The Significance of Biology for Human Development: A Developmental Psychobiological Systems View

The notion that phenotypic traits, including behavior, can be predetermined has slowly given way in biology and psychology over the last several decades to the view that all traits are the outcome of development. This shift in thinking is based on a growing appreciation of the reciprocity of influences within and between levels of an individual's developmental manifold (including genetic activity; neural activity; and physical, biological, and social environments) and the ubiquity of gene-environment interaction in the realization of all phenotypes. This chapter describes the history and current status of this psychobiological systems view of development, its implications for a developmentally oriented conception of behavior genetics, its application to a research area such as intersensory development, and the broader implications of a developmental psychobiological systems view of human development. A brief evaluation of current thinking in biology, developmental neuroscience, developmental psychobiology, and sociology is included. Keywords: behavior genetics; developmental causality; developmental psychobiology; developmental psychology; developmental systems; equifinality; intersensory perception; probabilistic epigenesis