Sociology and Biology: What Biology Do Sociologists Need to Know?

• Published in: Social forces Vol. 73; no. 4; pp. 1267 - 1278
• Main Author: Udry, J. Richard
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Chapel Hill, NC The University of North Carolina Press 01.06.1995; University of North Carolina Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Behavior; Behavior modeling; Behavior Patterns; Behavioral genetics; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Factors; Biological Sciences; Biology; Cross Cultural Studies; Endocrinology; Evolution; Evolutionary genetics; History and organization of sociology; History, theory and methodology; Human genetics; Humans; Interdisciplinary Approach; Interpersonal relations; Plomin, Robert; Primates; Psychological Patterns; Relations between sociology and the other sciences; Relationship; Research design; Social Behavior; Social factors; Social Scientists; Socialization; Sociologists; Sociology; Study and teaching; Undergraduate Students; Social Fact; Epistemology; Natural sciences; Human sciences; Biology; Scientific Knowledge; Social behavior; Sociology; Conceptual framework; Genetics; Interdisciplinary relation; Durkheim (E.); Endocrinology
• ISSN: 0037-7732; 1534-7605
• DOI: 10.1093/sf/73.4.1267

Biological causes of human social behavior will be invisible to those who follow the Durkheimian injunction to seek the causes of social facts in preceding social facts. Sociologists ignore or deny these biological causes at peril of grievous error. Biological causes can be integrated with traditional sociological models, but this approach will require sociologists to incorporate into their thinking the knowledge of disciplines whose paradigms offer biological explanations of the behaviors important to sociologists. I take examples of such knowledge from evolutionary biology, behavior genetics, and behavioral endocrinology.