Eugenics and the nature-nurture debate in the twentieth century

Gillette, Aaron 1964- (Author).

Summary: This groundbreaking study shows that sociobiology and evolutionary psychology were undergoing rapid development in the early twentieth century, at a time when many of the early researchers in these science were also eugenicists. Aaron Gillette tracks the developments in these field and explains how, with the rise of behaviorism and the reaction against eugenics in the 1930s, any scientific claims that behavior might be influenced by heredity were subsequently suppressed for ideological reasons. - Back cover.

Record details

ISBN: 1403984220 (alk. paper)
ISBN: 9781403984227 (alk. paper)
Physical Description: print
viii, 224 p. ; 22 cm.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: New York : Palgrave Macmillan, c2007.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-217) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Pt. I. The Rebirth of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology -- 1. Foundations for a "New" Synthesis -- 2. Recent Studies on Human Sexuality -- Pt. II. The Birth of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology -- 3. The Animal Nature of Humans -- 4. Earlier Studies on Human Sexuality -- 5. Evolution, Ethics, and Culture -- Pt. III. The Death of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology -- 6. The Rise of Environmental Behaviorism -- 7. Evolutionary Psychology under Attack -- 8. The Death of Evolutionary Psychology -- 9. Lost in the Wilderness.