PSYC 2600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: White Supremacy, Trait Theory, Heritability
19 Jun 2018
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Week 4 Notes: Genetics and Personality
Did I Inherit These Traits?
- How traits move from one generation to another
- Did the trait survive because it serves an evolutionary function?
The Human Genome
- The human genome is the complete data set of genes that make up an organism
“The dictionary of the organism”
- We inherit 50% of genes from the mother, and 50% from the father
- Decodes the ways genes interact, what their purpose is
- There is one genome per person
- We share 99% of the genome with monkeys, the 1% is what differentiates us from
monkeys, and from each other
- Thousands of genes interact in ways that we don’t understand, but they make up who
we are
Controversy About Genes and Personality
- There is controversy about the misuse of this research
Eugenics: a belief that humanity should be improved through selective breeding
- Ex. white supremacy in Nazi Germany
- People may pick and choose what traits they want in their children
Pros:
- You can screen for unwanted traits (diseases, development problems)
- Screening for violent behaviour
Cons:
- Variability is important for survival
- No more extreme traits, no geniuses
- It doesn’t have to be either or, even if we find the genes, it doesn’t mean the
environment is powerless
- Even traits with high heritability, the environment still impacts them
Two Goals of Behavioural Genetics
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1. To determine the percentage of differences that can be attributed to genetic
variation, or environmental variation
2. To determine how genes and the environment interact
Goal One
Heritability: a statistical concept
- the proportion of phenotypic variance that can be contributed to genotypic variance
- whatever cannot be accounted by genetics, can be accounted by the environment
- ALWAYS about group differences, can’t be talking about just one person
Phenotypic: traits you can see, differences you can see
Genotypic: inner traits, you can’t see them, differences you can’t see
Example:
- the heritability of a personality trait is 0.7
- genes account for 70% of differences, the environment accounts for 30%
- the total of heritability and environmentality is always 1, there is nothing else that
makes up a person
- we can never talk about heritability when we are talking about one person
Misconceptions about Heritability
- heritability cannot be applied to a single individual
We are always talking about groups of people
There has to be a comparison between people
- heritability is not constant
The environment changes
- heritability is not precise
It is based on correlations
Behavioural Genetics Methods
1. Selective Breeding
- Can’t conduct on humans
- We breed two organisms together based on our interest in specific traits
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
How traits move from one generation to another. The human genome is the complete data set of genes that make up an organism. We inherit 50% of genes from the mother, and 50% from the father. Decodes the ways genes interact, what their purpose is. We share 99% of the genome with monkeys, the 1% is what differentiates us from monkeys, and from each other. Thousands of genes interact in ways that we don"t understand, but they make up who we are. There is controversy about the misuse of this research. Eugenics: a belief that humanity should be improved through selective breeding. People may pick and choose what traits they want in their children. You can screen for unwanted traits (diseases, development problems) It doesn"t have to be either or, even if we find the genes, it doesn"t mean the environment is powerless. Even traits with high heritability, the environment still impacts them.
