Behavioral Genetics 7th Edition Knopik

Test Bank
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://testbankdeal.com/download/behavioral-genetics-7th-edition-knopik-test-bank/
 Estimating Genetic and Environmental Influences Chapter 7

VOCABULARY
Match the phrases to the terms below. Each term may be used once, more than once, or not at all.

Phrases

1. A measure of the reliability of a result

2. A measure of the genetic effect as a proportion of total individual differences in a population
3. Used as a measure of similarity of risk for a disorder not measured quantitatively
4. Describes a pair of relatives who do not share the same disorder
5. Effect that describes family resemblance not explained by genetics
6. Heritability estimated directly from differences in DNA between people
7. A statistical measure of the extent of individual differences in a population
8. Effect that produces variance in a population not explained by genetics or shared environment
9. A standard measure of similarity between two sets of measurements such as twin 1 and twin 2 scores
10. Environmental effect that makes members of one family different from members of another family

Terms
multivariate analysis
concordance nonshared environment
correlation shared environment
covariance SNP heritability
discordant statistical significance
genetic correlation structural equation modeling (SEM)
heritability variance
liability-threshold model
model fitting

Ans: 1. statistical significance; 2. heritability; 3. concordance; 4. discordant; 5.shared environment;

6. SNP heritability; 7.variance; 8. nonshared environment; 9. correlation; 10. shared environment
Blooms Level: Remembering
Difficulty Level: Easy
Page: 93–110
Topic: Estimating genetic and environmental influences

1 Behavioral Genetics, 7th Edition | Test Bank

 Estimating Genetic and Environmental Influences Chapter 7

PROBLEMS

1. The use of statistics and the model-fitting approach allow us to estimate the effect sizes of genetics and
environment. An effect that reaches statistical significance gives us some faith that the effect is real.
a. Does reaching significance give us any idea of how large the effect is?
b. How can we decrease the error of estimation for an effect?
c. Name the statistic that estimates the size of the genetic effect.

Ans: a. No, very small effects can reach significance. It just tells us an effect is not likely to be occurring by
chance.
b. Error is a function of effect size and sample size. We cannot easily change the effect size, but we can increase
sample size; as large a sample as possible is obviously best. When it is difficult to get large samples, replication
across studies and designs allows for better estimates.
c. Heritability. It is the proportion of phenotypic variance accounted for by genetic variance.
Blooms Level: Remembering
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Page: 93–94
Topic: Heritability

2. For schizophrenia, the identical twin (MZ) concordance is about 0.48 and the fraternal twin (DZ) concordance is
about 0.17.
a. Why does this information tell us that schizophrenia is influenced by genes?
b. Why does it tell us that the environment is also important?
c. If the population prevalence of schizophrenia is 1%, what increased risk do siblings of schizophrenics show
for the disorder?

Ans: a. Concordance is a measure of familial resemblance, so like a correlation, if MZ twins are more similar than
DZ twins, genetic influence is indicated.
b. MZ twins share all their DNA, yet even so, when one twin has schizophrenia the other twin only has a 48% chance
of also having the disorder. This indicates that environment is also a determining factor.
c. DZ twins (siblings) have a concordance of 0.17, indicating a 17-fold increase in risk if their co-twin has
schizophrenia, since prevalence is 0.01.
Blooms Level: Understanding
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Page: 95
Topic: Heritability

3. A population of individuals is genetically identical for all relevant genes determining a given genetic trait. What
is the heritability of this trait in this situation? Explain.

Ans: If the population is truly genetically identical for the relevant genes, the heritability of the trait will be zero,
since there is no genetic variation for the trait.
Blooms Level: Applying
Difficulty Level: Moderate

2 Behavioral Genetics, 7th Edition | Test Bank

 Estimating Genetic and Environmental Influences Chapter 7

Page: 96–101
Topic: Interpreting heritability

4. State, with reasons, whether you think the following statements are true or false regarding the term “heritability”
as defined in behavioral genetics.
a. Heritability is the proportion of a phenotype that is passed on to the next generation.
b. High heritability implies genetic determinism.
c. Heritability is informative about the nature of between-group differences.
d. A high heritability implies there are individual genes of large effect.

