Genetics and personality |  |
Learning ObjectivesUpon completing this chapter, you will be able to:
| Discuss historical and current controversy surrounding the genetic analysis of personality. |
| Discuss why behavioral genetics research is controversial, with reference to issues surrounding ideology conflicts and fears about eugenics. |
| Identify and describe the actual scholarly goal of modern behavioral geneticists. |
| Define and discuss the concept of heritability, with reference to phenotypic variance, genotypic variance, and environmentality. |
| Identify and discuss three key misconceptions about heritability. |
| Discuss the nature-nurture debate, from the perspective of modern behavioral genetics. |
| Identify and discuss the four key research deigns used by behavioral geneticists, including a discussion of the advantages, disadvantages, and assumption of each design. |
| Identify and discuss the major findings from behavioral genetics research, including findings in the areas of personality, sexual orientation, attitudes, drinking, and smoking. |
| Discuss and differentiate shared environmental influences from nonshared environmental influences. |
| Discuss the impact of shared versus nonshared environmental influences on personality. |
| Define and provide examples of genotype-environment interactions. |
| Define and provide examples for each of the three types of genotype-environment correlation, including passive, reactive, and active correlations. |
| Discuss the emerging field of molecular behavior genetics, including its goals, methods, and recent findings. |
| Discuss why science, politics, and values sometimes seem to be in conflict with respect to behavioral genetic findings. |
| Provide a clear rationale for why behavioral genetics research should continue, and why knowledge is better than operating in ignorance. |
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education