PSYC 002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Heritability, Fluid And Crystallized Intelligence, Inductive Reasoning
30 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Studies have been performed with adopted children for whom the biological relatives are known. Findings: adopted children are more similar to their genetic relatives than their environmental/nurture relatives. Despite the strong impact of genetics on personality, parenting has an influence on: Genetic differences become amplified as people react to them differently. Heritability: the amount of variation in the population that is explained by genetic factors. Does not tell the proportion that genes contribute to the trait for any one person. Does not tell us whether genetics explain differences between groups/populations. Some traits (overall design of our bodies) set by genes. Traits (physical, mental abilities) develop in response to experience. Genetic traits influence social environment, which affects behavior. Self-regulation: genes turn each other on and off in response to environmental conditions. Epigenetics: the environment acts on the surface of genes to change activity. The trait of being adaptable is built into the human genome.
