Chapter 9 – Behavioural Genetics & Evolutionary Psychology

Definitions

Behavioural Genetics – How traits are passed. From parent to child and shared by biological
relatives

Evolutionary Psychology – How patterns of behaviour that characterise all humans may
have originated in the survival value these characteristics afforded historically.

Behavioural Genetics

How are behaviour patterns passed down?

Controversy

1. Troubling links to Eugenics – Inferior humans -> Racism, sperm banks full of Nobel
winners etc
2. Troubling links to ideas of cloning
3. Implies that traits are set genetically and not changeable by experience or social
context.

Modern BG distances from these ideas, Eugenics and cloning are not feasible, complex
interaction between genetics and environment is clear.

Calculating Heritability

To the degree that a trait is influenced by genes, people who are closer genetic relatives
ought to be more similar on that trait than those who are more distantly related.

BG focuses on less than 1% of human genome as 99% of genes are identical across
humanity.

BG focuses exclusively on individual differences

Heritability coefficient – reflects the degree to which variance of the trait in the populations
can be attributed to variance in genes.

When a trait or behaviour is influenced by genes, then the trait and behavioural scores of
identical twins ought to be more highly correlated than the scores of fraternal twins. Siblings
will also correlate more than cousins etc..

Twin studies show a HC for most traits of .40 -> 40% of phenotypic (behavioural) variance is
genetic. Big 5 generally slightly higher

All of these are averages. Refers to the degree to which the trait varies across the
population is determined genetically, NOT the extent to which a trait is expressed.
What Heritability Tells You

Genes Matter – Heritability challenges the assumption that all personality is

environmentally defined. Not fully accepted.

Insight into Effects of the Environment – Researchers used to think that similarities in
childhood environment had no impact on traits. Now it is clear that several developmental
outcomes are affected by shared family environment. Shared environment influences all
traits except extroversion.

What Heritability Can’t tell you

Nature vs Nurture – Heritability can’t tell us which has greater influence than the other. It is
based on variance as a result a biologically determined trait can have zero heritability if
there is no variance (arms example).

How Genes Affect Personality – TV watching, and divorce are heritable, there are no genes
for these so it is implied that there are underlying traits that are influencing them, research
cannot really tell us what those are. Anything affected by personality will also be affected
indirectly by genes. Heritability analyses cannot tell us how.

Molecular Genetics

Unravelling the mystery of the gene/ life outcome interaction via DNA research.

DRD4 gene influences development of dopamine receptors. Dopamine system influences

sensation seeking and ADHD as well as regulation of cognition and behaviour.

Serotonin and related genes also relevant to sensation seeking (Zuckerman, 2012).

5-HTT gene associated with serotonin transport protein has two variants: Alleles. Short
allele correlates with higher neuroticism and stronger amygdala response. Gene also seems
to regulate the degree to which the amygdala and pre-frontal cortex work together.

5-HTT may vary across cultural groups double in Japanese than in Caucasian, could underlie
collectivism/individualism. Shaky though, small effect.

No one gene accounts for more than a trace variance in personality. Thousands are needed,
no easy answers.

Gene/Environment Interactions

Genotype only provides the design and so affects the behavioural phenotype indirectly, by
influencing the biological structure and physiology as they develop within the environment.

Environment can affect heritability – Proper Nutrition = 1.0 heritability for height,
environmental malnutrition will increase variance, therefore closer to zero.
IQ also influenced by environment, there is a genetic maximum achievable through
optimum educationally challenging environment.

In perfect educational environment, variance is genetic, but in imperfect environments the

trend is reversed.

Other interactions – A short boy who is teased may become less open or agreeable, this is
indirect, but his height gene has played a role.

“niche picking” - Sometimes influences this, people choose environments that that magnify
their genetically influenced tendencies. Transaction between trait and environment.

Physically attractive and strong people are relatively likely to be extroverted as these traits
tend to make social interactions more frequent and rewarding.

Tendencies in child can influence the mother – boys with less self-control get less attention
etc.

Same environments can be beneficial to one and detrimental to others.

Tendency/environment interactions can lead to very varied personality traits.

Genotype/environment interaction – short and long 5-htt people only differ in depression
levels when stress has taken place.

MAOA activity – Off – aggression ON normal. More antisocial behaviour in those with low
enzyme when maltreated.
Epigenetics

Experience can determine how or whether a gene is expressed during development

(Weaver, 2007)

Rats differ in expression of stress genes depending on grooming,

Stimulating environment = more braincells.

In Humans social stress can activate expression of genes that lead to vulnerabiilties to
depression, inflammator y diseases and viral infections.

