biological approach Flashcards
the biological approach says that everything psychological is at first…
biological
what is natural selection
animals with particular traits that provide them with an advantage are more likely to survive and reproduce thereby passing their ‘adaptive traits’ to their offspring
what is sexual selection
natural selection arising through preference by one sex for certain characteristics in individuals of the other sex
what do behavioural geneticists study
whether behavioural characteristics such as intelligence and personality are inherited in the same way as physical characteristics such as height and eye colour
methods of investigating the genetic basis of behaviour
twin studies
what can twin studies do
confirm the genetic influence of psychological traits by comparing the concordance rates
concordance rates meaning
extent to which a pair of twins share traits
what does the concordance rate of a psychological disorder have to be like to suggest a genetic component to the disorder
concordance rate higher among identical twins than non identical twins
MZ
monozygotic
DZ
dizygotic
Monozygotic
identical twins -
share 100% genes
dizygotic
non identical twins -
share 50% genes
genotype
set of genes an individual has
eg eye colour or hair colour
phenotype
how your genes present in response to the environment
eg height, OCD
genotype - phenotype equation
genotype + environment = phenotype
