Iarocci Grace, Yager Jodi, Elfers Theo
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
Brain Cogn. 2007 Oct;65(1):112-27. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2007.01.008. Epub 2007 Jul 12.
Social competence is a complex human behaviour that is likely to involve a system of genes that interacts with a myriad of environmental risk and protective factors. The search for its genetic and environmental origins and influences is equally complex and will require a multidimensional conceptualization and multiple methods and levels of analysis. Behavioural genetic research can begin to address the fundamental yet complex question of how children develop social competence by uncovering the various influences on social development and disentangling variance due to multiple genes, environments and experiences. In this paper, we review the current status of research on sociability, face recognition, emotion recognition, and theory of mind (TOM)--well defined and measured constructs that are likely to be useful indices for detecting genetic and environmental influences on social competence. We also propose specific milestones as indices of further progress in the field: the development of an operational definition of the construct of social competence, the identification of social endophenotypes-psychological processes that are validly and reliably measured components of social competence, and improving specificity and homogeneity with regard to social endophenotypes within a population of study by employing 'extreme social phenotypes'. These efforts will lead to a better understanding of the specific contributions to the normal variation of social competence in the general population as well as to atypical social development.
社交能力是一种复杂的人类行为，可能涉及一个基因系统，该系统与无数的环境风险和保护因素相互作用。探寻其遗传和环境根源及影响同样复杂，需要多维概念化以及多种方法和分析层面。行为遗传学研究可以通过揭示对社会发展的各种影响，并厘清由多个基因、环境和经历所导致的差异，来着手解决儿童如何发展社交能力这一根本但复杂的问题。在本文中，我们回顾了关于社交性、面部识别、情绪识别和心理理论（TOM）的研究现状——这些定义明确且可测量的构念很可能是检测遗传和环境对社交能力影响的有用指标。我们还提出了具体的里程碑，作为该领域进一步进展的指标：制定社交能力构念的操作性定义，识别社会内表型——作为社交能力有效且可靠测量组成部分的心理过程，以及通过采用“极端社会表型”来提高研究群体中社会内表型的特异性和同质性。这些努力将有助于更好地理解对一般人群社交能力正常变异以及非典型社会发展的具体贡献。
