Lay and professional knowledge of genetics and inheritance

Public Understanding of Science

Volumn 5, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 217-230

  Richards, Martin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0000942069     PISSN: 09636625     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1088/0963-6625/5/3/003     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. See, for example, Childs, B., and Hickman, F., 1983, Human genetics: one approach to scientific literacy. Daedalus, 112, 189-209;
2. Andrews, L. B., Fullarton, J. E., Holtzman, N. A., and Motulsky, A. G., 1994, Assessing Genetic Risks (Washington, DC: National Academy Press), pp.185-201;
3. Griffiths, A. J. F., 1993, What does the public really need to know about genetics? American Journal of Human Genetics, 52, 230-232;
4. Turney, J., 1995, The public understanding of genetics - where next? European Journal of Genetics and Society, 1, 5-20;
5. Turney, J., 1995, Signs of life - taking genetic literacy seriously. The Genetic Engineer and Biotechnologie, 15, 181-186.
6. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, 1995, Third Report Human Genetics: the Science and its Consequences, Vol. 1 (London: HMSO).
7. Kargbo, D. B., Hobbs, E. D., and Erickson, G. L., 1980, Children's beliefs about inherited characteristics. Journal of Biological Education, 14, 137-146;
8. Longden, B., 1982, Genetics - are there inherent learning difficulties? Journal of Biological Education, 16, 135-140;
9. Wood-Robinson, C., 1994, Young people's ideas about inheritance and evolution. Studies in Science Education, 24, 29-47;
10. Clough, E. E., and Wood-Robinson, C., 1985. Children's understanding of inheritance. Journal of Biological Education, 19, 304-310.
11. Richards, M. P. M., and Ponder, M., 1995, Knowledge of inheritance and attitudes to new genetic techniques.' Work in progress.
12. Kargbo, D. B., Hobbs, E. D., and Erickson, G. L., 1980, Children's beliefs about inherited characteristics. Journal of Biological Education, 14, 137-146.
13. Lucas, A., 1987, Public knowledge of biology. Journal of Biological Education, 14, 137-146.
14. Myers, G., 1990, The double helix as icon. Science as Culture, 9, 49-72;
15. Nelkin, D., and Lindee, M. S., 1995, The DNA Mystique: the Gene as a Cultural Icon (New York: Freeman).
16. Durant, J., Hansen, A., and Bauer, M., 1996, Public and press discourse on the human genome project in Britain. The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press).
17. Ponder, M., Lee, J., Green, J., and Richards, M., 1996, Family history and perceived vulnerability to some common diseases: a study of young people and their parents. Journal of Medical Genetics (in the press).
18. Kessler, S., 1989, Psychological aspects of genetic counselling: VI. A critical review of the literature dealing with education and reproduction. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 34, 340-353;
19. Michie, S., and Marteau, T., 1996, Genetic counselling: some issues of theory and practice. The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press);
20. Shiloh, S., 1996, Decision-making in the context of genetic risk. The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press).
21. Longden, B., 1982, Genetics - are there inherent learning difficulties? Journal of Biological Education, 16, 135-140.
22. Kessler, S., 1988, Psychological aspects of genetic counselling: V. Preselection: a family coping strategy in Huntington's disease. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 31, 617-621;
23. Richards, M. P. M., 1996, Families, kinship and genetics. The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press).
24. Richards, M. P. M., Hallowell, N., Green, J. M., Murton, F., and Statham, H., 1995, Counselling families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer: a psychosocial perspective. Journal of Genetic Counselling, 4, 219-233.
25. Davison, C., Frankel, S., and Smith, G. D., 1989, Inheriting heart trouble: the relevance of common-sense ideas to preventative measures. Health Education Research, 4, 329-340;
26. Davison, C., 1996, Predicting genetics: the cultural implications of supplying probable futures. The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press);
27. Richards, M. P. M., 1996, Families, kinship and genetics. The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press).
