Unit 3C Abbreviated

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocjWFGIQr3s

Behavior Genetics

The study of the power and limitations of genes

on who we are.

Genes: Our Biological Blueprint

Genetic Similarities: Genomes- instructions for making an

organism

98% 99.9%

99.9%

• We are all:

Genes: Their Location and Composition

In the nucleus of every cell we have 46 chromosomes……

• Did you know that the Y chromosome contains less than 100 genes and the X contains more than a 1000? What does this tell you?

Twin Studies

What are the different types of twins?

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.

• Also: Adopted Studies fund that adopted children resemble the personalities of their biological parents

Question?

• Why are children who live in the same family so different from each other?

Identical Twins

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw3S35wGgT8

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU1CXThrQI8

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gwnzW4jOMI

•

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.

Nature via Nurture

• Genes and environment work together • People with identical genes but have different

experiences may have similar minds but they are not identical

• An easy going baby with an easy temperament may elicit a warmer response than a crying baby thus the children grow up differently

• Look at next slide: Who would get the job?

The Nature Argument(is sometimes compelling)People respond differently to looks etc

This guy will never be…. This guy!!!

Why does Brad Pitt look the way he does?

Molecular genetics

• Identifying specific genes that influence behavior

• Would you have your genome done before reproducing a child?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fSCOZuHcdg

The future

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c25ZzUFePY

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.

Evolutionary Psychology at WorkIf 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.

Look at our Behaviors…

• 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?

Can you answer these questions using evolutionary psychology?

Now, the big one?

How and why do men and women differ sexually?

Of course, there are other differences….

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.• Sex occupies a man’s

mind more than a women’s

WHY?

Sperm is Cheap

Eggs are not

What do men and women want?(According to Evolutionary Psychology)

Men want:• Healthy• Young• Waist 1/3

narrower than hips.

• Signs of fertility

Women want:• Wealth• Power• Security

Other differences

• Younger boys attracted to older women in their peak fertility years

• Men’s approach to sex is more recreational

• Men attribute a woman’s friendliness to a sexual advance

• Women’s approach to sex is more relational

Figure 3C.3 Worldwide mating preferences In a wide range of cultures studied (indicated by the red dots), men more than women preferred physical features suggesting youth and health—and reproductive potential. Women more than men preferred mates with resources and social status. Researchers credit (or blame) natural selection.

Buss, 1994© 2011 by Worth Publishers

Things to consider

• Evolution does not imply genetic determinism

• Behavior can be changed

• Much of who we are is not hard-wired

• Times change the ideals of attractiveness etc.

Figure 3C.4 The biopsychosocial approach to development

© 2011 by Worth Publishers

The End