The Nature of Nurture
Rethinking Why and How Childhood Adversity Shapes Development
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Harvard University Press
Publishing:30th Jan '26
£29.95
This title is due to be published on 30th January, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
From a leading expert on child development, a radical evolutionary perspective on how childhood experiences shape later life.
Children who grow up in troubled circumstances—experiencing deprivation or instability, living in a dangerous neighborhood or an abusive family—are more prone to aggression, recklessness, and sexual promiscuity later in life. To most of us, the lesson is clear: adverse childhood conditions make human development go awry.
In The Nature of Nurture, renowned developmental psychologist Jay Belsky challenges this interpretation and offers an exciting alternative based on Darwinian theory. There is no reason to assume, he points out, that the psychology of “well-behaved” people is normal while that of “antisocial” adults is aberrant. Instead, the supposedly dysfunctional behaviors correlated with childhood adversity could well be ingenious adaptations to harsh environments. If you are surrounded by danger and uncertainty, then being quick to lash out at potential threats and having lots of offspring at an early age are good ways to maximize your reproductive chances. From an evolutionary perspective, having just a few children and lavishing care on each works well in a stable world, but not in a perilous one.
Belsky exposes the romanticism underlying our idealized notions that “natural” equals “good” and that nature intends to maximize human happiness and well-being. When instead we take seriously the fact that humans, too, have been shaped by evolutionary pressures, we can better understand why, how, and for whom childhood experience shapes later life.
The Nature of Nurture brilliantly unravels the mysteries of why and how early adversity matters—not just psychologically, but biologically. In doing so, Jay Belsky deftly dismantles the age-old nature-nurture dichotomy. This provocative book reshapes our understanding of what it means to be resilient or at-risk, making it indispensable reading for policymakers, educators, and parents alike. -- Dalton Conley, author of The Social Genome
The Nature of Nurture is the modern synthesis that developmental science has sorely needed for decades. I guarantee that Jay Belsky’s highly readable book will radically transform the way you think about how genetic and environmental factors interact to shape the course of human development. -- Laurence Steinberg, author of Age of Opportunity
In these pages, a world expert on child development sets out to trace his own development as he gradually integrates evolutionary perspectives into a lifelong quest to understand ‘how, why, and for whom’ childhood circumstances shape later life. The Nature of Nurture is as important for its insider’s view of paradigm shifts currently underway across the social sciences as it is for Jay Belsky’s revelatory insights into human psychology and reproductive strategies. -- Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mothers and Others
In a lucid and comprehensive rendition of a complex field, Jay Belsky provides an elegant summary of how individual susceptibilities and variations in early environmental conditions conjointly bend human development toward its broad diversity of outcomes. The Nature of Nurture offers both scientists and lay readers nothing short of the erudition and clarity of thought we have come to expect from a first-rate scholar of evolutionary principles in developmental psychology. -- W. Thomas Boyce, author of The Orchid and the Dandelion
A very well-written and timely book by a world-renowned developmental scientist. Jay Belsky does an admirable job of taking on the knotty issue of how early experiences influence the unfolding of evolved developmental patterns. -- David C. Geary, author of The Origin of Mind
ISBN: 9780674297197
Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 16mm
Weight: 512g
240 pages