AP Psychology Topic 1.1 - Interaction of Heredity and Environment
EQ: How do biological and environmental factors interact to influence our behaviors and mental processes?
I. Heredity and Environmental Factors - Genetic traits and external factors can shape individual differences in personality, intelligence, and overall behavior.
Gene-Environment Interactions - These occur when specific genes react to environmental conditions, leading to different outcomes in behavior and development.
Evolutionary Psychology - This branch of psychology emphasizes how evolutionary principles, such as natural selection, shape the way humans think, feel, and behave in response to their environments.
II. Research on Heritability - This area explores the extent to which genetic factors contribute to variations in traits among individuals, often quantified using heritability estimates.
Twin Studies - Researchers often use twin studies to determine the heritability of various traits by comparing similarities between identical twins, who share 100% of their genes, and fraternal twins, who share about 50%.
Family Studies - Family studies examine the heritability of traits by comparing the similarities among family members who share varying degrees of genetic relatedness, thus providing insights into the influence of genetics and environment on behavior.
Adoption Studies - Adoption studies analyze the similarities between adopted children and their biological and adoptive families, helping researchers understand the impact of environmental factors compared to genetic ones on behavior and traits.
III. Key Terms
Environment - Everything around you that isn’t in your genes, like your family, friends, culture, and where you live.
Eugenics - A (now discredited and harmful) idea that humans could be improved by controlling who has children, based on traits like intelligence or health.
Evolutionary Psychology - A field of psychology that looks at how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors may have developed to help our ancestors survive and reproduce.
Heredity - The passing of traits (like eye color or certain talents) from parents to their children through genes.
Natural Selection - The process in nature where traits that help a living thing survive and have babies get passed on more often, so over time those traits become more common.
Notes based on AMSCO Advanced Placement Edition Psychology - Third Edition by Brandt and Hamilton