Behavioral Genetics: Historical Perspectives and Key Discoveries

What concept predates scientific analysis in behavioral genetics?

The concept of inheritance.

What evidence suggests an understanding of inheritance in early human societies?

Domestication of animals and development of agriculture.

Which philosophers debated the role of experience and heredity in human behavior?

Plato and Aristotle.

What is Scala Naturae?

A linear organization of life where species are fixed and arranged from simple to complex.

Who established the taxonomic classification in 1735?

Carl Linnaeus.

What are the five levels of classification established by Linnaeus?

Kingdom, Class, Order, Genus, Species.

What theory did Jean-Baptiste Lamarck propose?

Inheritance of acquired traits.

What was the first major period of investigation in behavioral genetics?

Francis Galton's work on nature vs nurture.

What did Gregor Mendel's work demonstrate?

Inheritance arises from actions of distinct units called genes.

What did Ronald Fisher's seminal paper unify?

Biometric theory with Mendelian inheritance.

What is the modern investigation focus in behavioral genetics?

Molecular work and genome-wide association studies.

What is natural selection according to Charles Darwin?

Differential reproductive success of alternative characters.

What concept did Francis Galton examine in his work 'Heredity, Talent, and Character'?

The heredity of intelligence.

What did Thomas Hunt Morgan confirm?

The chromosomal theory of inheritance.

What statistical concepts did Ronald A. Fisher establish?

Randomization and experimental design.

What are Mendel's two laws of inheritance?

Law of segregation and law of independent assortment.

What did Mendel discover through his experiments?

Basic principles of heredity.

What did Galton argue regarding nature and nurture?

That nature (inheritance) prevails over nurture (environment).

What organism did Thomas Hunt Morgan use for his genetic studies?

Fruit flies (Drosophila).

What is the significance of the Galapagos Finch in Darwin's studies?

It exemplifies natural selection and adaptive evolution.

What did Fisher's work support in terms of genetic traits?

The Fisherian polygenic model of many genes with small effects.