Necessary But Not Sufficent: The Respective Roles of Single and Multiple Influences on Individual Development
by Theodore D. Wachs
Category: Psychology

This book uses a body of evidence to demonstrate that the variability of an individual's behavior is best understood as the result of influences from multiple domains operating over time. These domains of influence are evolution, genetics, neurology, biomedicine, nutrition, individual characteristics of the child such as temperament and intelligence, proximal environmental influences, parental beliefs and the home and school environment, and distal environmental influences such as the local and national culture. The author describes the operating processes that all of these have in common and explains how these processes meet the criteria for a fully fledged system. The book concludes with the practical implications of this approach, including the need to improve research design and create more effective assessment and intervention for children whose health development is at risk.