Unit1 Allmodules Post
Content
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
The Nature-Nurture Debate and
Founding of Behavioral Genetics
(Module A)
Humans are extraordinarily diverse
What you will learn about in Module A
• Historical origins of the Nature-Nurture debate
• Francis Galton and the founding of Behavioral
Genetics
• The ideology of Genetic Determinism
. . . and this diversity aggregates in families
http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420
Photo by Retna
Inheritance was originally demonstrated through
animal breeding
Classical beliefs about inheritance emphasized
behavior
Aristotle
“… the best men must cohabit
with the best women…”
The Republic
“ And from deformed [parents]
deformed [offspring] comes to
be”
History of Animals
Plato
© Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
1
Origins of Nature - Nurture
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)
“A devil, a born devil, on whose
nature Nurture can never stick …
The Tempest
Founded Behavioral genetics
Differential Psychology
Biometry
Designed First human behavioral genetic study
http://galton.org/
Caliban
Hereditary Genius: Rate of eminence
in relatives of eminent men
Galton was an innovator
• Suggested the value of twins
Rate of Eminence
• Developed method for fingerprinting
• Developed system for communicating with
‘Martians’
(1/4000)
Relatives
Galton established an empirical foundation
for the study of inheritance
• Investigated the efficacy of prayer
And engaged the Nature-Nurture debate
“There is no escaping from the
conclusion that nature prevails
enormously over nurture
“whenever you can, count”
when the differences of nurture do
not exceed what is commonly to be
found among persons of the same
rank in society and in the same
country”
Francis Galton (1876)
http://galton.org/
http://galton.org/
2
Some disciples advocated genetic
determinism
“… grade of intelligence or mental level for
each individual is determined by the kind of
chromosomes that come together with the
union of the germ cells … [and] is but little
affected by any later influence …”
Eugenics Movement
Eugenics - science that seeks to promote
genetic/biological improvement of human
society by influencing who does and does not
reproduce.
Henry Herbert Goddard (1920)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_H._Goddard
Galton introduced the term
eugenics (“well-born”)
“… if talented men were mated with talented
women, … , we might produce a highlybred human race … ”
Galton (1865)
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
Next time: We will explore the
impact of the Eugenics Movement
What you will learn about in Module B
• The aims of the Eugenics Movement
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
• How the Eugenics Movement impacted
Psychology and Behavioral Genetics
The Eugenics Movement
(Module B)
3
Galton introduced the term
eugenics (“well-born”)
The Industrial Revolution, Urbanization, and the
Demographic Transition heighten concerns
“… if talented men were mated with talented
women, … , we might produce a highlybred human race … ”
Galton (1865)
Eugenicists offered a solution
“Improvement of social conditions will not
compensate for a bad hereditary influence . . .
The only way to keep a nation strong mentally and
physically is to see that each new generation is
derived chiefly from the fitter members of the
generation before.”
Ethel M. Elderton
Eugenicists did elaborate pedigree studies
Eugenics was supported by intellectual
leaders
Some day we will realize that the prime
duty, the inescapable duty, of a good
citizen of the right type is to leave his or
her blood behind him in the world.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Birth control … is nothing more or less than
the facilitation of the process of weeding out
the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives
or of those who will become defectives.”
Margaret Sanger
… and popularized the movement through Fitter
Family contests
Fitter Family Winner
1927 Texas State Fair
Average Family Winner
Eastern States
4
Their success is marked by the frequency of
naming U.S. baby boys Eugene
Eugenicists sought to influence public policy
Immigration Restriction Act of 1924
Sterilization Laws
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
. . . and their efforts were supported by the
courts
Frequency of heritable keyword tracks
popularity of Eugene
Frequency\1000 or Publications\250
12
10
Heritable Publications
Babies Named Eugene
8
6
4
2
0
“Three generations of imbeciles is enough!”
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1927)
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
. . . and alternative radical views of
human nature filled the void
“Give me a dozen healthy infants wellformed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to
take any one at random and train him
to become any type of specialist I
might select -- a doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestor.”
John B. Watson (1924)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeg photo by Donna Coveney
5
“The schizophrenic is … due to the severe
early warp he encountered in important
people in his infancy and childhood, as a rule,
mainly in a schizophrenogenic mother.”
