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Genetic Influences on Behavior

Genetic Influences on Behavior. Nature. v. Nurture. The Nature Argument (is sometimes compelling). This guy will never be…. This guy!!!. Why does Brad Pitt look the way he does?. Genes: Our Biological Blueprint. Genes: Their Location and Composition.

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Genetic Influences on Behavior

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  1. Genetic Influences on Behavior Nature v. Nurture

  2. The Nature Argument(is sometimes compelling) This guy will never be…. This guy!!! Why does Brad Pitt look the way he does?

  3. Genes: Our Biological Blueprint

  4. Genes: Their Location and Composition In the nucleus of every cell we have 46 chromosomes……

  5. Except……

  6. Chromosome Breakdown DNA Chromosomes Genes Nucleotides

  7. Genetic Similarities Mrs. Reidel is 98% 99.9% 99.9%

  8. Evolutionary Psychology: Explaining Universal Behaviors Evolutionary psychology is the science that seeks to explain why humans act the way they do. Evolutionary psychology seeks to reconstruct problems that our ancestors faced in their primitive environments, and the problem-solving mechanisms they created to meet those particular challenges. From these reconstructed problem-solving adaptations, the science then attempts to establish the common roots of our ancestral behavior, and how those common behavioral roots are manifested today in the widely scattered cultures of the planet. The goal is to understand human behavior that is universally aimed at the passing of one's genes into the next generation.

  9. Natural Selection at Work • 1959 Russian Fox story • 40 Males, 100 Females- mated- then kept only tamest of bunch. • Mated the tames. • 40 years later • New Breed of Fox

  10. Evolutionary Psychology at Work If we wanted to create a whole population of brainy teachers, we could take some teachers like… Have them mate. Then have the brainiest offspring mate amongst each other, and for countless generations keep doing the same thing. After 200 years, what would the population be like or what are the chances that the 40th generation of offspring be brainy.

  11. Look at our Behaviors… Can you answer these questions using evolutionary psychology? • Why do infants fear strangers when they become mobile? • Why are most parents devoted to their children? • Why do we divide people into categories? • Why do we have more phobias about spiders and snakes than electricity and nuclear weapons? Now, the big one?

  12. How and why do men and women differ sexually?

  13. Of course, there are other differences….

  14. Sexuality and the Evolutionary Psychologist • Casual sex is more accepted by men. • When average men and women randomly ask strangers for sex tonight, 75% of men agreed, almost no women agreed. WHY?

  15. Sperm is Cheap Eggs are not

  16. Men want: Healthy Young Waist 1/3 narrower than hips. Women want: Wealth Power Security What do men and women want?(According to Evolutionary Psychology)

  17. Can this change?

  18. Behavior Genetics The study of the power and limitations of genes on who we are.

  19. Twin Studies

  20. What are the different types of twins?

  21. Twin Studies: The results • To summarize the countless amount of studies: twins (especially identical), whether or not they are raised in the same environment are very much alike in many ways.

  22. Temperament Studies • A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity. • They remain relatively stable over time.

  23. Heritability • The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. • It is a mathematical formula. • Mark Twain explains it best using the barrel example.

  24. Nature v. Nurture What do you think so far? Does Nature and Nurture interact and grow off of each other? Lets find out soon by examining Nurture in detail….

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