AP Psychology: Topic 1.1 - Interaction of Heredity and Environment

Heredity

characteristics and traits passed on from parents to their offspring

Nature

the influence of inherited characteristics on personality, physical growth, intellectual growth, and social interactions

Nurture

the influence of environment (including relationships and experiences) on a person's development

Genetic predisposition

a tendency for certain traits to be inherited, including physical and mental conditions and disorders

Evolutionary perspective

the assumption that many core behaviors and ways of processing information are a result of natural selection (evolution)

Natural selection

genetically determined behavior that enhances the ability to survive and reproduce will continue in future generations, thereby changing the nature of the population over successive generations

Eugenics

the controversial science of improving a human population by increasing the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics

Twin studies

hereditary influence is assessed by comparing the resemblance of identical twins and fraternal twins with respect to a trait

Family studies

researchers assess hereditary influence by examining blood relatives to see how much they resemble one another on a specific trait

Adoption studies

assessing hereditary influence by examining the resemblance between adopted children and both their biological and their adoptive parents