No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality

by JudithRichHarris (Author)

• New

  Illustrated
  2007

  $24.48

  The author of the controversial book The Nurture Assumption tackles the biggest mystery in all of psychology: What makes people differ so much in personality and behavior? It can't just be nature and nurture, because even identical twins who grow up together-same genes, same parents-have different personalities. And if psychologists can't explain why identical twins are different, they also can't explain why each of us differs from everyone else. Why no two people are alike.
  
  Harris turns out to be well suited for the role of detective-it isn't easy to pull the wool over her eyes. She rounds up the usual suspects and shows why none of the currently popular explanations for human differences-birth order effects, for example, or interactions between genes and environment-can be the perpetrator she is looking for. None of these theories can solve the mystery of human individuality.
  
  The search for clues carries Harris into some fascinating byways of science. The evidence she examines ranges from classic experiments in social psychology to cutting-edge research in neuroscience. She looks at studies of twins, research on autistic children, observations of chimpanzees, birds, and even ants.
  
  Her solution is a startlingly original one: the first completely new theory of personality since Freud's. Based on a principle of evolutionary psychology-the idea that the human mind is a toolbox of special-purpose devices-Harris's theory explains how attributes we all have in common can make us different.
  
  This is the story of a scientific quest, but it is also the personal story of a courageous and innovative woman who refused to be satisfied with what everyone knows is true.
  
  

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $7.39

  In No Two Alike , Judith Rich Harris presents a fascinating exploration of human nature that looks within the mind to discover why people differ in personality. The detective work Harris began in her controversial book The Nurture Assumption has its triumphant conclusion in No Two Alike . Harris tackles a question that has long been a mystery: why do identical twins who grow up together - with the same genes, reared by the same parents - differ in personality? Her ground-breaking answer - the first completely new theory of personality since Freud - is based on principles of evolutionary psychology, bolstered by evidence from a variety of sources including studies of language, memory, autistic children, chimpanzees and even ants. This is the story of a scientific quest but it is also the personal story of a startlingly innovative woman who dared to question the accepted gospel in her field of expertise.