Chapter 8: Behavioral Genetics

Question 1

co-discoverer of double-helix structure of DNA and former head of the Human Genome Project

Answer 1

James D. Watson

Question 2

Who said, “ We used to think that our fate was in our stars. Now we know, in large part, that our fate is in our genes.”

Answer 2

James D. Watson

Question 3

• biologist at the University of California-Berlekey and editor of Science magazine

Answer 3

Daniel E. Koshland Jr.

Question 4

Who said, ‘the nature/nurture debate is over and genes influence many aspects of behaviour’

Answer 4

Daniel E. Koshland Jr.

Question 5

the scientifically erroneous and immoral theory of “racial improvement” and “planned breeding

Answer 5

Eugenetics

Question 6

• Father of Eugenics
• cousin of Charles Darwin; convinced by appearance of geniuses within families that intelligence is inherited

Answer 6

Francis Galton (1865)

Question 7

Who said, -‘human society can be improved through better breeding’ in an article entitled ‘Hereditary Talent and Character’

Answer 7

Francis Galton (1865)

Question 8

the word ‘Eugenics’ from Greek for ‘__ __’

Answer 8

good birth

Question 9

-studied identical twins to demonstrate that nature prevails enormously over nurture
-wrote that it is ‘possible to produce a highly gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive generations.’

Answer 9

Francis Galton (1865)

Question 10

American sexual libertarian who said, ‘while the good man will be limited by his conscience to what the law allows, the bad man, free from moral check, will distribute his seed beyond the legal limit’.

Answer 10

Humphrey Noyes

Question 11

• ability to be a naval officer is a heritable trait composed of subtraits for thalassophilia (love of the sea) and hyperkineticism (wanderlust)
• trait is unique to males
• sponsored ‘Fitter Families Contests’

Answer 11

Humphrey Noyes

Question 12

• founder of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory;
• founded American Eugenics Society in 1920
• tried to prove heritability of traits as pauperism feeblemindedness and criminality

Answer 12

Charles Davenport (1919)

Question 13

practiced euthanasia (good death) of the mentally and physically disabled, Jews, Gypsies, Catholics and others in Nazi Germany and occupied countries

Answer 13

Adolf Hitler

Question 14

What country? When? the prime minister promoted policies that encouraged middle class Singaporeans to bear children and discouraged childbearing by the poor and uneducated

Answer 14

Singapore (1983)

Question 15

What did the National Academy of Sciences publish in 1993 regarding the Double Y chromosome?

Answer 15

no evidence to support a link between having an extra Y chromosome and violent behavior.

Question 16

What did follow-up studies indicate about Double Y men?

Answer 16

tend to be taller and score slightly lower on intelligence tests but are otherwise normal.

Question 17

What does the University of Minnesota twin study suggest about the influence of genetics on personality and temperament?

Answer 17

twins raised apart were about as similar as those raised together.

Question 18

Who said, ‘If you bring together strangers who were born the same day in the same country and ask them to find similarities between them, you may find a lot of seemingly astounding coincidences’.

Answer 18

Richard Rose (Indiana University)

Question 19

Who?
- Minnesota study had inconsistencies and was possibly fraudulent
- biased selection method
- Minnesota study relied on media coverage to recruit twins ‘twins interested in publicity and willing to support it’

Answer 19

Leon Kamin (Northeastern University)

Question 20

How might genes contribute to the development of schizophrenia according to E. Fuller Torrey?

Answer 20

Genes might create a susceptibility to in utero viral infections that could lead to schizophrenia.

Question 21

Who reported discovering a genetic marker for alcoholism in 1990?

Answer 21

Kenneth Blum of the University of Texas Health Science Center

Question 22

What is the name of the genetic marker for alcoholism reported by Kenneth Blum?

Answer 22

A1 allele

Question 23

What have recent researches revealed about the link between the A1 allele and alcoholism?

Answer 23

no such link between the A1 allele and alcoholism

Question 24

Gay Genes
- Who conducted a study in 1991 focusing on a neural structure related to sexual orientation?
- What neural structure did he study about sexual orientation?
- What is the function of that?
- What’s the finding?

Answer 24

• Simon LeVay of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego
• interstitial nucleus in the hypothalamus
• interstitial nucleus controls sexual response.
• interstitial nucleus was almost twice as large in heterosexual males compared to homosexual males and women.

Question 25

Gay Genes
What groups did Simon LeVay compare in his study?

Answer 25

nuclear structure in the brains of:
- 19 homosexual males,
- 6 heterosexual women
-16 heterosexual males.

Question 26

Gay Genes
LeVay postulated that the interstitial nucleus is ‘large in individuals oriented toward __-whether male or female.’

Answer 26

women

Question 27

• a researcher at the National Cancer Institute studying a strain of fruit flies that court other males.
• What names did she give to the fruit flies that court other males?

Answer 27

• Angela Pattatucci
• “fruity” or “fruitless”

Question 28

What is considered the best, most usable measure of intelligence?

Answer 28

IQ (Intelligence Quotient)

Question 29

According to Jensen (1969) and Herrnstein (1971), what is the estimated contribution of heredity and environment to intelligence?

Answer 29

80% heredity and 20% environment

Question 30

What do heredity and environmental factors provide in terms of intelligence? (2)

Answer 30

1. heredity provides individual with upper and lower limits of intelligence
2. realization of particular IQ depends upon environmental factors

Question 31

Two views of behavioral genetics (2)

Answer 31

• Gene –> Bebhavior (linear)
• Gene networks + Environment –> Behavior (multiple lines)

Question 32

What are the classical methods for studying the relationship between genes and behavior? (2)

Answer 32

• twins (same genes, different environments)
• adoptees (different genes, same environment)

Question 33

__ is the fraction of total variability due to genetic differences. It is determined by studying twins and adoptees.

Answer 33

Heritability

Question 34

Classical Methods for Studying the Relationship between Genes and Behavior (Studying twins and adoptees)
- What has research using linkage mapping revealed about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder?

Answer 34

Dozens of loci have been identified, but only a few have been replicated in at least one study, and none in every study. No specific genes have been definitively found.

Question 35

Classical Methods for Studying the Relationship between Genes and Behavior (Studying twins and adoptees)
- What is known about the genetic basis of personality traits such as neuroticism and novelty seeking?

Answer 35

Specific genes have been found, but they account for only a few percent of total variance.

Question 36

What are some complications in behavior gene discovery? (5)

Answer 36

• Complications
• Multiple genes
• Environment is important
• Pleiotropy
• Measurement

Question 37

refers to the phenomenon where a single gene can have multiple effects on different traits or phenotypes.

Answer 37

pleiotropy

Question 38

What is emphasized in the understanding of the relationship between genes and behavior? How to do a powerful study?

Answer 38

It is emphasized that there is a long way between genes and behavior, and it may be more powerful to study genetic effects on the brain, as the brain mediates behavior.

Question 39

Behavior is Multifactorial (show the connections)

Answer 39

One trait <- Many genes; One gene -> many traits —> Gene ≠ Behavior

Question 40

a phenomenon where a trait is controlled by multiple genetic variants scattered across the genome.

Answer 40

polygenicity