Week 7 Behavioural Genetics Flashcards
What is behavioural genetics?
How hereditary and environmental factors combine to influence psychological characteristics
What is heredity?
means the passage of characteristics from parent to offspring by way of genes
- Parents and children share 50% of genes
- Biological siblings share 50% of genes
- Identical twins share 100% of genes
What is concordance rate?
Rate of co-occurrence of a characteristic among individuals (whether people are alike or not)
What does a higher concordance rate imply?
Higher concordance rates among individuals who are more highly related to one another = possible genetic contribution
What are the two types of twins?
Based off twin studies, if a trait is more genetically influenced then…
identical twin > fraterinal twins
Based off twin studies, if a trait is more environmentally influenced then…
identical twins = fraternal twins
Is the environment for identical twins and fraternal twins really the same?
Identical twins are often treated the same same in an environment over fraternal twins
What types of environments might identical twins experience?
- shared environment: home, family
- unique environment: friends, hobbies
What type of study is often used to study behavioural genetics?
How is behaviour expected to change depending on adoption?
What type of study that goes beyond adoption studies is used to study behavioural genetics?
How might behavioural genetics change when studying monozygotic twins in a study?
How did a meta analysis study on monozygotic twins who were raised apart versus race together show how environment and genetics both influence behavioural genetics?
Allows us to tease apart the variance associated with: genetics, shared environment, & unique environment
- not a lot of difference so suggests environment does not play much of a role for identical twins
- more of a difference in fraternal twins
What did the Minnesota Twin Study show?
- Genetic factors 39-58%
- Unique experience 36-56%
- Familial environment little or no