24 PINNING DOWN POTENTIAL
What really worries me is that attempts to so “chemicalize” human
potential in this century could have even more dire consequences than
the medicalization of “madness” in the last.
THE ENVIRONMENT AND NATURE- NURTURE KNOTSOf course, every one also acknowledges the role of the environment in
creating individual diff erences and in realizing potential. Every body
knows that nutrition promotes growth, exercise will increase muscle, and
dieting will reduce fat. But are there such analogous causes of individual
diff erences in intelligence?
In fact, in this fi eld, models of the environment are almost as simplis-
tic as those of the gene. Th e environment seems to be mostly conceived
as a kind of maternal counterpart to the paternal role of the genes. Apart
from supplying resources (nutrients), the environment, in the dominant
view, merely nurtures, supports, limits, or attenuates what’s in the genes.
Many authors genuinely want to stress that environmental experiences
“infl uence the functioning of our genes,” modify “how genes work,” and
even talk about gene- environment interaction or interplay. But, always,
like power ful despots, the genes still remain in charge.
As with the genes, understanding of the environments that make a
diff erence to human intelligence remains backward and piecemeal. Pio-
neering eff orts have been made to identify aspects of the home, parent-
ing, social class, and so on, that are statistically associated with IQ or
school test scores. Th ese have involved sending questionnaires to parents,
and observations and interviews by researchers visiting homes and
schools. Correlations reported are with broad factors like parental teach-
ing style, discipline style, numbers of toys and books in the home, family
income, and neighborhood and housing characteristics.
Deducing from the correlations how these really cause individual dif-
ferences in intelligence is a diff er ent matter. When they have been used to
guide intervention programs for young children, the eff ects tend to be
small, labile, or non ex is tent (see chapter 10). Th e diff erences in experience
that make even children in the same family so diff er ent from one another
are particularly diffi cult to pin down. In the commentary mentioned
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