Eugenics and the Nature-Nurture Debate in the Twentieth Century

by Gillette, Aaron

• ISBN13: 9781403984227
• ISBN10: 1403984220
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Gillette shows that the sciences of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology were undergoing rapid development in the early twentieth century. However, many of the early researchers in these sciences were also eugenicists. With the rise of behaviorism and the reaction against eugenics in the 1930s, any scientific claims that behavior might be influenced by heredity were suppressed for ideological reasons.

Author Biography

Aaron Gillette is Assistant Professor of History, University of Houston-Downtown.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Rebirth of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

Foundations for a “New” Synthesis

Recent Studies on Human Sexuality

The Birth of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

The Animal Nature of Humans

Earlier Studies on Human Sexuality

Evolution, Ethics, and Culture

The Death of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

The Rise of Environmental Behaviorism

Evolutionary Psychology under Attack

The Death of Evolutionary Psychology

The Dark Forest

Conclusion

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