Dear all
Attached is a link to a very new book:
The Trouble with Twin Studies: A Reassessment of Twin Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
By Jay Joseph
Jay Joseph is a psychologist and this book is probably of primary interest to those concerned with mental health/development/cognitive disorders and environment, but the arguments apply more or less to all kinds twin studies, which were/still are the main theoretical basis of the claims of the human genome project and its allied projects. Probably no one is a better guide to these issues.
Some review comments
"The
Trouble with Twin Studies significantly adds to Jay Joseph’s impressive
record of scholarship critiquing the conceptual and methodological
flaws of research claiming to document a genetically-determined basis of
human behavior and development. This book provides an insightful and
important analysis of the flaws of claims derived from twin research
that, independent of coactions with the environment, genes alone or in
large part determine human psychological and social attributes. This
title is essential reading for basic and applied scholars interested in
understanding the inadequacies of simplistic, genetic-reductionist
accounts of human development." -- Richard M. Lerner, Director, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Tufts University
"This book will be an invaluable resource to those who suspect that twin
studies are too good to be true, and want to articulate the arguments
that encourage wider views of the causes of human variation." -- Ken Richardson PhD, Former Lecturer, Open University
best wishes
Jonathan
Jonathan Latham, PhD
Executive Director
The Bioscience Resource Project
Ithaca, NY 14850 USA
"Good with Science"