Design for a Life: How Behaviour Develops.

Bateson, Patrick; Martin, Paul.

ISBN 10: 0224050648 / ISBN 13: 9780224050647

Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 1999

About this Item

Hardback octavo, dustjacket, very good condition (in very good dustjacket), minor edgewear. 280 pp. In this wonderfully readable book, two distinguished scientists, Patrick Bateson and Paul Martin, explain how biology (nature) and psychology (nurture) join to shape the behavior of individual human beings. They counter the mistaken notion that individual genes solely determine certain personality traits; instead, they explain the role genes actually play in the formation of personality. Shows how change is a vital component of human behavior, restoring the concept of free will to its central place in human psychology. How is it possible for each of 6 billion human beings to be unique? How does each of us grow up to be the person we are? How do behavior and personality develop? Bateson is professor of ethology (the biological study of behaviour) at Cambridge University.

Seller Inventory # 13738

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Design for a Life: How Behaviour Develops.
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape, London
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224050648
• ISBN 13: 9780224050647
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • PSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOUR

About this title

Synopsis

How and why does each of us grow up to be the person we are? What role do genes play in shaping our behaviour and personalities? Are our characters fixed, or can we change as adults? How does early experience affect our sexual preferences?Design for a Life explains the science of behavioural development - the biological and psychological processes that build a unique adult from a fertilised egg. Instead of the conventional opposition between nature (genes) and nurture (environment), Design for a Life offers a new approach that synthesises biology and psychology. It explores the developmental cooking processes that give rise to individuals, and considers in turn how these processes have evolved.

About the Author

Patrick Bateson is Emeritus Professor of Ethology (the biological study of behaviour) at Cambridge University, a fellow at King's College, Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has also been the provost of King's College, Cambridge and the Biological Secretary of the Royal Society. He received a BA in Zoology and a PhD in Animal Behaviour from Cambridge University, held a Harkness Fellowship at Stanford University and was Director of the the Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour at Cambridge for ten years. He has edited and co-edited several books, including Mate Choice (1983), The Development and Integration of Behaviour (1991), Behavioural Mechanisms in Evolutionary Perspective (1992) and the series Perspectives in Ethology. Paul Martin studied biology at Cambridge University, where he acquired a First in Natural Sciences and a PhD in behavioural biology; and at Stanford University, where he was a Harkness Fellow. He subsequently lectured and researched at Cambridge University. He is the co-author, with Patrick Bateson, of Measuring Behaviour (1993), and author of The Sickening Mind (1998).