Abstract

GOMES-PEDRO, João. O que é ser criança: Da genética ao comportamento. Aná. Psicológica [online]. 2004, vol.22, n.1, pp.33-42. ISSN 0870-8231.

Each gene can only express itself according to the way in which each environmental phase of human evolution configures the potential force of nature. Genomic expression and its influences is conditioned by the successive interactions between what is potential and the successive environments that constitute the biological envelope, from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, from the cell to the tissue, from the organ to the total body, from the body to the relationship with the meaningful other during the first years of life, which is the mother, and all the other social relationships with members of the family and society, in the several stages of the life cycle. The determinist myth that left us so much in terms of the meaning of the first relationships intersects with the other influential realities which show that nothing is ever lost, due to the extraordinary human capacity for adaptation in all the potential phases of life. The ethological model has influenced us to think in terms of survival by characterising evolution as species' competences to guarantee survival. However, the characterisation of the human species is based on the idea of a complex evolution, aimed at guaranteeing the competences and skills needed to create families and cooperate in social groups with common goals, which are more and more complex.

Keywords : Genetics and behavior; infant's development; children's irreducible needs.

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