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Introduction to Human

Behavioral Genetics

Unit 1:

Introduction and Overview

The Nature-Nurture Debate and Founding of Behavioral Genetics

(Module A)

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

Humans are extraordinarily diverse . . . 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

Plato

Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons

Aristotle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle

And from deformed [parents] deformed [offspring] comes to be History of Animals

the best men must cohabit with the best women The Republic

http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420http://www.womansday.com/life/10-cursed-famous-families-105420

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Origins of Nature - Nurture

Caliban

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick

The Tempest

http://galton.org/

Founded Behavioral genetics Differential Psychology Biometry

Designed First human behavioral genetic study

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)

Hereditary Genius: Rate of eminence

in relatives of eminent men

Rate of Eminence

(1/4000) Relatives

Galton was an innovator

Suggested the value of twins

Developed method for fingerprinting

Developed system for communicating with Martians

Investigated the efficacy of prayer

Galton established an empirical foundation

for the study of inheritance

http://galton.org/

whenever you can, count

And engaged the Nature-Nurture debate

There is no escaping from the conclusion that nature prevails enormously over nurture

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

http://galton.org/

Francis Galton (1876)

http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/http://galton.org/

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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

Henry Herbert Goddard (1920)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_H._Goddard

Eugenics Movement

Eugenics - science that seeks to promote genetic/biological improvement of human society by influencing who does and does not reproduce.

if talented men were mated with talented women, , we might produce a highly-bred human race

Galton (1865)

Galton introduced the term eugenics (well-born)

Next time: We will explore the impact of the Eugenics Movement

Introduction to Human

Behavioral Genetics

Unit 1:

Introduction and Overview

The Eugenics Movement (Module B)

What you will learn about in Module B

The aims of the Eugenics Movement

How the Eugenics Movement impacted Psychology and Behavioral Genetics

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if talented men were mated with talented women, , we might produce a highly-bred human race

Galton (1865)

Galton introduced the term eugenics (well-born)

The Industrial Revolution, Urbanization, and the

Demographic Transition heighten concerns

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

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

Eugenicists did elaborate pedigree studies and popularized the movement through Fitter Family contests

Fitter Family Winner 1927 Texas State Fair

Average Family Winner Eastern States

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Their success is marked by the frequency of

naming U.S. baby boys Eugene

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

Eugenicists sought to influence public policy

Immigration Restriction Act of 1924

Sterilization Laws

. . . and their efforts were supported by the courts

Three generations of imbeciles is enough! Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1927)

Frequency of heritable keyword tracks

popularity of Eugene

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6

8

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1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s

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http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

Heritable Publications Babies Named Eugene

. . . and alternative radical views of human nature filled the void

Give me a dozen healthy infants well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and Ill 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 beggar-man 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

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeg

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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)

autistic children "were left neatly in refrigerators which did not defrost." Leo Kanner (1949)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/ databank/entries/bhfrom.html

Next Time: We will define behavior genetics and give an overview of the course

Introduction to Human

Behavioral Genetics

Unit 1:

Introduction and Overview

What is Behavioral Genetics? (Module C)

What you will learn about in Module C

What the field of Behavioral Genetics covers

The topics we will cover in this course

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.

Traditional BG methodologies include

(Unit 2):

Twin

Adoption

Family https://flic.kr/p/aENHs

Taken by Mary C. Allen, in Petersburg, AK, 1941

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/https://flic.kr/p/aENHshttps://flic.kr/p/aENHs

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Increasingly, behavioral geneticists analyze DNA (Week 3)

Photo SNRE on flickr

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.

The distinction between Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Genetics

Evolutionary Psychology concerned with how human evolution has shaped common psychological processes

Behavior Genetics concerned with how differences in our genomes contribute to our behavioral differences

Our study of Behavioral Genetics will focus

on two paradigmatic traits (or phenotypes)

Schizophrenia (Unit 4) a model for psychiatric genetic research

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

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What are the implications of behavioral genetic research? (Unit 8)

For genetic counseling and individualized medicine

In the courts

Future understanding of human behavior

Next Time: We will discuss the remarkable John/Joan case

Introduction to Human

Behavioral Genetics

Unit 1:

Introduction and Overview

The John/Joan Case (Module D)

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

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeg photo by Donna Coveney

[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-hide-childs-gender-in-bid-to-for-neutral-treatment/]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stpinker.jpeg

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John Moneys 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 Moneys 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

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 childs psychosexual differentiation and the ultimate outcome of a female or male gender identity. Money & Ehrhardt (1972)

John/Joan case had a profound impact

on academic psychology

. . . 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. Time Magazine - 8 January 1973

. . . yet some questioned the success of

the experiment

http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/2002/01/Courage.html

Milton Diamond

Picture of Milton Diamond

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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) (Module E)

Phenylketonuria (PKU) helps illustrate:

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

In 1934, Dr. Asbjrn Flling observed a

sibling pair with:

Severe intellectual disability

Irritable, hyperactive, subject to seizures

Eczema & hypopigmentation

Musty odor http://www.pkuworld.org/home/home.asp

PKU is an example of an Inborn Error of

Metabolism

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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

Question How does the PKU genotype produce the classic PKU phenotype?

Diagram of complex phenylalanine pathway

Pleiotropy

When one gene has multiple phenotypic effects

Phenylketonuria (PKU) helps illustrate:

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

1963 Guthrie test developed (all US states, many countries in world)

Cost of Untreated PKU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_DFZ0qwcpg

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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