The Relationship Code is the report of a longitudinal study, conducted over a ten-year period, of the influence of family relationships and genetic factors on competence and psychopathology in adolescent development. The sample for this landmark study included 720 pairs of same-sex adolescent siblingsincluding twins, half siblings, and genetically unrelated siblingsand their parents.
Using a clear expressive style, David Reiss and his coinvestigators identify specific mechanisms that link genetic factors and the social environment in psychological development. They propose a striking hypothesis: family relationships are crucial to the expression of genetic influences on a broad array of complex behaviors in adolescents. Moreover, this role of family relationships may be very specific: some genetic factors are linked to motherchild relationships, others to fatherchild relations, some to relationship warmth, while others are linked to relationship conflict or control. The specificity of these links suggests that family relationships may constitute a code for translating genetic influences into the ontogeny of behaviors, a code every bit as important for behavior as DNA-RNA.
This book is of fundamental importance in biobehavioral sciences. The authors, all distinguished research scientists with years of experience with genetic and social studies, advance the naturenurture debate& They present a uniquely new view of genetic influences, namely, the genetic tendencies for certain beneficial styles and personality are influenced significantly by patterns of relationships.The Relationship Code is a sophisticated blast of fresh air into what has become a stale and stuffy atmosphere of polarized rhetoric about the extent to which we are products of our genes or our environment& The conceptual model proposed by the authors&is light years ahead of most naturenurture discussions in its recognition of the complex ways in which genetic and environmental influencl“ź
![The Relationship Code: Deciphering Genetic and Social Influences on Adolescent Development [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/5/6/2/2_6673160.jpg "The Relationship Code: Deciphering Genetic and Social Influences on Adolescent Development [Paperback]")