- Friedia Fromm-Reichmann (1948)
Next Time: We will define behavior genetics
and give an overview of the course
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/
databank/entries/bhfrom.html
autistic children "were left neatly in
refrigerators which did not defrost."
Leo Kanner (1949)
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
What you will learn about in Module C
• What the field of Behavioral Genetics covers
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
• The topics we will cover in this course
What is Behavioral Genetics?
(Module C)
What is Behavioral Genetics?
Traditional BG methodologies include
(Unit 2):
• Twin
Area of psychology that involves the use of
genetic methodologies to study the
nature and origins of individual differences
in human and animal behavior.
• Adoption
• Family
https://flic.kr/p/aENHs
Taken by Mary C. Allen, in Petersburg, AK, 1941
6
Increasingly, behavioral geneticists
analyze DNA (Week 3)
What is Behavioral Genetics?
Area of psychology that involves the use of
genetic methodologies to study the nature
and origins of individual differences in
human and animal behavior.
Photo SNRE on flickr
The distinction between Evolutionary
Psychology and Behavioral Genetics
Our study of Behavioral Genetics will focus
on two paradigmatic traits (or phenotypes)
• Evolutionary Psychology – concerned with
how human evolution has shaped common
psychological processes
• Schizophrenia (Unit 4) – a model for
psychiatric genetic research
• Behavior Genetics – concerned with how
differences in our genomes contribute to our
behavioral differences
• Intelligence (IQ; Unit 5) – a model for genetic
research on a normative psychological
phenotype
What is Behavioral Genetics?
Area of psychology that involves the use of
genetic methodologies to study the nature
and origins of individual differences in
human and animal behavior.
Approaches to characterizing the
origins of individual differences
• Heritability (Unit 3) – Can we quantify the
major sources of individual differences in
behavior?
• Behavioral Development (Unit 7) – How do
genetic and environmental factors combine to
influence the course of behavioral
development
7
What are the implications of behavioral
genetic research? (Unit 8)
• For genetic counseling and individualized
medicine
• In the courts
Next Time: We will discuss the
remarkable John/Joan case
• Future understanding of human behavior
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
What you will learn about in Module D
• How the John/Joan case represented the apex of
Blank Slate thinking within psychology
• The remarkable life of David Reimer
The John/Joan Case
(Module D)
[Newspaper Clipping of story about Toronto parents raising
their child, Baby Storm, genderless
“Toronto parents hide child's gender in bid for neutral treatment”
By Tom Blackwell, Postmedia News
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/25/toronto-parents-hidechilds-gender-in-bid-to-for-neutral-treatment/]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeg photo by Donna Coveney
8
John Money’s Theory of Gender
Neutrality
“the conclusion that emerges is
that sexual behavior and
orientation as male or female
does not have an innate,
instinctive basis.”
John Money’s Theory of Gender
Neutrality
. . . psychologically, sexuality is
undifferentiated at birth and
becomes differentiated as
masculine and feminine in the
course of the various experiences
of growing up.”
John Money (1955)
John/Joan case had a profound impact
on academic psychology
John/Joan
Clip from a BBC 2000 documentary titled The Boy who was Turned into a Girl
You Tube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HfAhLuZZ5o
“[The case] of sex reassignment …
demonstrate[s] that gender
dimorphic patterns of rearing
have an extraordinary influence
on shaping a child’s psychosexual
differentiation and the ultimate
outcome of a female or male
gender identity.”
Money & Ehrhardt (1972)
. . . and the popular media
“this dramatic case … casts doubt on the
theory that major sexual differences,
psychological as well as anatomical, are
immutably set by genes at conception.”
