Questions and All Correct Answers
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Behavioral genetics - Answer Study of the relative power and limits of genetic and
environmental influences on behavior; A technique for assessing the relative contribution
of genetic and environmental factors in behavior
Environment - Answer Every nongenetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and
things around us
Behavioral genetics - Answer Assumes behavior has causes that can be lumped into 2 broad
categories: Genetic Factors and Environmental factors
genetic factors - Answer Not "a single gene" but all genetic factors
heritability coefficient (h^2) - Answer The total contribution of genetic factors is called?
Environmental factors - Answer everything that one experiences in one's life
Heritability - Answer The proportion of variability in a
given population which can be attributed to genetic factors
Shared environmental Influence (E_s) - Answer Influences shared by all members of a family
are?
Unique environmental Influence (E_ns) - Answer All other environmental influences are?
Those related genetically usually share environmental backgrounds. - Answer Why is it
difficult to assess the relative contribution of Genetic and Environmental Influences?
Identical twins - raised together. Any differences between these individuals must be due to
unique environmental influences (E_ns)
Identical twins - raised apart (genetically identical; environment different) If these two people
are more similar than two unrelated people, similarities must be due to genetic factors (H^2)
,Identical twins raised together WITH twins raised apart: if twins raised together are more similar
than twins raised apart, this must be due to shared environmental influences (E_s) - Answer
What are useful comparisons in behavioral genetics?
1) genetic influence (h2) between .4 and .7.
2) effects of the family environment minimal (Es < .10, usually close to 0)
3) A significant proportion of behavior can be attributed
neither to genetic factors nor the family, and is presumably caused by unique environmental
factors (ENS ≈ .5) - Answer What are the three laws of behavioral genetics?
Family certainly has an effect, but not a consistent,
predictable effect
May be the case that parents treat children very
differently, so "shared environment"really not that similar - Answer What does it mean to
say "Effects of family environment is minimal
There is a lot we don't know
Most environmental factors have relatively small impact
Environmental factors interact
Peer group may be the most important environmental
influence - Answer What does it mean to say "Significant proportion attributable to neither
genetics nor family "
adults - Answer H2 for different behaviors/traits such as schizophrenia, alcoholism,
depression, conservatism, are generally higher in children, adolescents, or adults?
Fourth Law - Answer "A typical human behavioral trait is associated
with very many genetic variants, each of which accounts for a very small percentage of the
behavioral variability."
Epigenetics - Answer environments can trigger or block genetic expression
,Experiences - Answer What can alter the expression of any gene in the associated DNA
segment?
Evolutionary psychology - Answer evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of
natural selection.
Promiscuous men more likely to have their genes continue to the next generation. (Little cost to
spreading extra genes.)
Promiscuous women: increase the number of pregnancies and births, greater survival costs. -
Answer Why might natural selection have resulted in greater male promiscuity?
Male choices optimized the chance of producing offspring.
•Female choices seek to ensure offspring survival - Answer Why might natural selection have
resulted in mating preferences?
prepares humans for survival and reproduction - Answer Most psychologists agree that
natural selection?
Gender identity - Answer Is personal sense of being male or female
gender role - Answer Is set of expected behaviors for males or for females.
Shifts over time and place
Social learning theory - Answer Observing and
imitating others' gender-linked behavior and by being rewarded or punished
Gender typing - Answer Suggests more than imitation is involved; children gravitate toward
what feels right
Androgyny - Answer Displaying both traditional masculine and feminine psychological
characteristics
Transgender - Answer Umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression
differs from that associated with their birth sex
Open system - Answer Nature and nurture interact within an?
Biopsychosocial - Answer __________________________ approach considers all the factors
, that influence our individual development?
Biological factors (evolution, genes, hormones,
and brains)
Psychological factors (experiences, beliefs, feelings, and expectations)
Social-cultural factors (parental and peer influences, cultural individualism or collectivism, and
gender norms)
Biological influences - Answer Parental influences
Peer influences
Cultural individualism or collectivism
Cultural gender norms
social-cultural influences - Answer shared human genome
individual genetic variations
Prenatal environment
Sex-related genes, hormones, and physiology
psychological influences - Answer gene-environment interaction
Neurological effect of early experiences
Responses evoked by our own
temperament, gender, etc.
Beliefs, feelings, and expectations
sensation - Answer Bottom-up process: physical sensory system receives information at
sensory receptors and works up
perception - Answer Top-down process: organizing and interpreting input from experience
and expectations
Bottom-up processing - Answer begins at the entry level, information flows from the sensory
receptors
"up" to the brain.
Top-down processing - Answer guided by high-level mental processes, like experience and
expectations.