1. Which is more important. What determines most of our behavior
Which is more important? What determines most of our behavior? Our genes? Or our environment?
Heredity versus the environment
Nature vs. Nurture

2. Universal people communicate both verbally and nonverbally
enforce rules of etiquette
They avoid incest, fear snakes, and exchange gifts.
Universal people demonstrate modesty in sexual behavior and bodily functions, even if they don’t wear clothes.
Everywhere labor is divided by age and by gender. Men are more aggressive than women; women provide more child care.
Every culture has tools
Everywhere, people form beliefs about death and disease, they plan for the future.
All cultures have taboos, including tabooed utterances. Sanctions exist for crimes against society, and mechanisms for dealing with theft, murder, and rape are universal.
People everywhere recognize marriage
They mimic, flirt, envy, empathize, joke, tease,
They dance and make music

3. Genes: Our Codes for Life
Chromosome
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
Genes

4. Blue Eyes?

5. Twin and Adoption Studies Identical Versus Fraternal Twins
Identical twins
Fraternal twins

6. Twin and Adoption Studies Identical Versus Fraternal Twins

7. Twin and Adoption Studies Identical Versus Fraternal Twins

8. Twin and Adoption Studies Identical Versus Fraternal Twins

9. Twin and Adoption Studies Identical Versus Fraternal Twins

10. Twin and Adoption Studies Identical Versus Fraternal Twins

11. Twin and Adoption Studies Identical Versus Fraternal Twins

12. Twin and Adoption Studies Separated Twins
U of MN studies on identical twins separated at birth- two Jims (hobbies, habits, dog’s name, son’s name)

13. Gerald Levey and Mark Newman, both:
Work as volunteer firefighters
Like the same beer (Budweiser)
Are attracted to the same kinds of women
Gerald worked in forestry, Mark worked for the city trimming trees (planned to go to school for forestry)
Both liked to hunt, fish, watch John Wayne movies and eat Chinese food
Both grew the same sideburns and mustaches
Used the same speaking inflections and hand gestures

14. Can you find a twin in this class?

15. Anecdotal evidence
“Virtual twins”

16. Twin and Adoption Studies Biological Versus Adoptive Relatives
Genetic relatives
Environmental relatives
Are adopted children more like their biological parents or adoptive parents?

17. Well, it depends. Their personality traits (how outgoing they are, how friendly, their overall temperament) were much more similar to their biological parents.
Environmental factors have almost no impact on your personality
Children in the same family are often very different
Do parents even matter?

18. Parents influence:
Attitudes (such as toward education)
Values
Manners
Faith
Politics
Less credit, less blame

19. Heritability “difference among people”
How much of the variation among people can be attributed to genes

20. Heritability of various traits
IQ: .22 at age 5, at old age
Interests (art, science etc.) .36
Psychiatric illnesses: Schizophrenia (.80), alcoholism (.50 to .60)
Religiousness: .11 to .22
Heritability of various traits

21. Heritability Group Differences
Heritable differences between individuals does not imply heritable group differences

22. Heritability Nature and Nurture
Influence of adaptation
Nature and nurture work together
Genes are self-regulating
They react to the
environment

23. Gene-Environment Interaction
Genes and experience interact
Evocative interactions
Mom likes you better! 

24. Natural Selection and Adaptation
Evolutionary psychology
Natural selection
Mutation
Adaptation
Fitness

25. Evolutionary Success Helps Explain Similarities
Behaviors that contribute to survival are found throughout cultures

26. Why are children often afraid of the dark?

27. Evolutionary Success Helps Explain Similarities Outdated Tendencies
Genetic traits which helped our ancestors survive may harm us today

28. Experience and Faculties
Repeated experiences modify neural tissue. We can change our brains! When is the brain’s plasticity highest?
Pruning
Courtesy of C. Brune

29. Brain Development and Adulthood
Brain development does not stop when we reach adulthood. Throughout our life, brain tissue continues to grow and change.
A well-learned finger-tapping task leads to
more motor cortical neurons (right) than baseline.