28. Ponder, M., Lee, J., Green, J., and Richards, M., 1996, Family history and perceived vulnerability to some common diseases: a study of young people and their parents. Journal of Medical Genetics (in the press);
29. Richards, M. P. M., Hallowell, N., Green, J. M., Murton, F., and Statham, H., 1995, Counselling families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer: a psychosocial perspective. Journal of Genetic Counselling, 4, 219-233.
30. Davison, C., Frankel, S., and Smith, G. D., 1989, Inheriting heart trouble: the relevance of common-sense ideas to preventative measures. Health Education Research, 4, 329-340;
31. Ponder, M., Lee, J., Green, J., and Richards, M., 1996, Family history and perceived vulnerability to some common diseases: a study of young people and their parents. Journal of Medical Genetics (in the press).
32. Green, J., Murton, F., and Statham, H., 1993, Psychosocial issues raised by a familial ovarian cancer register. Journal of Medical Genetics, 30, 101-105;
33. Richards, M. P. M., Hallowell, N., Green, J. M., Murton, F., and Statham, H., 1995, Counselling families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer: a psychosocial perspective. Journal of Genetic Counselling, 4, 219-233.
34. Sneider, D. M., 1968, American Kinship: A Cultural Account (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall);
35. Rapp, R., 1995, Heredity, or: revising the facts of life. Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis, edited by S. Yanagisako and C. Delaney (New York: Routledge).
36. Strathern, M., 1992, After Nature: English Kinship in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press).
37. See also Yanagisako, S. and Delaney, C., 1995, Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis (New York: Routledge).
38. Strathern, M., 1992, After Nature: English Kinship in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press), p.80.
39. Yanagisako, S. and Delaney, C., 1995, Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis (New York: Routledge).
40. Harris, C. C., 1990, Kinship (Milton Keynes: Open University Press);
41. see also Richards, M. P. M., 1996, Families, kinship and genetics. The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press).
42. The notion of kinship varies widely between societies. My remarks here should not be taken to extend beyond Western European kinship and societies derived from these. Clearly, if the link between notions of kinship and ideas of inheritance are more general, it would be expected that there will be wide variation in lay knowledge of inheritance across different societies.
43. See also Lucas, A., 1987, Public knowledge of biology. Journal of Biological Education, 14, 137-146.
44. Snowdon, C., and Green, J. M., 1994, New Reproductive Technologies: Attitudes and Experiences of Carriers of Recessive Disorders. Unpublished report, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge.
45. Darwin, C., 1868, Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. 2 (London: John Murray), p.357. The 'action of the male sexual element on the mother form' refers to the supposed phenomena whereby attributes of a male which had earlier mated with the female were retained by the female and later transmitted to the offspring of another male at a subsequent mating. Darwin was also drawing here on reports that offspring of individuals who had suffered an amputation were born with exactly the same loss of a limb.
46. Darwin, C., 1868, Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. 2 (London: John Murray), pp.374-375.
47. Robinson, G., 1979, A Prelude to Genetics: Theories of a Material Substance of Heredity, Darwin to Weismann (Lawrence, Kansas: Colorado Press).
48. Galton, F., 1871, Experiments in pangenesis. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (Biology), 19, 393-404.
49. Darwin, C., 1871, Pangenesis. Nature, 3, 502-503.
50. Galton, F., 1871, Pangenesis. Nature, 4, 5-6.
51. Darwin was 'assured by three medical men of the Jewish faith that circumcision . . . has produced no inherited effect' but he chose to believe Blumenbach who 'asserts that in Germany Jews are often born in a condition rendering circumcision difficult, so that a name is applied to them signifying "born circumcised".' Darwin, C., 1868, Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. 2 (London: John Murray), p.23.
52. For a refutation of Darwin's position see Weismann, X., 1888/1889, Essays on Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems, authorized translation edited by E. B. Poulton, S. Schönland and A. E. Shipley (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
53. Contemporary versions can easily be found - for example one of our informants who said that she may have inherited an increased chance of a cancer from a grandparent who had died of lung cancer caused by smoking, or the quotation on p.219 above. Studies of school children in Canada (aged 7-13) and England (aged 12-16) showed that a substantial minority believed acquired characters might be inherited. See Kargbo, D. B., Hobbs, E. D., and Erickson, G. L., 1980, Children's beliefs about inherited characteristics. Journal of Biological Education, 14, 137-146;
54. Clough, E. E., and Wood-Robinson, C., 1985, Children's understanding of inheritance. Journal of Biological Education, 19, 304-310. Both these studies included rather Darwinian questions about the offspring of animals who had had their tails surgically removed.
