Ch.9 - Inheritance Of Personality: Behavioral Genetics and Evolutionary Psychology

Question 1

Behavioral Genetics

Answer 1

Attempts to determine the degree in which individual differences in personality are caused by genetic and environmental differences

Question 2

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 2

Attempts to explain personality traits as products of natural selection

Question 3

Genes

Answer 3

Biochemical units of heredity that govern the development of an individual’s life

Question 4

Epigenetics

Answer 4

• the environment influences genetic expression,

* environment either promotes or discourages the appearance of certain traits

Question 5

Eugenics

Answer 5

• concerned with the genetic quality of people
• promotes the reproduction of people with positive genetic traits and less offspring for those with unwanted genetic traits

Question 6

Twin Studies in Personality Inheritance

Answer 6

• when raised together, monozygotic twins are more similar than dizygotic twins
• twins raised apart are almost as similar to each other as those living in the same home
• if monozygotic twins are more similar than dizygotic twins, heritability is likely
• heritability formula: 2(rmz - rdz)

Question 7

Monozygotic Twins (MZ)

Answer 7

Share 100% of genes

Question 8

Dizygotic Twins (DZ)

Answer 8

Shares 50% of genes

Question 9

Adoption Studies

Answer 9

• Big Five Traits correlate higher with monozygotic twins than dizygotic twins
• psychotic traits have high heritability
• occupational preferences
• some attitudes (traditionalism) show high heritability, some show low heritability (religion)

Question 10

Heritability

Answer 10

• proportion of observed variance in group of individuals that can be explained by genetic variance
• proportion of phenotypic variance that can be explained by genetic variance

Question 11

Phenotype

Answer 11

An organism’s observable properties, physical and behavioral

Question 12

Genotype

Answer 12

Underlying DNA sequence that an individual inherits

Question 13

Variance

Answer 13

Measure of how much values in a set differ from the mean

Question 14

Chromosomes

Answer 14

Structures that contain DNA molecules in the form of genes

Question 15

Environmentality

Answer 15

Proportion of observed variance in a group of individuals attributable to environmental variance

Question 16

Nonshared Environmental Variance

Answer 16

Features of the environment that children in the same home experience differently

Question 17

Shared Environment

Answer 17

Home environment shared by siblings in the same family

Question 18

Allele

Answer 18

• form of a gene that occupies a given position on each pair of homologous chromosomes
• one comes from the father, one from the mother

Question 19

DRD4 Gene

Answer 19

• gene located on the short arm of chromosome 11
• codes for the dopamine receptor
• association with a personality trait involving novelty seeking and ADHD
• long repeat: higher on novelty seeking
• short repeat: low on novelty seeking

Question 20

5-HTT Gene

Answer 20

• related to the degree to which the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex work together
• causes strong response to negative pictures
• connections with social anxiety

Question 21

Gene-Environment Interactions

Answer 21

• individuals with different genotypes respond differently to the same environments
• individual differences interacting with the environment to affect performance

Question 22

Gene-Environment Correlations

Answer 22

• Reactive
• Evocative
• Active

Question 23

Reactive Genotype-Environment Correlation

Answer 23

• the same environment can promote good outcomes for some people and bad outcomes for others

Question 24

Evocative Genotype-Environmental Correlation

Answer 24

• parents respond to children differently depending on child’s genotype
• babies that like cuddles and the mother’s cuddling behavior

Question 25

Active Genotype-Environment Correlation

Answer 25

* person with particular genotype seeks out a particular environment * high sensation seekers expose themselves to risky environments

Question 26

Altruistic Behavior

Answer 26

* helping others is a direct function of the recipients ability to enhance inclusive fitness of helpers * helping shared genes survive

Question 27

Inclusive Fitness Theory

Answer 27

• altruism between organisms that share some genes enables those genes to be passed on to future generations

Question 28

Social Anxiety

Answer 28

Adaptation to precent social exclusion

Question 29

Self-Esteem

Answer 29

* view of self | * those who spend time with others have higher self esteem

Question 30

The Need to Belong

Answer 30

* central motive of human nature * sharing food, information, resources * protection from threats * mates who are needed for reproduction * genetic similarity

Question 31

Sociometer Theory

Answer 31

The degree to which a person is accepted by others

Question 32

Natural Selection

Answer 32

* successful variants are selected and unsuccessful variants are weeded out * over time, successful variants come to characterize entire species

Question 33

Adaptations

Answer 33

Inherited solutions to survival and reproductive problems posed by hostile forces or nature

Question 34

Differential Gene Reproduction

Answer 34

• reproductive success relative to others

Question 35

Kin Theory Selection

Answer 35

Key goal for all organisms is getting our genes into the next generation

Question 36

Manipulation Hypothesis

Answer 36

Emotions can be adaptive if they can exploit the psychological mechanisms of other people

Question 37

Depressed Emotions in Evolution

Answer 37

Melancholiness is a way for people to come together, encourages social cohesion

Question 38

Sexual Selection

Answer 38

• traits that contribute to an individual’s mating success are passed on to offspring

Question 39

Mating Strategies

Answer 39

Set of behaviors used by individuals to seek, attract, and retain mates

Question 40

Broaden-and-Build Hypothesis

Answer 40

Happy moods increase receptiveness to new ideas and opportunities

Question 41

Evolutionary-Predicted Sex Differences

Answer 41

The sexes differ in precisely those domains where they face different adaptive problems

Question 42

Complications of Sexual Selection

Answer 42

* women who are too thin cannot bear children * larger women used to be considered ideal * attraction is influenced by more than physical characteristics * people in relationships tend to find others less attractive

Question 43

Sex Differences in Jealousy

Answer 43

* men tend to be more jealous of sexual infidelity | * women tend to be more jealous of emotional infidelity

Question 44

Sex Differences in Mate Preferences

Answer 44

* men place greater value on a woman’s physical appearance | * important characteristics in men-ambition, industriousness, and dependability-are important to women

Question 45

Individual Differences in Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 45

* behavioral patterns evolved as reactions to particular environmental experiences * several possible behavioral strategies evolved * some behaviors may be frequency dependent

Question 46

Five Objections to Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 46

* Methodology: backward speculation is difficult to test * Reproductive instinct * Conservatism * Human Flexibility * Biological determinism or social structure?

Question 47

Social Structure Theory

Answer 47

• emphasizes poverty, lack of education and marketable skills and subcultural values as the causes of crime