01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Twin Study, Heredity, Heritability

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Dr. Brynildsen

Document Summary

Nature view: humans enter the world with an inborn store of knowledge. Nurture view: knowledge is acquired through experiences and interactions with the world. Range of reaction : genetic makeup establishes range of possible developmental outcomes (genetics give a range of which traits can lie, but environment sees where you show up on that range) Genotype-environment interaction : different characteristics result from different combinations of genes and environment. Behavioral genetics : study of genetic bases of individual differences in behavior and personality. Heritability : statistical estimate of contribution of heredity to individual differences. Relies on correlational research methods (e. g. , twin studies) Family studies : measure degree to which biological relatives share certain traits. Adoption studies : compare adopted children to adoptive families and biological families. Twin studies : compare pairs of monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins. Monozygotic twins: identical twins; share 100% genes. Dizygotic twins: fraternal twins; share 50% genes (on average)