ABSTRACT
When we think beyond description and prediction towards the etiology of stability in development, genetics looms large. Genetic investigations have been slow to enter the mainstream of developmental research because heritability has been associated with stability at a time when the zeitgeist of developmental research favored change. The goal of this chapter is to introduce developmental behavioral genetics, a subdiscipline of behavioral genetics that applies its theory and methods to the study of development (Plomin, 1986a). Developmental behavioral genetics provides a perspective for understanding the genetic and environmental origins of stability and change in individual differences during development.
