The notion that only social facts can explain social phenomena, which was argued by Durkheim, has confined Sociologists to seek explanations other than social factors for a long time. As a diverse of disciplines develop understandings of social behaviors and phenomena, Sociologists have chances to converse with other subjects, abandoning the unnecessary boundary which restrict them for decades. This would be an opportunity for sociologists to both refine the old and construct the new social theories that can describe and explain the society more adequately. One powerful challenge toward sociologists comes from Biology. Not only the evolutionary view from it provides insights to the topics of mate selection, group identification, prosocial behaviors, …show more content…
The contributions of the idea and findings of gene-environment interaction to Sociology, stated by Guo et al. (2015), include the discovering of the hidden contextual effects, understanding the complicated interplay, identifying the people who are the most sensitive to a certain exposure, and designing the intervention. As for the roles of genes within gene-environment interplay in Sociology, three roles have been proposed by Pescosolido et al. (2008): 1. Genes function as a social mediator which shape the social processes. 2. Negative social factors might suppress or trigger the expression of genes. 3. Some harmful life events or stresses could be amplified or modified by genes. The idea of gene-environment interplay is more prominent when we view issues from the life course perspective. The trajectories of life, among all the dimensions (education, work, family, health, etc.), are not only shaped by the interactions between social factors (ExE interactions, sometimes across layers (individual and structure)), but also by the gene-environment correlations (rGE) and interactions (GxE) (for full interplay descriptions, see GxE interaction sections). All of the life course components, such as the timing of the events, duration, and dimensions, can interact with genes to shape the individual outcomes (Shanahan and Boardman 2009). The integration …show more content…
Both social and biological pathways might contribute to the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. As data and genetic information became available, sociologists tried to distinguish the two pathways and investigate the interactions between them. I will summarize several of them below. First, status attainment has always been a central concern for sociologists. Education, a critical achieved status which relates to countless outcomes, is shaped by both social and biological factors. For example, Guo and Stearn (2002) studied whether family background shapes the influence of genetic endowments on intelligence. By using the twins and siblings data from Add Health and the multilevel models, they found that the realization of their genetic potential depends on whether the parents were employed or not, and their ethnicity. The findings suggest that the effects of genes are conditional on social circumstances. Incorporating the relative new waves of Add Health data, Nielsen and Roos (2015) used the ACE models to investigate the educational attainment of the young people in the US. They partial out the variances into three components: genetic, shared environment, and non-shared environment. The findings are that the genetic component only explained 23% of the variance, and the shared family environment component accounted for 41% in twin and 30% in non-twin sibling samples. The
Besides race, the scholar also reveals how childhoods are unequal based on social class. Drawing from the American society, there are several social classes. For each class, there are unique pathways of lives followed and these usually influence both the educational and work outcomes. To ...
‘Genes’ refers to units of heredity information that consist of DNA and are located on chromosomes and can exist in alternative forms called alleles (http://biology.about.com/library/glossary/bldefgenes.htm). ‘Environment’ according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition states: “[Environment is] The totality of circumstances surrounding an organism or group of organisms, especially: the complex of social and cultural conditions affecting the nature of an individual or community.” A child grows to possess a detailed nature which obtains that particular form due to the effects of two major contributing factors. The first influence comes from the genetic structure which he inherits from his parents and the second looms from the collective experiences he has from his daily social interaction with his surrounding environment.
Ginits all give great detail that family icome plays an enormous role on inequality in education, but we
In recent research studies have shown that there are several factors of a child’s academic performance, such as parental time commitment and family economic status. I want to understand whether family economic status impacts a child’s academic performance. My hypothesis is that there is a correlation between children academic outcomes and family economic status. It is significant to research because the correlation between family economic status and a child’s academic performance demonstrate the detrimental impact on children from low economic families. Children are important because they are the future leaders. Many children will become nation leaders or lawyers while others may become doctors who will nurture the next generation. The most apparent issue concerning children form low income families today is low academic performance. Every aspect of a child’s life determines whether or not they will succeed. Therefore, we should be very concern and involved. The correlation of both aspects hinders children from low economic families. The importance of answering the research question allows us to determine whether or not there is a difference between children from low income families and children from high income families.
Family members not only share genes but they also share a similar environment and lifestyle; therefore, a resemblance in traits may suggest a correlation between genetics and the environmental-lifestyle. Most individuals can determine the traits on the outside which are passed down from generation to generation such as eye color and hair color. Individuals do not always recognize the health traits which are not as visible, like being at risk for certain diseases such as asthma, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Traits such as high blood pressure are influenced by both genes and environment or a “nature” and “nurture” process (McCance, Huether, Brashers, & Rote, 2010). In most diseases, biological factors such as heredity, age and gender can increase the probability of developing chronic conditions.
