Robert Plomin – författare

Vårt DNA utgör själva den ritning som gör oss till dem vi är. Konsekvenserna för våra liv – för barnuppfostran, utbildningssystemet och samhället – är enorma. Men ändå är det bara en föraning av framtiden: att kunna förutse psykiska problem och styrkor med hjälp av vårt DNA. Vi befinner oss nu vid den vändpunkt där genetiken förändrar psykologin och dess betydelse för våra liv. Vår framtid stavas DNA.

Blueprint summerar många års forskning om genetik och sambandet med psykologiska egenskaper, och Robert Plomin beskriver bättre än någon annan det genombrott som skett de senaste åren. Han utforskar på djupet en av samtidens stora frågeställningar: arvets kontra miljöns betydelse för individen.

Robert Plomin är psykolog och beteendegenetiker, född 1948 i Chicago och verksam som professor vid King’s College i London.

Vårt DNA utgör själva den ritning som gör oss till dem vi är. Konsekvenserna för våra liv – för barnuppfostran, utbildningssystemet och samhället – är enorma. Men ändå är det bara en föraning av framtiden: att kunna förutse psykiska problem och styrkor med hjälp av vårt DNA. Vi befinner oss nu vid den vändpunkt där genetiken förändrar psykologin och dess betydelse för våra liv. Vår framtid stavas DNA.

Blueprint summerar många års forskning om genetik och sambandet med psykologiska egenskaper, och Robert Plomin beskriver bättre än någon annan det genombrott som skett de senaste åren. Han utforskar på djupet en av samtidens stora frågeställningar: arvets kontra miljöns betydelse för individen.

Robert Plomin är psykolog och beteendegenetiker, född 1948 i Chicago och verksam som professor vid King’s College i London.

'Mind-blowing ... It is a hugely important book ... His story is crucial' Matt Ridley, The TimesOne of the world's top behavioural geneticists argues that we need a radical rethink about what makes us who we areThe blueprint for our individuality lies in the 1% of DNA that differs between people. Our intellectual capacity, our introversion or extraversion, our vulnerability to mental illness, even whether we are a morning person - all of these aspects of our personality are profoundly shaped by our inherited DNA differences. In Blueprint, Robert Plomin, a pioneer in the field of behavioural genetics, draws on a lifetime's worth of research to make the case that DNA is the most important factor shaping who we are. Our families, schools and the environment around us are important, but they are not as influential as our genes. This is why, he argues, teachers and parents should accept children for who they are, rather than trying to mould them in certain directions. Even the environments we choose and the signal events that impact our lives, from divorce to addiction, are influenced by our genetic predispositions. Now, thanks to the DNA revolution, it is becoming possible to predict who we will become, at birth, from our DNA alone. As Plomin shows us, these developments have sweeping implications for how we think about parenting, education, and social mobility.A game-changing book by a leader in the field, Blueprint shows how the DNA present in the single cell with which we all begin our lives can impact our behaviour as adults.

Some of the most intriguing issues in the study of cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development arise in the debate over nature versus nurture; a debate difficult to resolve because it is difficult to separate the respective contributions of genes and environment to development.The most powerful approach to this separation is through longitudinal adoption studies. The Colorado Adoption Project (CAP) is the only longitudinal adoption study in existence examining development continuously from birth to adolescence, which makes it a unique, powerful, and tremendously valuable resource. CAP is an ongoing assessment of 245 adopted children and 245 biological control children assessed from birth to early adolescence.This book is the fourth in a series describing CAP results. This latest volume, edited by four eminent researchers in developmental psychology, builds on the large body of research already generated by investigating the role of genes and environments on early adolescent development.

Quantitative genetics offers a general theory of the development of individual differences that suggests novel concepts and research strategies: the idea that genetic influences operate in age-to-age change as well as in continuity for example. Quantitative genetics also provides powerful methods to address questions of change and continuity, including model-fitting approaches that test the fit between a specific model of genetic and environmental influences and observed correlations among family members, which are here helpfully introduced. A simple parent and offspring model is extended to include longitudinal and multivariate analyses. Longitudinal quantitative genetic research is essential to the understanding of developmental change and continuity. The largest and longest longitudinal adoption study is the Colorado Adoption Project, which has generated much of the rich data on the progress from infancy to early childhood on which the authors draw throughout this 1988 book. Their conclusions about what we know, and what we need to learn, about the origins of individual differences will interest a wide range of readers.

Quantitative genetics offers a general theory of the development of individual differences that suggests novel concepts and research strategies: the idea that genetic influences operate in age-to-age change as well as in continuity for example. Quantitative genetics also provides powerful methods to address questions of change and continuity, including model-fitting approaches that test the fit between a specific model of genetic and environmental influences and observed correlations among family members, which are here helpfully introduced. A simple parent and offspring model is extended to include longitudinal and multivariate analyses. Longitudinal quantitative genetic research is essential to the understanding of developmental change and continuity. The largest and longest longitudinal adoption study is the Colorado Adoption Project, which has generated much of the rich data on the progress from infancy to early childhood on which the authors draw throughout this 1988 book. Their conclusions about what we know, and what we need to learn, about the origins of individual differences will interest a wide range of readers.

