Is behavior learned? It is inborn? What of aggression, intelligence, and madness? There is a crucial relationship between the behavior of humans toward their own kind and the view of life they hold. Interest in behavioral genetics depends on wanting to know why people differ. According to Jack R. Vale, in Genes, Environment, and Behavior, recognition of the importance of hereditary influence on behavior represents one of the most dramatic changes in the social and behavioral sciences during the past two decades. A shift began toward the more balanced contemporary view that recognizes genetic as well as environmental influences on behavior. Behavioral genetics lies in its theory and methods, which consider both genetic and environmental sources of behavioral differences among individuals. Behavioral genetics is simply the intersection between genetics and the behavioral sciences.
Behavior is a phenotype that is, an observable characteristic we can measure. On the other hand, behavior is not just another phenotype. According to Robert Plomin in Behavioral Genetics, “Because behavior involves the action of the whole organism rather than the action of a single molecule, a single cell, or a single organ, behavior is the most complex phenomenon that can be studied genetically. Unlike some physical characteristics, behavior is dynamic, changing in response to the environment indeed, behavior is at the cutting edge of evolution text, because its focus is on the complexity of behavioral phenotypes”(2).
Obviously, there can be no behavior without both an organism and an environment. For a particular behavior, what causes differences among individuals? For example, what causes individual differences in c...
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Plomin, Robert, J. C. DeFries, and G. E. McClearn. Behavioral Genetics: a Primer. New York: W.H. Freeman, 1990. Print.
Rothstein, Carson. Behavioral Genetics. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1999. Print.
Vale, Jack R. Genes, Environment, and Behavior: an Interactionist Approach. New York: Harper & Row, 1980. Print.
Wong, R.Y., and Hofmann H.A. 2010. Behavioral Genomics: An Organismic Perspective. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, in press.
Some factors that are explored in studies involves the genetics in a person, how parents treat their children, influences peers have and the situations that a person may experience throughout their childhood and adult life. There is a possible connection between the feelings of anxiety, aggression and fear with a genetic makeup in a person’s body (Huff, 2004). Research has even shown that if an individual was abuse, whether physical or verbally they are at risk for developing a personality disorder as well (Huff, 2004). Another interesting study conducted by Robert Krueger, PhD, exploring the influences that can contribute to the development of a personality disorder, looks at studying personality traits within identical twins who did not grow up together. In the study, it appeared that genetics contributed more to a person personality trait then the environment they were in. Krueger opinion was that “The predominant reason normal and abnormal personality are linked to each other is because they are linked to the same underlying genetic mechanisms” (Huff,
of the biology of behavior in vague terms. The effect of a drug, and the
Today, realising that genes and environment cooperate and interact synergistically, traditional dichotomy of nature vs. nurture is commonly seen as a false dichotomy. Especially operant conditioning, i.e. the learning of the consequences of one's own behavior can lead to positive feedback loops between genetic predispositions and behavioral consequences that render the question as to cause and effect nonsensical. Positive feedback has the inherent tendency to exponentially amplify any initial small differences. For example, an at birth negligible difference between two brothers in a gene affecting IQ to a small percentage, may lead to one discovering a book the will spark his interest in reading, while the other never gets to see that book. One becomes an avid reader who loves intellectual challenges while the other never finds a real interest in books, but hangs out with his friends more often. Eventually, the reading brother may end up with highly different IQ scores in standardized tests, simply because the book loving brother has had more opportunities to train his brain. Had both brother received identical environmental input, their IQ scores would hardly differ.
Raine, A. (2008). From genes to brain to antisocial behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 323-329.
Studies have proven that no human being is born with knowledge or skills; however, every individual’s has a learned behavior that is either influenced or genetic inherited. Therefore, every individual born into a social and cultural environment are more likely to be effected by, family members, other social groups, religion, as well as languages. Most research psychologists study the genetic inheritance of an individual’s behavior while others focus on an individual’s development stage. However, during the process of psychological research, psychologists also focus on examining the influence that a community can have on one social behavior.
Steen, R. Grant. DNA and Destiny: Nurture and Nature in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum Press, 1996.
4) Ettinger, R. H. "CHAPTER 3." Psychology: The Science of Behavior. 4TH ed. Redding, CA: BVT Pub., 2009. 91. Print.
Humans are genetically predisposed to behave a certain way, and certain genes can “trigger” certain behaviors. Many studies have been conducted on animals, which can be considered in the debate about human behavior because animals have molecules that are also present in humans (Robinson 2004; Bettelheim 1998). For example, in one study, a gene that is responsible for preparing a mother mouse to care for her young – by triggering maternal instincts and behavior – was inactivated in pregnant mice, which resulted in three out of four pups dying from neglect. When the surviving pups were put into the care of foster mothers with the activated genes, 85% of them survived (Bettelheim 1998). This is significant because the absence of one gene affected mouse behavior in an observable way, which shows that genes affect behavior. Another study transplanted Japanese quail brain cells that control quail sounds and head movement into chicken embryos. As a result, the chickens did not...
Not at all. Brains and genetics don’t determine behavior – but they do set the stage. The real culprit turns out to be childhood
Tuvblad, C., Grann, M., & Lichtenstein, P. (2006). Heritability for adolescent antisocial behaviour differs with socioeconomic status: Gene-environment interaction. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 734-743. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01552.x
There are many intriguing branches of psychology, but behaviorism captured many aspiring psychologists and young minds in the 1920s and 1930, and has been the dominant orientation since the mid 30s. Behaviorism was the radical revision of the method of psychological research. Consciousness was not accepted at the time and behaviorism called for the ban of introspection. Behaviorism is a branch of psychology that started with John B. Watson’s “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it.” Even though considered innate, researching this topic will show behavior is learned more by environmental factors through modeling and observing. The founder, Watson, created classical conditioning, and later B.F. Skinner contributed with operant conditioning. Watson’s evidence was his most famous experiment, the “Little Albert Experiment.”
Many individuals, especially psychologist, question how can they describe a person’s personality using theories in order for society to have an understanding of why people behave the way they do. There have been many debates in regards to this question. Some psychologists state that genetics is one of the main factors why people react a certain way, depending on the circumstance. However, other researchers indicate that the environment plays an enormous role on the individual. Although both of these predictions might be accurate, one will not fully understand unless there is more information linked to their arguments. According to trait theories in the book of Psychology, there are multiple theories that explain different types of possibilities to these behaviors, two of them are called Trait Theory and Social-Cognitive Theory.
...specific genes by examining DNA (NCB). This is often difficult because there are many genes involved as well as environmental factors, that affect the phenotypic behavior exhibited. Associations between a genetic variant and a behavioral trait have been found, but have not been successfully repeated by other researchers (NCB). Both linkage and association studies are used when studying behavior, but because linkage studies are less applicable (because behavioral traits don’t segregate in a simple dominant and recessive manner), association studies are more commonly used. According to the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, association studies “compare the frequency of a particular genetic variant in a cohort case (a group of people with a particular behavioral characteristic) with a matched set of controls ( a similar group of people not displaying the characteristic).”
Robbins, S., Millett, B., Walter-Marsh, T. (2004) Organsiational Behaviour 4th Edition. Pearson, New South Wales.