Ans: a. False. Heritability is not the proportion of a phenotype that is passed on. Phenotype is never passed on,
only genes are. While roughly 50% of alleles are passed on to each offspring by each parent, we never know exactly
which alleles. The actual 50% is unique to each offspring.
b. False. High heritability does not mean genetic determinism. While a high heritability implies most variation for
the trait comes from genes, not the environment, and that the phenotype of the person is a good reflection of their
genotype, the environment can (and does) change or can be manipulated so that phenotype is changed.
c. False. Heritability estimated from one group cannot be used to imply anything about a second group. Each
heritability that is calculated refers to the group from which the data was drawn. Heritabilities may vary across
groups, as well as mean level of trait, but we cannot say anything about the causes of those group differences. The
environment might differ between the groups, for example, and this may be the cause of the differences.
d. False. A high heritability does not imply individual genes with large effects. We can say that genetic variation is
important in determining level of trait, but this could come about through the action of a small number of genes each
with a large effect, or from a large number of genes each with a very small effect.
Blooms Level: Understanding
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Page: 96–101
Topic: Interpreting heritability

5. The following table gives the reported same-sex correlations for four traits. Assume that the sample sizes were
large.
Trait MZ Correlation DZ Correlation

Height (HT) 0.93 0.46

General cognitive (IQ) 0.86 0.60
Neuroticism (N) 0.48 0.24
Extraversion (EXT) 0.50 0.13
Based on the data given above and assuming the validity of the twin study method, for each trait answer the
following questions, making sure you give reasons for your answers
a. Is the trait influenced by genes?
b Is there evidence of shared family environmental effects?
c. Does the nonshared environment account for more than 10% of the variance?
d. Which has the largest effect—genes, shared environment, or nonshared environment?

Ans: a. All the traits are influenced by genes since MZ correlations are greater than DZ correlations for all traits.

3 Behavioral Genetics, 7th Edition | Test Bank

 Estimating Genetic and Environmental Influences Chapter 7

b. Only IQ shows evidence for shared family environmental effects since this is the only trait where the DZ
correlation is more than half the MZ correlation.
c. Nonshared environment is more than 10% of the variance for all the traits except height, where the MZ
correlation is greater than 0.90.
d. For height and IQ, the genetic effect is the largest since nonshared environment is low (as indicated by high MZ
correlations), and the shared environmental effect is zero for height and low for IQ. Heritability for height is
estimated at 93% and for IQ at 52%. For extraversion, the genetic and nonshared environmental effects are about
equal, since the MZ correlation is 0.50 and there is no evidence for shared environment. For neuroticism, nonshared
environment is the largest effect since the MZ correlation is only 0.48.
Blooms Level: Applying
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Page: 102–106
Topic: Estimating shared and nonshared environmental effects

6. The GCTA (genome-wide complex trait analysis) method promises to provide direct DNA tests of quantitative
results based on twin and adoption studies. The method works by comparing the chance genetic similarity across
single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for pairs of individuals from a matrix of unrelated individuals and then
using this to predict phenotypic similarity for the pairs of individuals. This allows the estimation of the extent to
which genetic variance can explain phenotypic variance. What is the major advantage, and what are the drawbacks
of this method?

Ans: The major advantage is that it estimates heritability directly from measured genotypes rather than indirectly
from comparisons of related individuals. Two drawbacks currently recognized are:
1. It requires many thousands of individuals since the overall genetic resemblance varies by only 1% or 2%,
compared with the 100% and 50% resemblance of MZ and DZ twins, respectively.
2. Available SNP microarrays do not currently capture enough DNA variation. More SNPs are needed.
Blooms Level: Understanding
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Page: 98–99
Topic: Estimating heritability directly from DNA

4 Behavioral Genetics, 7th Edition | Test Bank