行为遗传学的终结？

The End of Behavioral Genetics?

虽然遗传研究在20世纪初期的心理学里呈上升趋势，早期行为遗传学与优生学的襟带关系使这个学科蒙上阴影。20世纪下半叶的双生子和养子女的研究重新树立了该学科的威信，并为现今的遗传与环境互动的研究奠定了基础。本文以发展行为遗传学、遗传环境互动以及用行为遗传学来验证因果关系的研究为例，来突显这一学科对心理学的贡献。今后遗传与环境互动的研究将更侧重于辨识“候选基因”的技术。“全基因组关联”的研究为未来行为遗传学的发展提供了一个乐观的前景。

Although genetic models were in the ascendance within psychology during the early 20th century， the association of early behavioral genetic research with the eugenics movement served to discredit the field in the eyes of many. Twin and adoption studies throughout the latter half of the 20th century helped to reestablish the importance of behavioral genetic models and set the stage for the current focus of the field on developing and testing models of gene-environment interplay. Research findings on developmental behavioral genetic research， gene-environment interaction， and the use of behavioral genetic models to test causal hypotheses are used to highlight the contributions of contemporary behavioral genetic research to psychological research. It is argued that future efforts to investigate models of gene-environment interplay will depend heavily on the field’s ability to identify the specific genetic variants that contribute to individual differences in behavior. The anticipated yield from genome-wide association studies gives much reason to be optimistic about the future vitality of behavior genetics.