30. Peer Influence
In many ways, peers play a larger role than parents in shaping our behavior. What causes people to start smoking? Like a certain type of music? Wear certain clothes? Talk the way they talk? Evolutionary perspective on peers?
Ole Graf/ zefa/ Corbis

31. Differing preferences in partners
An Evolutionary Explanation of Human Sexuality Natural Selection and Mating Preferences
Differing preferences in partners
Male preferences
Female preferences

32. Men tend to look for:
Physical attractiveness and a youthful appearance

34. A man’s ideal women would look like…

36. Women tend to look for:
Maturity, dominance, status/affluence, and boldness

38. So a woman’s ideal man would look like…

41. Characteristics Characteristics
Preferred by Males Preferred by Females
1. Kindness and 1. Kindness and
understanding understanding
2. Intelligence Intelligence
3. Physical attractiveness 3. Exciting personality
4. Exciting personality 4. Good health
5. Good health Adaptability
6. Adaptability Physical attractiveness
7. Creativity Creativity
8. Desire for children 8. Good earning capacity
9. College graduate 9. College graduate
10. Good heredity Desire for children
11. Good earning capacity 11. Good heredity
12. Good housekeeper Good housekeeper
13. Religious orientation 13. Religious orientation

42. Critiquing the Evolutionary Perspective
Backward theorizing
Impact of social influence

43. Cultural Influences
Humans have the ability to evolve culture. Culture is composed of behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values and traditions shared by a group.

44. Jason Reed/ Reuters/Corbis
Variation Across Culture
Cultures differ. Each culture develops norms – rules for accepted and expected behavior. Men holding hands in Saudi Arabia is the norm (closer personal space), but not in American culture.
Jason Reed/ Reuters/Corbis

47. Variation Over Time
Cultures change over time. The rate of this change may be extremely fast. In many Western countries, culture has rapidly changed over the past 40 years or so.
This change cannot be attributed to changes in the human gene pool because genes evolve very slowly.

48. Culture and the Self
If a culture nurtures an individual’s personal identity, it is said to be individualist, but if a group identity is favored then the culture is described as collectivist.
A collectivist support system can benefit groups who experience disasters such as the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
Kyodo News

49. Gender Differences in Aggression
Men express themselves and behave
in more aggressive ways than do women.
This aggression gender gap appears
in many cultures and at various ages.
In males, the nature of this aggression
is physical. In the U.S. the male to female arrest rate is 9 to 1. Men are more likely to support war as a solution to international problems

50. Why men don’t ask for directions vid.

51. In 2005, men accounted for 84% of the governing parliaments.
Gender and Social Power
In most societies, men are socially dominant and are perceived as such.
In 2005, men accounted for 84% of the governing parliaments.

52. Gender Differences and Connectedness
Young and old, women form more connections (friendships) with people than do men Men emphasize freedom and self-reliance.
- Playgrounds
- How men stand
Oliver Eltinger/ Zefa/ Corbis
Dex Image/ Getty Images

53. A study of 30 countries, including the regions of Western Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa, found traits correlated with men to be: active, adventurous, aggressive, arrogant, autocratic, bossy, coarse, conceited, enterprising, hardheaded, loud, obnoxious, opinionated, opportunistic, pleasure-seeking, precise, quick, reckless, show-off, and tough
Traits correlated with women included: affected, affectionate, appreciative, cautious, changeable, charming, dependent, emotional, fearful, forgiving, modest, nervous, patient, pleasant, prudish, sensitive, sentimental, softhearted, timid, and warm

54. The New Frontier: Molecular Genetics
Molecular behavior genetics
Genetics and diseases
Genetics and ethics

55. The End

56. Definition Slides

57. = the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior.
Behavior genetics

58. = every non-genetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us.
Environment

59. = threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes.
Chromosomes

60. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
= a complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

61. = the biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA capable of synthesizing a protein.
Genes

62. = the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism’s chromosomes.
Genome

63. = twins who develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical organisms.
Identical Twins

64. = twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs
= twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs. They are genetically no closer than brothers and sisters, but they share a fetal environment.
Fraternal Twins

65. = the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.
Heritability

66. = the interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity).
Interaction

67. = the subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes.
Molecular Genetics

68. Evolutionary Psychology
= the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind,using principles of natural selection.
Evolutionary Psychology

69. = the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those that lead to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.
Natural Selection

70. = the random error in gene replication that leads to a change.
Mutation