. . . yet some questioned the success of
the ‘experiment’
Picture of Milton Diamond
Time Magazine - 8 January 1973
Milton Diamond
http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/2002/01/Courage.html
9
Next Time: We will discuss Phenylketonuria as
a model of Gene-environment influences
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
Phenylketonuria (PKU) helps illustrate:
• Gene Function: The primary function of genes
is far removed from behavior
• Pleiotropy: Genes can have multiple
phenotypic effects
Phenylketonuria (PKU)
(Module E)
In 1934, Dr. Asbjørn Følling observed a
sibling pair with:
• Gene-Environment Interaction: Genetic
effects depend on environmental context
PKU is an example of an Inborn Error of
Metabolism
• Severe intellectual disability
• Irritable, hyperactive, subject
to seizures
• Eczema & hypopigmentation
• Musty odor
http://www.pkuworld.org/home/home.asp
10
A bit of terminology and a question …
• Genotype – that which is inherited, in this case
two deficient forms (alleles) of the gene that
codes for phenylalanine hydroxylase
• Phenotype – that which is expressed or
observable, in this case a diverse set of behavioral
and physical characteristics
Diagram of complex phenylalanine pathway
• Question – How does the PKU genotype produce
the classic PKU phenotype?
Phenylketonuria (PKU) helps illustrate:
Pleiotropy –
When one gene has multiple phenotypic
effects
• Gene Function: The primary function of genes
is far removed from behavior
• Pleiotropy: Genes can have multiple
phenotypic effects
• Gene-Environment Interaction: Genetic
effects depend on environmental context
PKU is a major public health success
• 1934 – Disorder & inheritance pattern
• 1947 – Metabolic defect determined
• 1954 – First successful treatment program
Cost of Untreated PKU
• 1963 – Guthrie test developed (all US states, many countries in world)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_DFZ0qwcpg
11
PKU illustrates Genotype-Environment
Interaction
In PKU, intellectual disability phenotype only
occurs when the necessary genotype is
reared in the obligate environment.
Some enduring treatment issues in PKU
• When should treatment be
initiated?
• When should treatment be
terminated?
• Maternal PKU
What we have discussed in Unit 1:
• Behavioral Genetics emerged out of the Nature-Nurture debate
• The association of Behavioral Genetics with Eugenics
contributed to its unpopularity throughout much of the 20th
century
• Behavioral Genetics is a branch of Psychology that makes use of
genetic methods and concepts
• The John/Joan case represents the apex of Blank Slate thinking
• Phenylketonuria underscores the importance of considering
both genetic and environmental contributions
12
Behavioral Genetics
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
The Nature-Nurture Debate and
Founding of Behavioral Genetics
(Module A)
Humans are extraordinarily diverse
What you will learn about in Module A
• Historical origins of the Nature-Nurture debate
• Francis Galton and the founding of Behavioral
Genetics
• The ideology of Genetic Determinism
. . . and this diversity aggregates in families
http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420
Photo by Retna
Inheritance was originally demonstrated through
animal breeding
Classical beliefs about inheritance emphasized
behavior
Aristotle
“… the best men must cohabit
with the best women…”
The Republic
“ And from deformed [parents]
deformed [offspring] comes to
be”
History of Animals
Plato
© Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
1
Origins of Nature - Nurture
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)
“A devil, a born devil, on whose
nature Nurture can never stick …
The Tempest
Founded Behavioral genetics
Differential Psychology
Biometry
Designed First human behavioral genetic study
http://galton.org/
Caliban
Hereditary Genius: Rate of eminence
in relatives of eminent men
Galton was an innovator
• Suggested the value of twins
Rate of Eminence
• Developed method for fingerprinting
• Developed system for communicating with
‘Martians’
(1/4000)
Relatives
Galton established an empirical foundation
for the study of inheritance
• Investigated the efficacy of prayer
And engaged the Nature-Nurture debate
“There is no escaping from the
conclusion that nature prevails
enormously over nurture
“whenever you can, count”
when the differences of nurture do
not exceed what is commonly to be
found among persons of the same
rank in society and in the same
country”
Francis Galton (1876)
http://galton.org/
http://galton.org/
2
Some disciples advocated genetic
determinism
“… grade of intelligence or mental level for
each individual is determined by the kind of
chromosomes that come together with the
union of the germ cells … [and] is but little
affected by any later influence …”
Eugenics Movement
Eugenics - science that seeks to promote
genetic/biological improvement of human
society by influencing who does and does not
reproduce.
