To what extent does genetic inheritance influence behaviour
To what extent does genetic inheritance influence behaviour? Use relevant research studies in your response.
In this essay, I am going to be focusing on the influence of genetic inheritance on behaviour. Behavioural genetics deals with understanding how both genetics and the environment contribute to individual variations in human behaviour. Genetic arguments of behaviour are based on the principle of inheritance. Genes and their DNA are passed down from parents to their offspring. I will be reviewing both sides of the argument to discover how important genetic inheritance is in behaviour. Genes and their DNA are passed down from parents to their offspring. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, with approximately 20 000–25 000 genes. In 1990, James D. Watson pioneered the Human Genome Project, with the goal of mapping the genetic make-up of the human species by identifying those 25,000 genes. This project was completed in 2003.
One way to show that genetic inheritance can influence behaviour is by studying twins. There are two types of twins, monozygotic and dizygotic. The monozygotic twins are genetically identical as they are the formation of a split fertilised egg and the dizygotic twins are roughly 50 percent identical because they are formed by having two fertilised eggs. The dizygotic twins don’t have to be of the same sex which is useful to psychologists because they can use the different degrees of genetic relationships as a basis for their hypotheses. The higher the genetic relationship, the more similar the individuals will be in some particular characteristics because those are the ones inherited. The correlation between twins found during research is called the concordance rate. An example of twin research was the Minnesota Twin Study carried out by Bouchard et. al which was a longitudinal study with an aim to determine a correlation between genetics and intelligence. The participants in this study were identical twins raised together, identical
In this essay, I am going to be focusing on the influence of genetic inheritance on behaviour. Behavioural genetics deals with understanding how both genetics and the environment contribute to individual variations in human behaviour. Genetic arguments of behaviour are based on the principle of inheritance. Genes and their DNA are passed down from parents to their offspring. I will be reviewing both sides of the argument to discover how important genetic inheritance is in behaviour. Genes and their DNA are passed down from parents to their offspring. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, with approximately 20 000–25 000 genes. In 1990, James D. Watson pioneered the Human Genome Project, with the goal of mapping the genetic make-up of the human species by identifying those 25,000 genes. This project was completed in 2003.
One way to show that genetic inheritance can influence behaviour is by studying twins. There are two types of twins, monozygotic and dizygotic. The monozygotic twins are genetically identical as they are the formation of a split fertilised egg and the dizygotic twins are roughly 50 percent identical because they are formed by having two fertilised eggs. The dizygotic twins don’t have to be of the same sex which is useful to psychologists because they can use the different degrees of genetic relationships as a basis for their hypotheses. The higher the genetic relationship, the more similar the individuals will be in some particular characteristics because those are the ones inherited. The correlation between twins found during research is called the concordance rate. An example of twin research was the Minnesota Twin Study carried out by Bouchard et. al which was a longitudinal study with an aim to determine a correlation between genetics and intelligence. The participants in this study were identical twins raised together, identical