... care, genetics, and parenting skills, socioeconomics trumps and encompasses these other variables. Genetics and prenatal care and parenting skills can be overcome with some sting effort but socioeconomics, is harder to overcome but not impossible. The effect of lower socioeconomic status on achievement is difficult to ignore. Socioeconomics effect on development is so apparent that it cannot be overlooked as an important variable. Inequalities between children can easily be seen at even very young ages. It is beyond reasonable doubt that low-income children enter school academically behind advantaged peers, and that cognitive difference increases as a child goes through school. (Artiles, 2003) Based on the research found, the argument was supported as it has been seen that cognitive development relies heavily on the socioeconomic status of the child being examined.
Describe the process by which genes and environment operate together to influence development. Discuss the significance of these processes for our understanding of child development.
It’s a face-paced world and it’s not slowing down. Have you ever thought of all the harmful stuff that is in the air? Think of a big city where there are tons of cars and factories that pollute the air. After thinking about that and reading about epigenetics, environmental interactions do have an impact on people’s genes and health. Different environmental factors can damage some linkage DNA, and possibly alter genetic traits for generations to come. Environmental factors cause genes to be turned on and off. When the genes get turned on and off it can be for the good or bad depending on lifestyle factors. From the article “How do your genes and the environment interact?” There were many different ways listed that genes and the environment can interact. Those ways are mutagens and gene-gene interactions. “Mutagens are pollutants in the environment that enter the body and directly change your DNA sequence.” “Gene-gene interactions occur when pollutants in the environment do not change your DNA sequence, but rather cause a chain reaction that affects the functioning of one gene that then affects the functioning of another.” Most of diseases are a combination of genetic risk and the environment someone lives
The impacts of a low socioeconomic status are far reaching for individuals and especially for families throughout the world. A low socioeconomic status is often measured in combination with education, income and occupation. While this paper focuses on education, research shows that income and occupation are all correlated and impact each area. Research has shown that education is a predictor of income and occupation. The topic that will be discussed the affect of low socioeconomic status on student achievement. My hypothesis states that a low socioeconomic status background negatively affects student academic achievement.
Intelligence, Genes and Success; ed by Devlin B. et al ( Springer-Verlag New York, Inc 1997)
A wide range of people all over the world inaccurately come to the conclusion that sociology is merely, ‘the study of the obvious’ and the application of common sense, this statement could not be further from the truth. Common sense derives from statements such as, ‘opposites attract’, however the Sociological sense takes this belief and carries out numerous tests to discover whether it is fact, or fiction.
Socioeconomic status can be defined in terms of family wealth and assets as well as educational background. For this reason, many comparisons can be made between socioeconomic status and education. Furthermore, academic achievement and the level of education reached by an individual, is determined by socioeconomic status. Research has shown that environmental circumstances and family issues greatly influence a child's future because the impact of the socioeconomic status depends on the level to which an individual becomes successful in life. Research also shows that family conditions can impact a child’s education and their quality of life. For example, being raised in a high-economic culture increases the chances that a child will attend
Research reveals that the higher the social class, the higher the levels of educational achievement are likely to be. The children of parents in higher social classes are more likely to stay on in post compulsory education, more likely to achieve examination passes when at school, and more likely to gain university entrance. These features painted a true picture of British education in the twentieth century and can be argued to follow this trend today. However, whether there has been any reduction in the inequalities is more debatable, but some research suggests that these inequalities are as great as ever, despite the overall improvements within the education system. Many researchers argue that IQ tests are biased in favour of the middle class, since members of this group largely construct them.
Sociology is the study of the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how individuals interact within these environments. Sociology at one time was not a respectable or well-known field of study until Emile Durkheim, a college professor, made sociology a part of the French college curriculum. Durkheim is regarded as one of the founders of sociology. He introduced sociology as a branch of learning separate from other sciences by declaring that sociologists must examine specific characteristics of group life. In this paper, I plan to provide some insight into who Emile Durkheim was and his contributions to the field of sociology.
The unjustified beliefs of genetic inferiority of some races have long since been denounced. These unfounded beliefs have been replaced by research which indicates that the genetic component of intelligence is augmented by the nurturing environment (or lack thereof) of a child. The paper sites twin studies, which give creedence to the genetic component of intelligence, and notes these differences apply within the different ethnic and racial groups.