Genetics and Evolution Vocab 1

nature

Character as dictated by genetics

nurture

The character of someone is dictated by their experiences

natural selection

Organisms that have detrimental traits to their survival are killed off (by getting eaten by a predator

evolutionary psychology

The study of how all humans are psychologically similar

psychological approach

The approach taken to answer psychological questions

psychological sub-fields

The different topics that are all part of psychology that can be studied specifically for a certain career

identical twins

One fertilized egg splits into two

fraternal twins

Two fertilized eggs develop at the same time

twin studies

They compare fraternal and identical twins to find that identical twins have much more personality similarities than fraternal twins

adoption studies

These studies find that nature has a large impact on determining a person’s characteristics even when their nurturing is different; these studies control heredity while varying home environment

heritability

To what extent people’s differences between each other can be attributed to their different genes and their nature

epigenetics

The study of how an environment can activate dormant genes in organisms

mutation

When gene replication goes wrong