55. Bowler, P. J., 1989, The Mendelian Revolution: the Emergence of Hereditarian Concepts in Modern Science and Society (London: Athlone Press);
56. Moore, J. A., 1994, Science as a Way of Knowing. The Foundation of Modern Biology (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press).
57. It is now clear that Mendel's aim was to illuminate an old question of whether new species could be created by hybridization. It was not his intention to create a new model of heredity and he did not promote his ideas with that end in mind. See Brannigan, A., 1979, The reification of Mendel. Social Studies of Science, 9, 423-454; Olby, 1979;
58. and Bowler, P. J., 1989, The Mendelian Revolution: the Emergence of Hereditarian Concepts in Modern Science and Society (London: Athlone Press).
59. Wilson, E. B., 1895, An Atlas of the Fertilization and Karyokinesis of the Ovum (New York: Columbia University Press), p.4.
60. Bowler argues the 'rediscoverers' may have read a good deal of their own thoughts into Mendel's writing and the classic story (Roberts, 1929) of the rediscovery requires some reinterpretation. But the point stands that it is the coming together of the results of hybridization experiments and cytological knowledge of behaviour of chromosomes at cell division and fertilization that are the crucial step in the origin of scientific genetics. Bowler, P. J., 1989, The Mendelian Revolution: the Emergence of Hereditarian Concepts in Modern Science and Society (London: Athlone Press);
61. Roberts, H. F., 1929, Plant Hybridization before Mendel (Princeton University Press).
62. See also Olby, R.C, 1966, The Origins of Mendelism (London: Constable).
63. Coleman, W., 1970, Bateson and chromosomes: conservative thought in science. Centaurus, 15, 228-314;
64. Kevles, D. J., 1980, Genetics in the United States and Great Britain, 1890-1930: a review with speculations. Isis. 71, 441-455;
65. Sapp, J., 1983, The struggle for authority in the field of heredity, 1900-1932: new perspectives on the rise of genetics. Journal of the History of Biology, 16, 311-342;
66. Bowler, P. J., 1989, The Mendelian Revolution: the Emergence of Hereditarian Concepts in Modern Science and Society (London: Athlone Press);
67. Roberts, H. F., 1929, Plant Hybridization before Mendel (Princeton University Press).
68. Layton, D., Jenkins, E., Macgill, S., and Davey, A., 1993, Inarticulate Science? Perspectives on the Public Understanding of Science and Some Implications for Science Education (Driffield, Yorks: Studies in Education Ltd).
69. Kargbo, D. B., Hobbs, E. D., and Erickson, G. L., 1980, Children's beliefs about inherited characteristics. Journal of Biological Education, 14, 137-146;
70. Clough, E. E., and Wood-Robinson, C., 1985, Children's understanding of inheritance. Journal of Biological Education, 19, 304-310.
71. Donovan, J., 1991, Patient education and the consultation: the importance of lay beliefs. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 50, 418-421.
72. Fogel, T., 1995, Information metaphors and the human genome project. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 38, 535-547.
73. Scriver, C. R., 1993, Human genetics: schoolyard experiences. American Journal of Genetics, 52, 243-245.
74. Tyler, A., Ballard, D., and Clarke, A., 1995, Genetic testing in the classroom. British Medical Journal, 311, 330;
75. Jones, P., Billet, M., Scotting, P., and Raeburn, S., 1995, Genetic testing in the classroom. British Medical Journal, 311, 1026.
76. Thom, D., and Jennings, M., 1996, Human pedigree and the 'best stock' - from eugenics to genetics? The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press).
77. Shiloh, S., 1996, Decision-making in the context of genetic risk. The Troubled Helix: Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics, edited by T. Marteau and M. P. M. Richards (Cambridge University Press).