Behavior Genetic Model
Behavior genetic models offer a different ap-
proach to answering the perennial nature-nurture de-
bate. Through elaborate statistical procedures,
behavior geneticists attempt to determine how much
of the difference in a group of individuals can be said
to be due to genetic factors and how much to environ-
mental factors. Behavior genetic research with hu-
mans cannot, of course, involve selective breeding
(the preferred technique when working with animals),
so behavior genetic researchers look for situations
that they believe allow for ‘‘experiments in nature.’’
The two most common research designs for humans
involve comparing individuals of different degrees of
genetic relatedness and comparing adopted children
to both their biological and adopted parents. Behav-
ior genetic researchers report that both types of
studies show a significant genetic contribution to
many human characteristics, including intelligence
and personality. That is, identical twins appear more
similar than fraternal twins or siblings, who are in
turn more similar than cousins, who are in turn more
similar than unrelated individuals. Further, adopted
children share many characteristics with their biologi-
cal parents, even if they are adopted at birth.
The Organismic Worldview
Those favoring an Organismic Worldview recog-
nize both efficient and material causes as important
but place even more emphasis on what they see as for-
mal and final causes. Formal causes reflect the organi-
zational quality of all living systems, while final causes
reflect organicists’ belief that human development is
a directional process. To use an analogy, when hydro-
gen and oxygen are combined to form water, a sub-
stance is created with properties radically different
than either of its two constituents. At room tempera-
ture, hydrogen and oxygen each exists as a gas but
water exists asa liquid. Water is very good for putting
out fires, while oxygen and hydrogen actually have
the opposite effect. As such, the emerging properties
of water are radically different from the properties of
the individual elements of which it is comprised. In
the same way, organicists argue that humans are each
more than the sum of their parts and that humans are
actively involved in their own construction.
Two of the major theoretical traditions within the
Organismic Worldview are the psychoanalytic models
associated with the work of Sigmund Freud (1856–
1939) and Erik Erikson (1902–1994), and the cogni-
tive developmental model associated with the work of
Jean Piaget (1896–1980).
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Model
Freud’s work, although highly controversial both
then and now, is important because it helps highlight
the importance of the early bonds between a parent
and a child and helps show how experiences early in
life may influence subsequent life experiences.It is ironic that Freud’s theory, one of the most
controversial theories of child development, is based
not on a careful examination of children but rather
on clinical interviews he conducted with adult pa-
tients in the course of his psychiatric practice in Vien-
na at the turn of the twentieth century. Freud, the
clinician, believed that his adult patients’ problems
stemmed from their early childhood experiences,
and as a result his approach to therapy was to help
them regress to those early experiences so that the
traumatic nature of the experiences could be uncov-
ered and therefore resolved.Freud saw activity during the first year of life,
what he called the oral stage, centered on the mouth
and the process of learning to take in, both in the bio-
logical and psychological sense, those things that ini-
tially are external to the infant. Because this taking in
or incorporating is pleasurable to the child, Freud
saw those associated with the process, most notable
the mother and the father, as also acquiring positive
value in the eyes of the infant. To Freud, a psychic
force, the id, regulated these early efforts on the part
of the infant. The id exists in the infant’s subconscious
and has the sole purpose of reducing tension and in-
creasing gratification.By age two or three, during the anal stage, the
focus of activity shifts from the oral region to the anal
region, with issues of retention and elimination,
again, at both the biological and psychological levels,
becoming paramount. Because the child is now being
asked to learn to balance power and control, a second
psychic force, the ego, emerges as a regulatory mech-
anism. Unlike the id, the ego resides partly in con-
sciousness and partly in unconsciousness and as such
serves to help the child become socialized; that is, it
helps the child recognize that she must respond to
considerations other than her own immediate gratifi-
cation.The preschool years witness the phallic stage and
a further shift in focus to the genitalia and issues of
sex role identification. Freud sees this process as one
of conflict for the child because the child initially sees
the same-sex parent as a competitor for the affections
of the opposite-sex parent rather than as a mentor
and role model. Successful resolution of the conflict
comes about through the emergence of a third psy-
chic force, the superego. The superego resides entire-
ly in the child’s consciousness and is, in essence, the
child’s conscience. It is the superego that helps the
child recognize the legitimacy of society’s social ex-
pectations for the child.414 THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT