🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi, I'm Jason Seidel, interning at the SUNY, Buffalo Counseling Center,
and a Psy.D. student from Univ. of Denver. I have a little something to
add as this  discussion about Brett's paper turns more "genetic."
Brett Deacon wrote:
"It is essential to separate out genetic effects
from environmental effects when looking at this issue. Most good
behavioral genetics studies attempt to statistically account for both
genetic and environmental effects."
The attempt to "statistically account" for the different variances that
genetics and environment play in complex behaviors as well as in
physiological processes has been hotly contested by a number of
scientists, including geneticists themselves. For instance, see R.L.
Lewontin's "Biology as Ideology" (HarperCollins). I suggest that before
we get into talking about so-called "genetic effects" we are clear about
the context in which these statistics are generated. A close look at the
alcoholism research reveals a pattern of vociferous objections and
retractions following the "latest breakthrough" that we "may" have found
a locus for alcoholism that "may one day" lead to better tx.
Furthermore, the idea that alcoholism or depression is "diasthetic" or
whatever, is pretty much irrelevant considering that people without
family histories have no difficulty at all either in "contracting" these
"diseases" nor in being "cured" of them, all without medical
interventions, and even (in the case of alcoholism) without having to
abstain from the "stressors" for the rest of their lives. I'm glad you
are interested in the topic of gender roles and how they affect how we
try to cope with life's difficulties. I just want us psychologists not
to try to cope with life's difficulties by trying to pump up and
legitimize ourselves with scientistic constructs that sound concrete and
unarguable, but which are neither. We want to simplify things because we
get headaches writing our discussion sections, but the answer does not
lie in falling back on the "diasthesis/stress" crutch that is becoming
as banal these days as saying one does therapy from an "integrationist
perspective."
-Jason Seidel (jseidel@acsu.buffalo.edu)