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Genetics is a branch of biology concerned with the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of IQ testing in the early 20th century. Since then, there have been observed differences between average IQ scores of different population groups, but whether and to what extent these differences reflect environmental factors as opposed to genetic ones, as well as what the definitions of "race" and "intelligence" are, and whether they can be objectively defined, is the subject of much dispute. At present, there is no direct evidence that these differences in test scores have a genetic component. The validity of IQ tests as a metric for general intelligence is itself disputed.
The nature versus nurture debate involves whether human behavior is determined by the environment, either prenatal or during a person's life, or by a person's genes. The alliterative expression "nature and nurture" in English has been in use since at least the Elizabethan period and goes back to medieval French.
Heritability is a statistic used in the fields of breeding and genetics that estimates the degree of variation in a phenotypic trait in a population that is due to genetic variation between individuals in that population. In other words, the concept of heritability can alternately be expressed in the form of the following question: "What is the proportion of the variation in a given trait within a population that is not explained by the environment or random chance?"
Twin studies are studies conducted on identical or fraternal twins. They aim to reveal the importance of environmental and genetic influences for traits, phenotypes, and disorders. Twin research is considered a key tool in [[behavioral genetrom biology to psychology. Twin studies are part of the broader methodology used in behavior genetics, which uses all data that are genetically informative – siblings studies, adoption studies, pedigree, etc. These studies have been used to track traits ranging from personal behavior to the presentation of severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.
Religiosity is difficult to define, but different scholars have seen this concept as broadly about religious orientations and involvement. It includes experiential, ritualistic, ideological, intellectual, consequential, creedal, communal, doctrinal, moral, and cultural dimensions. Sociologists of religion have observed that the people's beliefs, sense of belonging, and behavior often are not congruent with an individual's actual religious beliefs since there is much diversity in how one can be religious or not. Multiple problems exist in measuring religiosity. For instance, variables such as church attendance produce different results when different methods are used such as traditional surveys vs time use surveys.
The study of religiosity and intelligence explores the link between religiosity and issues related to intelligence and educational level. Religiosity and intelligence are both complex topics that include diverse variables, and the interactions among variables are not always well understood. For instance, intelligence is often defined differently by different researchers and also all scores from intelligence tests are only estimates of intelligence because concrete measurements, like those of mass or distance, cannot be achieved given the abstract nature of the concept of "intelligence". Religiosity is also complex in that it involves wide variations of interactions of religious beliefs, practices, behaviors, and affiliations in diverse cultures.
Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. is an American psychologist and geneticist. He is professor emeritus of psychology and director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research at the University of Minnesota. Bouchard received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966. He is best known for his studies of twins reared apart.
The Minnesota Twin Family Study is a cross-sectional study of twins conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota. It seeks to identify the genetic and environmental influences on the development of psychological traits.
Research on heritability of IQ implies, from the similarity of IQ in closely related persons, the proportion of variance of IQ among individuals in a population that is associated with genetic variation within that population. This provides an estimate of genetic versus environmental influence for phenotypic variation in IQ in that population as environmental factors may be correlated with genetic factors. "Heritability", in this sense, "refers to the genetic contribution to variance within a population and in a specific environment". In other words, heritability is a mathematical estimate that indicates an upper bound on how much of a trait's variation within that population can be attributed to genes. There has been significant controversy in the academic community about the heritability of IQ since research on the issue began in the late nineteenth century. Intelligence in the normal range is a polygenic trait, meaning that it is influenced by more than one gene, specifically over 500 genes.
Personality development is the relatively enduring pattern of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that distinguish individuals from one another. The dominant view in the field of personality psychology today holds that personality emerges early and continues to change in meaningful ways throughout the lifespan.
The study of height and intelligence examines correlations between height and human intelligence. Some epidemiological research on the subject has shown that there is a small but statistically significant positive correlation between height and intelligence after controlling for socioeconomic class and parental education. This correlation arises in both the developed and developing world and persists across age groups. An individual’s taller stature has been attributed to higher economic status, which often translates to a higher quality of nutrition. This correlation, however, can be inverted to characterize one’s socioeconomic status as a consequence of stature, where shorter stature can attract discrimination that affects many factors, among them employment, and treatment by educators. Studies proved that shorter people are more clever than tall ones. One such theory argues that since height strongly correlates with white and gray matter volume, it may act as a biomarker for cerebral development which itself mediates intelligence. Competing explanations include that certain genetic factors may influence both height and intelligence, or that both height and intelligence may be affected in similar ways by adverse environmental exposures during development. Measurements of the total surface area and mean thickness of the cortical grey matter using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed that the height of individuals had a positive correlation with the total cortical surface area. This supports the idea that genes that influence height also influence total surface area of the brain, which in turn influences intelligence, resulting in the correlation. Other explanations further qualify the positive correlation between height and intelligence, suggesting that because the correlation becomes weaker with higher socioeconomic class and education level, environmental factors could partially override any genetic factors affecting both characteristics.
Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model. Openness involves six facets, or dimensions, including active imagination (fantasy), aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity. A great deal of psychometric research has demonstrated that these facets or qualities are significantly correlated. Thus, openness can be viewed as a global personality trait consisting of a set of specific traits, habits, and tendencies that cluster together.
Gene–environment correlation is said to occur when exposure to environmental conditions depends on an individual's genotype.
Behavioural genetics, also referred to as behaviour genetics, is a field of scientific research that uses genetic methods to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour. While the name "behavioural genetics" connotes a focus on genetic influences, the field broadly investigates genetic and environmental influences, using research designs that allow removal of the confounding of genes and environment. Behavioural genetics was founded as a scientific discipline by Francis Galton in the late 19th century, only to be discredited through association with eugenics movements before and during World War II. In the latter half of the 20th century, the field saw renewed prominence with research on inheritance of behaviour and mental illness in humans, as well as research on genetically informative model organisms through selective breeding and crosses. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, technological advances in molecular genetics made it possible to measure and modify the genome directly. This led to major advances in model organism research and in human studies, leading to new scientific discoveries.
Subjective well-being (SWB) is a self-reported measure of well-being, typically obtained by questionnaire.
The APA Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology is an award of the American Psychological Association
A twin registry is a database of information about both identical twins and fraternal twins, which is often maintained by an academic institution, such as a university, or by other research institutions.
Family resemblance refers to physical similarities shared between close relatives, especially between parents and children and between siblings. In psychology, the similarities of personality are also observed.
Wendy Johnson is an American differential psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She holds the Chair in Differential Development in the Department of Psychology and Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh.
References
- ↑ Lykken, DT; McGue, M; Tellegen, A; Bouchard TJ, Jr (December 1992). "Emergenesis. Genetic traits that may not run in families". The American Psychologist. 47 (12): 1565–77. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.47.12.1565. PMID 1476327.
- Lykken, DT; McGue, M; Tellegen, A; Bouchard, TJ Jr (Dec 1992). "Emergenesis. Genetic traits that may not run in families". Am Psychol. 47 (12): 1565–77. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.47.12.1565. PMID 1476327.