Gilding argues that the sociology of the family has turned to the paradigm of private-life research, but the overemphasis on reflexivity, institutionalization, and traditionalism ignores the biological basis and economic foundations of human behavior (Gilding 2010).
Myth: Biological or genetic determinism is a nothing more than a scientific discipline that studies the biological basis of all forms of human behavior.
Long-term memory as the basis for the adaptation of human behavior to experiences is crucial for survival, but far from being perfect [1], [2].
The current study highlights the neurobiological basis of this key aspect of human behavior, providing direct evidence of a critical role for dopamine in modulating the subjective pleasure expected to be derived from future life events.
"Claiming an evolutionary basis to sexual behavior based on one study trivializes the rich complexity of human behavior," says Barry Komisaruk, a behavioral neuroscientist at Rutgers University, Newark, in New Jersey.
Who cares about evolution if we can explain the length and breadth of human behavior on the basis of minimalistic principles such as operant conditioning or utility maximization?
Rational choice theory takes the invisible hand metaphor literally by trying to explain the length and breadth of human behavior on the basis of individual utility maximization, which is fancy talk for the narrow pursuit of self-interest.
In a recent case, two anthropologists accused Dr. James Neel, a founder of modern human genetics, and Dr. Napoleon Chagnon, a social anthropologist, of killing the Yanomamö people of Brazil to test genetic theories of human behavior, a charge Dr. Pinker analyzes as without basis in fact.
