Topic 2: Nature Nurture Flashcards
What is a genotype?
A person’s genetic make up that is coded in their chromosones and fixed from conception.
What is a phenotype?
A phenotype is an individual’s observable traits, such as height or eye colour. Phenotype is determined by their genotype and environmental factors.
What is heritability?
The proportion of variation in a trait explained by genetic factors (within a population).
What is environmentability?
The proportion of variation in a trait explained by environmental factors (within a population).
What are Gene-Environment correlations?
A person’s genetics can influence their behaviour which affects exposure to environmental risks. E.g A gene could affect the impact of a peron’s food intake, e.g causing them to put on more weight than average. Putting them at higher risk when interacting with unhelthy foods.
What are Gene-Environment interactions?
The impact of a gene might depend on the environment. E.g. having a genetic weakness to a certain virus is only relevant if you come into contact with the virus.
What are the two types of twins?
Monozygotic twins are born from the same fertilised egg and share 100% of their DNA. Dizygotic twins are born at the same time but from two seperate fertilised eggs so they share 50% of their DNA.
What are twin studies?
A method assessing heritability of traits. MZ twins and DZ twins raised in similar environment but have varying levels of genetic similarity. E.g. If MZ twins IQ correlate .86 and DZ twins correlate .60 then we estimate the heritability to be .52 (double the difference in correlations).
What are adoption studies?
MZ twins seperated at birth in order to minimise environmental overlap. Therefore any phenotypal differences should be due to the environment rather than the genes. No longer an ethical way to conduct research.
Who was Cyril Burt?
A very influential psychologist in the field of adoption studies. However a lot of his research was fabricated and therefore almost entirely lost credibility.
Is there a general measure of intelliegence that underpins all human performance?
Spearman (1904) would have argued for the measure of general intelligence - g. But while there may be a degree of generality between measures of intelligence there is also differentiation. I.e. individuals may be good at some intelligence based tasks but be have very bad navigation skills.
What is epigenesis?
The theory that a person’s characteristics are a result of the interaction between their genetics and their environment.
