How has the heredity-environment controversy been represented in the history of psychology and how is it informed by the person-situation debate and modern understanding of epigenetics?

The heredity-environment controversy has been motivated by values and debate about the advantages or disadvantages of different political and social systems, and in particular privileges provided by inheritance. The heredity-environment controversy is often presented to students as an argument based on data. Although data are undoubtedly relevant to this controversy, the controversy is underpinned by differing underlying assumptions. These different assumptions support different political systems. The term political systems means methods of organising and regulating society. The chapter discusses the methodology and assumptions of the heredity-environment controversy. Evolutionary psychology contributes little to the heredity-environment controversy because of its focus on generalities, but it acts as a heuristic in two ways. First, genetic variety is important for evolution, so genetically conferred individual differences of one kind or another is to be expected. Seconds, humans evolved as hunter-gatherers in a Palaeolithic environment, and so it is likely that humans are adapted for that environment.