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| the complete set of genes an organism possesses, the human genome contains somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 genes |
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| the 98% of the DNA in human chromosomes that are not protein-coding genes; scientists believed that these parts were functionless residue, recent studies have shown that these portions of DNA may affect everything from a person's physical size to personality, thus adding to the complexity of the human genome |
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| the notion that the future of the human race can be influenced by fostering the reproduction of persons with certain traits, and discouraging reproduction among persons without those traits or who have undesirable traits |
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| individuals vary or are different from each other, and this variability can be partitioned into percentages that are related to separate causes or separate variables, for example - percentage of variance related to genetics, shared and nonshared environments |
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| a statistic that refers to the proportion of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be explained or accounted for by genetic variance |
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| observed individual differences, such as in height, weight, or personality |
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| genetic variance that is responsible for individual differences in the phenotypic expression of specific traits |
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| the percentage of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be attributed to environmental (nongenetic) differences, generally speaking, the larger the heritability, the smaller the environmentality, and vice versa, the smaller the heritability, the larger the environmentality |
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| the ongoing debate as to whether genes or environment are more important determinants of personality |
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| one method of doing behavior genetic research, researchers might identify a trait and then see if they can selectively breed animals to possess that trait, this can occur only if the trait has a genetic basis, for example, dogs that possess certain desired characteristics, such as a sociable disposition, might be selectively bred to see if this disposition can be increased in frequency among offspring, traits that are based on learning cannot be selectively bred for |
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| family studies correlate the degree of genetic overlap among family members with the degree of personality similarity, they capitalize on the fact that there are known degrees of genetic overlap between different members of a family in terms of degrees of relationship |
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| twin studies estimate heritability by gauging whether identical twins, who share 100% of their genes, are more similar to each other than fraternal twins, who share only 50% of their genes, twin studies and especially studies of twins reared apart have received tremendous media attention |
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| identical twins from 1 fertilized egg |
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| twins who are not genetically identical, coming from 2 separate eggs |
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Term
| equal environments assumption |
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| the assumption that the environments experienced by identical twins are no more similar to each other than are the environments experienced by fraternal twins, if they are more similar then the greater similarity of the identical twins could plausibly be due to the fact that they experience more similar environments rather than the fact that they have genes in common |
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| studies that examine the correlations between adopted children and their adoptive parents, with whom they share no genes |
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| if adopted children are placed with adoptive parents who are similar to their birth parents, this may inflate the correlations between the adopted children and their adoptive parents, in this case, the resulting inflated correlations would artificially inflate estimates of environmental influence because the correlation would appear to be due to the environment provided by the adoptive parent, there does not seem to be selective placement, and so this potential problem is not a problem in actual studies |
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Term
| gender identity disorder (GID) |
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Definition
| according to the DSM-IV a diagnosis of GID requires that 2 aspects be present simultaneously, 1 - cross gender identification that is strong and persists over time 2- persistent psychological discomfort with one's biological sex, a recent study of twins has concluded that there is a strong heritable component in GID |
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Term
| shared environmental influences |
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Definition
| features of the environment that siblings share; for example, the number of books in the home, presence or absence of tv or vcr, quality and quantity of food in the home, values and attitudes in home etc |
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| nonshared environmental influences |
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Definition
| features of the environment that siblings do not share, some children might get special of different treatment from their parents, they might have different groups of friends, they might be sent to different schools, called nonshared because they are experienced differently by different siblings |
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| genotype-environment interaction |
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Definition
| the differential response of individuals with different genotypes to the same environments |
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| genotype-environment correlation |
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Definition
| the differential exposure of individuals with different genotypes to different environments |
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| passive genotype-environment correlation |
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Definition
| occurs when parents provide both genes and environment to children, yet the children do nothing to obtain that environment |
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| reactive genotype-environment correlation |
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Definition
| occurs when parents (or others) respond to children differently depending on their genotype |
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| active genotype-environment correlation |
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Definition
| occurs when a person with a particular genotype creates or seeks out a particular environment |
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Term
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Definition
| techniques designed to identify the specific genes associated with specific traits, such as personality traits, the most common method, called the association method, identifies whether individuals with a particular gene (or allele) have higher or lower scores on a particular trait measure |
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Definition
| a gene located on the short arm of chromosome 11 that codes for a protein called a dopamine receptor, the function of this dopamine receptor is to respond to the presence of dopamine which is a neurotransmitter, when the dopamine receptor encounters dopamine from other neurons in the brain, it discharges an electrical signal, activating other neurons |
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| environmentalists believe that personality is determined by socialization practices, such as parenting style and other agents of society |
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