PSYC 3850 Chapter 4: Chapter 4

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3850
• Professor: Caryl

Document Summary

Introduction: chapter covers major known causes of intellectual disabilities and their syndromes, distinction between problems that arise: because something went wrong (organic causes of intellectual disabilities) or because of chance assortment of genes (familial disabilities). Genes: found in our chromosomes; they contain encoded instructions for the assembly and development of the body. Chromosomes: long strands of dna; found in the nucleus of each cell of the body. Dna: composed of four simple repeating units. The order in which these units are arranged on the dna make up a code the code directs the construction of complex molecules within the cell. These molecules then help to create other complex molecules bringing the important principle in the debate about whether intelligence is due to nature vs. nurture (your genes vs. your learning environment) Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes; 46 in total. 22 of these pairs are called autosomes which consist of similar strands of dna.