Bi-directional interaction between genes and environment, reinforcing or counteracting.

BG clearly does not prescribe personality to genes, but detais complex interaction between.
Genes and environment. Nature & Nurture.

Evolutionary Personality Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology – How patterns of behaviour that characterise all humans may
have originated in the survival value these characteristics afforded historically.

Evolution & Behavior

Every current human is the latest in a string of ‘evolutionary winners’

Behavioural patterns developed because they aided survival.

Some traits fit this eg extroversion correlating with more childeren.

Agression and Altruism – Agression Can help defend territory, property, and mates as well
as social dominanceand higher status. However also fighting, murder and war. Altruism can
help protect ones own and therfore survival of their genes Inclusive fitness.

Self-Esteem – “Sociomotor Theory” says this developed as a monitor of acceptance by

others. If you are shunned it used to mean death so self-esteem motivates us towards
behaviors that will lead to social acceptance and thus survival. Those without this dies out.
(Leary, 1999)

Depression – signals pain at a loss or failure, implying that there is a negative context that
needs fixing to improve your mating chances. Depression can also signal to others that social
support is required. Silencing this with SSRI’s could actually be maladaptive.

Mating behavior

Attractiveness – Physical attractiveness and financial security are valued differently by men
and women. Men prefer younger, women prefer older. Preferences are guided by greates
liklihood of healthy offspring who will survive to reproduce. Culture matters and there are
exceptions.

Mating Strategies – Men want more sexual partners than women. Esp in the dark triad.
Women more selective. For men quantity for women quality.

Sociosexuality – The willingness to engage in sexual relations in the absence of a serious

relationship. Men score higher. Those who score higher are more interested in appearance,
those who score lower are more interested in personal qualities. Men high in this become
more accurate at evaluating their own sexual worth and are thus more succesful.

Jealousy – Men more worried about sexual infidelity, women more worried by emotional
infidelity. Love infidelity more triuobling for both. Apparently Sometimes women also go for
sexy motorcycle dudes so they will produce a sexy motorcycle son who will spread his genes
across the land (the book really said this)

Individual Differences

There can be no survival of the fittest without individual differences, where would the fittest
come from?

Adaptation – Diversity is what makes adaptation to changing conditions possible, previously

adaptive traits can becom emaladaptive and vice versa. Neuroticism may be producing
needless anxiety in a safe situation but be life saving in an unsafe one. Fast Life History-
rabbits reproducing Slow life-hisotry- elephants and humans. Humans changed from FLH to
SLH as conditions around them became mor stable.

Accounting for Individual Differences

1. Behavioural patterns evolve as reactions to particular environmental experiences (eg

white skin tanning, fatherless boys maturing earlier)
2. People may have evolved several possible behavioral strategies, but use the one that
makes most sense given their other characteristics. (aggressive works better if youre
big and strong)
3. Some biologically influenced behaviours may be frequency dependent within
population (eg, too many psychopaths = breakdown of society)

Basically nature has evolved to be flexible.

Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology

5 Stress tests

Methodology – Speculation is easy, empirically testing it is hard. “Dilemma of the rarely

excercised option” can evolutionary explanations really explain such relativley rare
behaviors. Difficult to prove or disprove.
Reproductive Instinct – Many question the assumption of wanting as many children as
possible. How can a woman dress provocativley to get a mate, but be on the pill to thwart
reproduction? Easy. The drives of the past are still within us even though our context might
differ now. No one comes from a line of sterile asexuals. Sexual desire comes from the past,
not because of current intention to procreate.

Conservative Bias – Some people are troubled that EP seems to support a conservative
political worldview. However this implies a value judgement. Eps are concerned with the
way things are and how they got that way, not wether that is good or bad. This criticism
commits the “naturalistic fallacy” that just because something is natural it is good or valid.

Human Flexibility – Human adabtability would seem to contradict a conception of behavior

as genetically programmed in the brain, however this is the difference between averages
and specific individuals in specific contexts. EP is clearly a mixture of both flexibility and
genetic predisposition.

Biological determinism or Social Structure? - Strong criticism, changing Context and social
structure mean that incentives and adaptive traits change too. Therefore mating
preferences may be just as context dependant as they are evolutionarily defined. Role of
women changing may change these incentives.

The Contribution of Evolutionary Theory

It changd psychology forever by introducing a biological/historical perspective.

Will Biology replace Psychology?

If personality is psychophysical then once everuything is known about the brain psychology
is doomed, this is calle biological reductionism.

However there is so much that biology cannot answer that osychology will be fine.