Behavioural Genetics Lecture Flashcards
(25 cards)
What is behavioural genetics?
The study of how genes and environment influence behaviour combining psychology, biology and statistics
How much of DNA do humans share
99.5%
How is gene variation different in humans than chimps?
Chimp populations show much greater genetic diversity
Genetic coding for similar looking people
Similar genetic coding
Which continent has the greatest genetic diversity?
Africa
What studies are often used to look at behavioural genetics?
Twin studies
What is molecular genetics?
Looks more into individual genes
What is quantitative genetics?
Focus on statistics
Mendel and genetics
Cross pollination study to go against blending process
Two types of alleles
Recessive
Dominant
What is heritability?
The proportion of variance in a particular trait that is attributable to genetic factors
What are heritability estimates between?
0-1
Factors contributing to height
Genetics
Nutrition
What is monogenic obesity?
Severe, high genetic contribution, single mutation in one gene, rare, no environment influence
Polygenic obesity
Common, modest genetic contribution, environment is a key determinant m, hundreds of variants
Monozygotic twins
Identical twins, shared placenta
Dizygotic twins
Fraternal twins, separate placenta
Why are twins studied?
Mostly share the same environment so more reliable claims against genetics can be made
MZ twins vs DZ twin claims
MZ twins share 100% genetics, if MZ twins are less similar than DZ twins, genetics might not have as great an influence
What is behaviourism?
The belief that everything can be explained by the environment, emphasises cultural and historical differences
A key limitation of twin studies
Not all environments are shared
What are adoption studies?
Studies that compare genetically unrelated children adopted into the same family
The nature of nurture
With age, environmental influence becomes smaller. Create an environment because of genes
How does heritability change with age?
Increases from infancy to adolescence
