ABSTRACT

THE analysis of the derivation of the traits initially studied in Physique and Delinquency1 is now completed. Since our initial postulation of a biosocial continuum appears to gain support from the current findings, it will be helpful to clarify the meaning of this concept. As already stated, not one of the traits included in this study is exclusively, of course, either of genetic or of sociocultural origin. It is obviously impossible, by the very nature of our materials, to arrive at any final judgment regarding the specific role of heredity in the origin of traits. It is therefore more correct to speak of the formation of the traits rather than of their origins, because they all originate genetically (whether from a single gene or combination of genes); but they also all reflect some environmental influence. The question is one of probable constitutional or sociocultural emphasis in the evolution of the developed trait as it was found to exist among the boys examined. If it be concluded that some traits are nearer to the constitutional than to the sociocultural border of the biosocial continuum, there is also an implication that the traits in question are more fixed in their innate form or tendency than are traits demonstrably influenced in their development by several sociocultural factors. The degree of this rigidity of a trait can, of course, not be determined by our method of analysis; all that can be said is that certain traits are evidently close to the center of a biosocial axis because they bear significant statistical relationships both to the type of physique involved and to a considerable number of environmental factors, while other traits are referable by such analysis to points at a greater distance from the center, either toward the constitutional or toward the sociocultural pole of the postulated continuum.