Biopsychology- Exam 1

Behavioral Genetics

Studies the relative contribution that genetic inheritance and the environment have on behavioral traits

Rene Descartes

a 17th century philosopher who came up with the idea of dualism, the idea that the mind is independent of the body but can still control it

Thomas Hobbes

coined the term materialism (mind and body are inseparable/ mental events are the product of physical events in the brain)

What is the definition of ‘innate’?

From birth, refers to the nature vs. nurture dilemma

Immanueal Kant

came up with the idea that the mind is not blank at birth, but rather is pre-wired and functionally constrained

Evolutionary Psychology

Studies the influence of the human species’ past natural history (evolution theory) on behavior in the modern environment

What do enzymes do?

they are the special proteins that regulate cell function

Transcription

copying DNA into RNA (happens inside the nucleus)

Translation

Changing RNA into protein (occurs outside the nucleus)

What are genes?

segments of chromosomes (i.e DNA) that provide the instructions for synthesizing a single protein)

Gene Regulation

The steps of protein synthesis can be modified in many ways to control when and where a particular gene is expressed

Epigentics

certain chemicals we ingest can regulate what genes are expressed

Alleles

the nuclei of cells contain two sets of chromosomes, one from mom, and one from dad

these sets of chromosomes can be varied (like the _____ that determines eye color)

What is a genetic disorder?

some nervous system disorder caused by mutant genes and is illustrated by the idea of dominant and recessive alleles

Tay-Sachs

fatal infant disorder that is a recessive mutant gene

Recessive (bio)

must have two copies inherated from both parents

Huntington’s Disease

fatal adult genetic disorder

dominant allele that produces the protein huntington that is toxic to humans

Dominant (bio)

a variant form of an allele that is expressed even if only one copy is present in an organism

What is behavioral genetics?

the use of genetic and statistical techniques to investigate genetic and environmental influences on behavior

Heritability

a statistic that estimates the degree to which differences/variation in a particular trait, across a particular population, are due to differences in the genetic make up of that population

Concordance Rates

the probability that a pair of individuals will both have a certain characteristic, given that one of the pairs has the characteristic (key measurement in gentics to help determine the influence of genetic (“nurture”) vs enviromental (“nature”) factors on the development of a specific attribute or disease)

What are the 3 main ideas behind Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species”?

• species traits change over generations

• species change into new species

• the mechanisms guiding these changes are in the form of natural selection

What is ‘fitness’ when it comes to evolution?

the degree to which you can survive and pass your genes onto future generations

Sexual Dimorphisms

traits that are distinguishable across the sexes of the same species (male vs. female ducks)

Parental Investment

the amount of energy parents put into producing and raising their offspring

Taxonomy

the practice of scientific classification (naming and grouping) of living organisms

Dualism

that idea that behavior is controlled by two entities, the mind and the body, and that the mind controls the body through the pineal gland

Ethology

a branch of zoology concerned with the scientific study of animal behavior(usually in their natural setting) (was heavily influenced by Darwins theory of natural selection)

Who was Konrad Lorenz?

The first person to study instinctual behavior (ex. imprinting in geese)

Descartes believed that the mind could control the body through what gland in the brain?

the pineal gland

What molecule do proteins contain?

amino acids

Where are genes located?

within the nucleus of the cell

What did Darwin notice about inheritance?

acquired traits (like a broken wing) did not appear to be passed on to offspring

only those variations that are inherited play a role in natural selection

Where does variation come from?

This comes from a change in the gene structure (genetic mutation)

What are alleles called if they are identical?

homozygous

What are alleles called if they are different?

heterozygous

What is a Phenotype?

the observable trait produced by that combonation of alleles

Evolutionary Psychology

proposes that much of human thought and behavior is influenced by psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments