ERIC Number: ED175749
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1979
Pages: 29
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Sociobiology, Neurobiology and Political Socialization.
White, Elliott
Political science and its subfields cannot ignore the work being done in two areas of the life sciences: sociobiology and neurobiology. Current theories of political socialization which suggest that society molds the child will be increasingly affected by sociobiological theory which posits that children operate as independent actors in the socialization process. However, both the social sciences and sociobiology may have to be emended in the light of the emerging field of neurobiology. Leading neuroscientists not only indirectly support the sociobiological contention that children may play an active role in the socialization process, but also they tend to see the brain in emergent, dualistic, and mentalist terms. That is, the mind exists as a separate entity from the physical brain and is not reducible to it. Thus, three implications of neurobiological theory that apply even beyond children and politics to all humans and all behavior must be considered: (1) children are independent actors in the socialization process; (2) self-consciousness, as the child matures, may play an increasingly independently important role in the behavior of the child; and (3) the role of children in the socialization process and of self-consciousness in human (political) behavior must be considered in the light of genetic variability. (Author/KC)
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Information Analyses; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (Washington, D.C., August 31-September 3, 1979)