PSYCH 2B03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Physical Attractiveness, Prenatal Hormones And Sexual Orientation, Judith Rich Harris

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 2B03
• Professor: Richard B Day

Document Summary

Part iii: the mind and the body: biological approaches to personality. Chapter 9: the inheritance of personality: behavioural genetics and evolutionary theory. This field of research examines the way inherited biological material (the genes) can influence broad patterns of behaviour. Personality trait a pattern of behaviour relevant to more than one situation. Behavioural genetics have a historic association with notorious ideas: eugenics the belief that humanity could be improved through selective breeding. Neither of these ideas are very feasible; if personality is the result of a complex interaction between genes and environment, the chances of being able to breed people to specifications or duplicate individuals are slim. The real contributing of behavioural genetics is the way it expands our understanding of the sources of personality to include bases in both genes and the environment. Basic question the degree to which variation in the phenotype (observable traits of a person) can be attributed to variation in the genotype.