No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality
Encyclopedia
No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality is a book by psychology researcher Judith Rich Harris
. It was published in February 2006. Harris attempts to explain why people are so different in personality, even identical twins who grow up in the same home.
No Two Alike expands on some of the ideas from her previous book The Nurture Assumption
, especially the effect of birth order
on personality and criticism of developmental psychology
. She also attempts to answer some of the criticisms leveled at The Nurture Assumption.
Harris proposes that three distinct mental systems shape personality:
Judith Rich Harris
Judith Rich Harris is a psychology researcher and the author of The Nurture Assumption, a book criticizing the belief that parents are the most important factor in child development, and presenting evidence which contradicts that belief.Harris has been a resident of Middletown Township, New...
. It was published in February 2006. Harris attempts to explain why people are so different in personality, even identical twins who grow up in the same home.
No Two Alike expands on some of the ideas from her previous book The Nurture Assumption
The Nurture Assumption
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do is a book written by Judith Rich Harris, with a foreword by Steven Pinker, originally published 1998 by the Free Press, which published a revised edition in 2009. It has been published in at least 20 languages...
, especially the effect of birth order
Birth order
Birth order is defined as a person's rank by age among his or her siblings. Birth order is often believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development...
on personality and criticism of developmental psychology
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
. She also attempts to answer some of the criticisms leveled at The Nurture Assumption.
Harris proposes that three distinct mental systems shape personality:
- A relationship system that allows us to distinguish family from strangers and tell individuals apart.
- A socialization system that helps us to become members of a group and absorb the group's culture.
- A status system that enables us to acquire self-knowledge by measuring ourselves against others.