rests on the assumption that findings concerning variation in behaviors can be translated into terms of development. However, the possibility of a translation is not self-evident, as various critics have pointed out. The assumptions on which the method is based and which yields the data of behavior genetics does not match reality, according to critics. The statistical method assumes additivity, while reality is interactive. In this paper it is argued that a translation of behavior genetic data in terms of development requires an interpretative device, which is modelled on the notion of development as a dynamic interactive process.