Epigenetic Theory

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Not to be confused with Epigenetics, which refers to partially heritable biological changes affecting gene expression, or with Epigenesis (biology), which is a widely accepted theory of cell differentiation for multicellular organisms.

Epigenetic theory is an emergent theory of development that includes both the genetic origins of behavior and the direct systematic influence that environmental forces have, over time, on the expression of those genes. The theory focuses on the dynamic interaction between these two influences during development.

Interactivist ideas of development has been discussed in various forms and under various names throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. An early version was proposed, among the founding statements in embryology, by Karl Ernst von Baer and popularized by Ernst Haeckel. A different approach, James Mark Baldwin's "Baldwin effect," is prominent in contemporary discourses. Remarkably, however, its update by Jean Piaget is rarely discussed. Another variation, probabilistic epigenesis, was presented by Gilbert Gottlieb in 2003.