The Relationship Code is the report of a longitudinal study, conducted over a ten-year period, of the influence of family relationships and genetic factors on competence and psychopathology in adolescent development. The sample for this landmark study included 720 pairs of same-sex adolescent siblings—including twins, half siblings, and genetically unrelated siblings—and their parents.Using a clear expressive style, David Reiss and his coinvestigators identify specific mechanisms that link genetic factors and the social environment in psychological development. They propose a striking hypothesis: family relationships are crucial to the expression of genetic influences on a broad array of complex behaviors in adolescents. Moreover, this role of family relationships may be very specific: some genetic factors are linked to mother–child relationships, others to father–child relations, some to relationship warmth, while others are linked to relationship conflict or control. The specificity of these links suggests that family relationships may constitute a code for translating genetic influences into the ontogeny of behaviors, a code every bit as important for behavior as DNA-RNA.

One of the most notable findings in contemporary behavior genetics is that children growing up in the same family are not very comparable. Findings suggest that in order to understand individual differences between siblings it is necessary to examine not only the shared experiences but also the differences in experiences of children growing up in the same family. In the past decade a group of investigators has begun to examine the contributions of genetics, and both shared and nonshared environment to development. As with many new research endeavors, this has proven to be a difficult task with much controversy and disagreement not only about the most appropriate models and methods of analysis to be used, but also about the interpretation of findings. Written by some of the foremost scholars working in the area on nonshared environment, the papers in this book present their perspectives, concerns, strategies and research findings dealing with the impact of nonshared environment on individual differences in the development of siblings. This volume will have heuristic value in stimulating researchers to think in new ways about the interactions between heredity, shared and nonshared environment and the challenges in identifying their contributions to sibling differences. These papers should raise new questions about how to examine the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to development, with consideration given to the findings of this study of sibling differences and nonshared environment. Further, these papers may encourage a growing trend to integrate genetic and environmental perspectives in studies of development.

First published in 1986. This book is based on two simple ideas. The first is that genes are involved in change as well as continuity in development. The second is that the best way to study effects of environment on behavior is through the study of genetic influences, employing the theory and methods of quantitative genetics. These are the major themes of a new interdiscipline, developmental behavioral genetics, which applies the tools of quantitative genetics to the study of behavioral development. Research in developmental behavioral genetics has just begun, nonetheless significant advances already have been made and these have important implications for developmental psychologists.

First Published in 1986. The modern history of temperament research began in the late 1950s with the New York Longitudinal Study. Twenty-five years later, temperament has become a major focus of research on early developing emotional and social traits. The impetus for this growth in temperament research stems from the merging of several shifts in child development research: from a view of the child as passive to a model of the child as an active, transacting partner with the environment; increasing interest in individual differences in development; an expansion of research on emotional and social development; and a clear change from an exclusive reliance on environmental explanations of developmental differences to a more balanced perspective that recognizes the possibility of biological as well as environmental influences. Most stimulating is the multidisciplinary flavor of temperament research-clinicians, infancy researchers, cultural anthropologists, and behavioral geneticists have, each for their own reasons, been drawn to the study of temperament. Each of these fields is represented in the present volume, which provides the first overview of the growing field of temperament.

G is for Genes shows how a dialogue between geneticists and educationalists can have beneficial results for the education of all children—and can also benefit schools, teachers, and society at large.   Draws on behavioral genetic research from around the world, including the UK-based Twins’ Early Development Study (TEDS), one of the largest twin studies in the worldOffers a unique viewpoint by bringing together genetics and education, disciplines with a historically difficult relationshipShows that genetic influence is not the same as genetic determinism and that the environment matters at least as much as genesDesigned to spark a public debate about what naturally-occurring individual differences mean for education and equality

G is for Genes shows how a dialogue between geneticists and educationalists can have beneficial results for the education of all children—and can also benefit schools, teachers, and society at large.   Draws on behavioral genetic research from around the world, including the UK-based Twins’ Early Development Study (TEDS), one of the largest twin studies in the worldOffers a unique viewpoint by bringing together genetics and education, disciplines with a historically difficult relationshipShows that genetic influence is not the same as genetic determinism and that the environment matters at least as much as genesDesigned to spark a public debate about what naturally-occurring individual differences mean for education and equality

Originally published in 1984, this title looks at the development of temperament in early life. At the time of publication there were three major perspectives on temperament: paediatrics, individual differences in infants, and inherited personality traits that appear in early life. Whatever the diversity of these perspectives, they converge on personality traits that develop early in life, hence the title of this book. The authors start by looking at the main research in this field, then go on to discuss their own approach to temperament, building on their original theory from 1975.

Originally published in 1984, this title looks at the development of temperament in early life. At the time of publication there were three major perspectives of temperament: paediatrics, individual differences in infants and inherited personality traits that appear in early life. Whatever the diversity of these perspectives, they converge on personality traits that develop early in life, hence the title of this book. The authors start by looking at the main research in this field, then go on to discuss their own approach to temperament, building on their original theory from 1975.

One of the most notable findings in contemporary behavior genetics is that children growing up in the same family are not very comparable. Findings suggest that in order to understand individual differences between siblings it is necessary to examine not only the shared experiences but also the differences in experiences of children growing up in the same family. In the past decade a group of investigators has begun to examine the contributions of genetics, and both shared and nonshared environment to development. As with many new research endeavors, this has proven to be a difficult task with much controversy and disagreement not only about the most appropriate models and methods of analysis to be used, but also about the interpretation of findings. Written by some of the foremost scholars working in the area on nonshared environment, the papers in this book present their perspectives, concerns, strategies and research findings dealing with the impact of nonshared environment on individual differences in the development of siblings. This volume will have heuristic value in stimulating researchers to think in new ways about the interactions between heredity, shared and nonshared environment and the challenges in identifying their contributions to sibling differences. These papers should raise new questions about how to examine the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to development, with consideration given to the findings of this study of sibling differences and nonshared environment. Further, these papers may encourage a growing trend to integrate genetic and environmental perspectives in studies of development.