Henry Herbert Goddard (1920)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_H._Goddard
Galton introduced the term
eugenics (“well-born”)
“… if talented men were mated with talented
women, … , we might produce a highlybred human race … ”
Galton (1865)
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
Next time: We will explore the
impact of the Eugenics Movement
What you will learn about in Module B
• The aims of the Eugenics Movement
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
• How the Eugenics Movement impacted
Psychology and Behavioral Genetics
The Eugenics Movement
(Module B)
3
Galton introduced the term
eugenics (“well-born”)
The Industrial Revolution, Urbanization, and the
Demographic Transition heighten concerns
“… if talented men were mated with talented
women, … , we might produce a highlybred human race … ”
Galton (1865)
Eugenicists offered a solution
“Improvement of social conditions will not
compensate for a bad hereditary influence . . .
The only way to keep a nation strong mentally and
physically is to see that each new generation is
derived chiefly from the fitter members of the
generation before.”
Ethel M. Elderton
Eugenicists did elaborate pedigree studies
Eugenics was supported by intellectual
leaders
Some day we will realize that the prime
duty, the inescapable duty, of a good
citizen of the right type is to leave his or
her blood behind him in the world.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Birth control … is nothing more or less than
the facilitation of the process of weeding out
the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives
or of those who will become defectives.”
Margaret Sanger
… and popularized the movement through Fitter
Family contests
Fitter Family Winner
1927 Texas State Fair
Average Family Winner
Eastern States
4
Their success is marked by the frequency of
naming U.S. baby boys Eugene
Eugenicists sought to influence public policy
Immigration Restriction Act of 1924
Sterilization Laws
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
. . . and their efforts were supported by the
courts
Frequency of heritable keyword tracks
popularity of Eugene
Frequency\1000 or Publications\250
12
10
Heritable Publications
Babies Named Eugene
8
6
4
2
0
“Three generations of imbeciles is enough!”
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1927)
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
. . . and alternative radical views of
human nature filled the void
“Give me a dozen healthy infants wellformed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to
take any one at random and train him
to become any type of specialist I
might select -- a doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestor.”
John B. Watson (1924)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeg photo by Donna Coveney
5
“The schizophrenic is … due to the severe
early warp he encountered in important
people in his infancy and childhood, as a rule,
mainly in a schizophrenogenic mother.”
- Friedia Fromm-Reichmann (1948)
Next Time: We will define behavior genetics
and give an overview of the course
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/
databank/entries/bhfrom.html
autistic children "were left neatly in
refrigerators which did not defrost."
Leo Kanner (1949)
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
What you will learn about in Module C
• What the field of Behavioral Genetics covers
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
• The topics we will cover in this course
What is Behavioral Genetics?
(Module C)
What is Behavioral Genetics?
Traditional BG methodologies include
(Unit 2):
• Twin
Area of psychology that involves the use of
genetic methodologies to study the
nature and origins of individual differences
in human and animal behavior.
• Adoption
• Family
https://flic.kr/p/aENHs
Taken by Mary C. Allen, in Petersburg, AK, 1941
6
Increasingly, behavioral geneticists
analyze DNA (Week 3)
What is Behavioral Genetics?
Area of psychology that involves the use of
genetic methodologies to study the nature
and origins of individual differences in
human and animal behavior.
Photo SNRE on flickr
The distinction between Evolutionary
Psychology and Behavioral Genetics
Our study of Behavioral Genetics will focus
on two paradigmatic traits (or phenotypes)
• Evolutionary Psychology – concerned with
how human evolution has shaped common
psychological processes
• Schizophrenia (Unit 4) – a model for
psychiatric genetic research
• Behavior Genetics – concerned with how
differences in our genomes contribute to our
behavioral differences
• Intelligence (IQ; Unit 5) – a model for genetic
research on a normative psychological
phenotype
What is Behavioral Genetics?
Area of psychology that involves the use of
genetic methodologies to study the nature
and origins of individual differences in
human and animal behavior.
Approaches to characterizing the
origins of individual differences
• Heritability (Unit 3) – Can we quantify the
major sources of individual differences in
behavior?
