PSYCH 2AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Behavioural Genetics, Phenotype, Cerebral Cortex

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 2AA3
• Professor: Jennifer Ostovich

Document Summary

Behavioural genetics - biological vs. environmental contributions to. Genes and environment work together and affect on another: epigenetics. Genes inherited from their parents: phenotype, e. g. Could have genotype coding for height of 6"1 for example. And then have some sort of environmental stress and your phenotype is actually 5"8. During course of our life, genotype interacts with environment to express your genes in your phenotype: caspi et al (2003) psychiatric disorders. Researchers determined whether participants had certain genes to make them susceptible to depression. When ur depressed and go to psychiatrist, and say hey im feeling awful and i need help, and doctor says ok here"s anti-depressant those give serotonin. The gene for serotonin is called the gene transporter. Some people have more, some have less. Researchers looked for genes that have more sero and less sero. If depression is genetic, then those with more sero have less depress and those who have less sero have more depress.