The Nurture Assumption

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The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do
ISBN
0-684-84409-5

The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do is a 1998 book by the psychologist

Pulitzer Prize finalist (general non-fiction)
.

The use of "nurture" as a synonym for "environment" is based on the assumption that what influences children's development, apart from their genes, is the way their parents bring them up. I call this the nurture assumption. Only after rearing two children of my own and coauthoring three editions of a college textbook on child development did I begin to question this assumption. Only recently did I come to the conclusion that it is wrong.

Chapter 1, p. 2.[2]

Summary

Harris challenges the idea that the

adopted
children show little correlation with the personality of their adoptive parents, and significant correlation with the natural parents who had no part in their upbringing.

The role of genetics in personality has long been accepted in psychological research. However, even

twin studies have failed to find a strong connection between the home environment and personality. Identical twins differ to much the same extent whether they are raised together or apart. Adoptive siblings are as unalike in personality as non-related children. A lot of random developmental noise
might be involved instead of any systematic imports e.g. from parenting styles.

More specifically, Harris also argues against the effects of birth order.[3][4] She states:

Birth order effects are like those things that you think you see out of the corner of your eye but that disappear when you look at them closely. They do keep turning up but only because people keep looking for them and keep analyzing and reanalyzing their data until they find them.[5]

Harris' most innovative idea was to look outside the family and to point at the peer group as an important shaper of the child's psyche. For example, children of immigrants learn the language of their home country with ease and speak with the accent of their peers rather than their parents. Children identify with their classmates and playmates rather than their parents, modify their behavior to fit with the peer group, and this ultimately helps to form the character of the individual.

Reception

The Nurture Assumption received mixed responses. The neuroscientist

Harvard predicts that the book "will come to be seen as a turning point in the history of psychology".[7]

Wendy Williams, who studies how environment affects

IQ, argues that "there are many, many good studies that show parents can affect how children turn out in both cognitive abilities and behavior".[6] The psychologist Jerome Kagan argues that Harris "ignores some important facts, ones that are inconsistent with this book's conclusions".[8]

Harris herself, however, went on to most vividly reject the notion in particular that The Nurture Assumption will encourage parents to neglect or mistreat their children.[9] She maintains that parents will continue to treat their children well "for the same reason you are nice to your friends and your partner, even though you have no hopes of molding their character. For the same reason your great-grandparents were nice to their children, even though they didn't believe in the nurture assumption".[10]

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Nurture Assumption.

Reviews

References

  1. ^ "The Nurture Assumption website (Judith Rich Harris)". Judithrichharris.info. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  2. ^ a b The Nurture Assumption, Chapter 1
  3. ^ "Judith Rich Harris on Birth Order". Judithrichharris.info. 2002-02-08. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  4. ISBN 9781439101650
    . Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  5. ISBN 9781439101650
    .
  6. ^ a b Begley, Sharon (1998-09-29). "The Parent Trap". Newsweek.
  7. ISBN 9781439101650
    . Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  8. ^ Kagan, Jerome (1998). "A Parent's Influence Is Peerless". Harvard Education Letter. 14 (6).
  9. ^ Harris, Judith Rich (1996). "The idea of zero parental influence". Edge: What is your dangerous idea.
  10. ^ Harris, Judith Rich (1998). "Nature or Nurture: The Parenting Debate". Plano Star Courier.
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