• Behavioral Development (Unit 7) – How do
genetic and environmental factors combine to
influence the course of behavioral
development
7
What are the implications of behavioral
genetic research? (Unit 8)
• For genetic counseling and individualized
medicine
• In the courts
Next Time: We will discuss the
remarkable John/Joan case
• Future understanding of human behavior
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
What you will learn about in Module D
• How the John/Joan case represented the apex of
Blank Slate thinking within psychology
• The remarkable life of David Reimer
The John/Joan Case
(Module D)
[Newspaper Clipping of story about Toronto parents raising
their child, Baby Storm, genderless
“Toronto parents hide child's gender in bid for neutral treatment”
By Tom Blackwell, Postmedia News
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/25/toronto-parents-hidechilds-gender-in-bid-to-for-neutral-treatment/]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeg photo by Donna Coveney
8
John Money’s Theory of Gender
Neutrality
“the conclusion that emerges is
that sexual behavior and
orientation as male or female
does not have an innate,
instinctive basis.”
John Money’s Theory of Gender
Neutrality
. . . psychologically, sexuality is
undifferentiated at birth and
becomes differentiated as
masculine and feminine in the
course of the various experiences
of growing up.”
John Money (1955)
John/Joan case had a profound impact
on academic psychology
John/Joan
Clip from a BBC 2000 documentary titled The Boy who was Turned into a Girl
You Tube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HfAhLuZZ5o
“[The case] of sex reassignment …
demonstrate[s] that gender
dimorphic patterns of rearing
have an extraordinary influence
on shaping a child’s psychosexual
differentiation and the ultimate
outcome of a female or male
gender identity.”
Money & Ehrhardt (1972)
. . . and the popular media
“this dramatic case … casts doubt on the
theory that major sexual differences,
psychological as well as anatomical, are
immutably set by genes at conception.”
. . . yet some questioned the success of
the ‘experiment’
Picture of Milton Diamond
Time Magazine - 8 January 1973
Milton Diamond
http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/2002/01/Courage.html
9
Next Time: We will discuss Phenylketonuria as
a model of Gene-environment influences
Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
Unit 1:
Introduction and Overview
Phenylketonuria (PKU) helps illustrate:
• Gene Function: The primary function of genes
is far removed from behavior
• Pleiotropy: Genes can have multiple
phenotypic effects
Phenylketonuria (PKU)
(Module E)
In 1934, Dr. Asbjørn Følling observed a
sibling pair with:
• Gene-Environment Interaction: Genetic
effects depend on environmental context
PKU is an example of an Inborn Error of
Metabolism
• Severe intellectual disability
• Irritable, hyperactive, subject
to seizures
• Eczema & hypopigmentation
• Musty odor
http://www.pkuworld.org/home/home.asp
10
A bit of terminology and a question …
• Genotype – that which is inherited, in this case
two deficient forms (alleles) of the gene that
codes for phenylalanine hydroxylase
• Phenotype – that which is expressed or
observable, in this case a diverse set of behavioral
and physical characteristics
Diagram of complex phenylalanine pathway
• Question – How does the PKU genotype produce
the classic PKU phenotype?
Phenylketonuria (PKU) helps illustrate:
Pleiotropy –
When one gene has multiple phenotypic
effects
• Gene Function: The primary function of genes
is far removed from behavior
• Pleiotropy: Genes can have multiple
phenotypic effects
• Gene-Environment Interaction: Genetic
effects depend on environmental context
PKU is a major public health success
• 1934 – Disorder & inheritance pattern
• 1947 – Metabolic defect determined
• 1954 – First successful treatment program
Cost of Untreated PKU
• 1963 – Guthrie test developed (all US states, many countries in world)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_DFZ0qwcpg
11
PKU illustrates Genotype-Environment
Interaction
In PKU, intellectual disability phenotype only
occurs when the necessary genotype is
reared in the obligate environment.
Some enduring treatment issues in PKU
• When should treatment be
initiated?
• When should treatment be
terminated?
• Maternal PKU
What we have discussed in Unit 1:
• Behavioral Genetics emerged out of the Nature-Nurture debate
• The association of Behavioral Genetics with Eugenics
contributed to its unpopularity throughout much of the 20th
century
• Behavioral Genetics is a branch of Psychology that makes use of
genetic methods and concepts
• The John/Joan case represents the apex of Blank Slate thinking
• Phenylketonuria underscores the importance of considering
both genetic and environmental contributions
12
