Genes, Behavior, and the Social Environment: Moving Beyond the Nature/Nurture Debate

For many years there has been a great deal of discussion and research as to the importance of genetics (i.e. nature) vs. upbringing (nurture) as determinants of a persons behavior. This book is a summary of that research bringing together scientists from the social, behavioral and biological sciences. In addition to the summary of existing research, the book presents a variety of suggestions how future research, transdisciplinary in nature, can contribute to the science of gene-social environment interactions and to explaining individual and population health and health disparities. One example of such interaction is a person having a genetic predisposition to lung cancer who also has the environmental factor of smoking. The identification and further understanding of such interactions may yield to breakthroughs in the treatment of these diseases. This book is published by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, advisors to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine.