Title: Sociobiology and the family: a focus on the interplay between social science and biology.

POPLINE Document Number: 201643

Author(s):

Ladewig BH
Thoma SJ
Scanzoni JH

Source citation:

In: Biosocial perspectives on the family, edited by Erik E. Filsinger. Newbury Park, California, Sage Publications, 1988. :173-87. (Sage Focus Editions, Volume 96)

Abstract:

This chapter responds to the previous chapters in this book. Human sociality cannot be purely biological because any explanation of human behavior must also incorporate intentionality. Far more useful than merging biology and the social sciences or resisting such a merger, would be a clearer focus on the feedback of interaction processes by which biological and environmental forces jointly determine behavior. A purely biological account of human functioning is incomplete because it presents a static picture of the factors involved in the production of behavior. The true engine of development is the point of intersection between unfolding biological agenda and the processes involved as the individual actively makes sense of his or her environment. The incorporation of biological considerations have taken 2 main pathways: "bottom up" and "top down." A leading example of a research area transfused by incorporating biological principles ("bottom up") is the study of parent-infant interactions. The attachment relationship seems to be the result of an active, rather than passive, adaptation to a biologically primed developmental agenda. "Top down" examples would include recent theoretical reformulations of behavioral domains in which biological considerations have been incorporated in a nontrivial way. An unwavering focus on the interaction of biology and environment is the most promising approach to understanding individual and family behavior. Social science and biological variables are in constant interplay with each other. The ultimate goal would be cross-disciplinary research in which the assumptions and views of both biology and social science are viewed as equally valid and significant. The challenge to biological and social science researchers is to develop methodologies adequate to the task of investigating how, over time, biological and social science variables actually impinge upon and change one another.

Keywords:

Social Sciences
Biology
Socioeconomic Factors
Biological Characteristics
Social Behavior
Family and Household
Family Characteristics
Behavior
Environment
Economic Factors