Unit name | Genes and Behaviour |
---|---|
Unit code | PSYC30018 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1B (weeks 7 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. Haworth |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Psychological Science |
Faculty | Faculty of Life Sciences |
A surprising finding in genetics is that behavioural traits are just as heritable as physical health conditions. This unit will explore the different statistical methodologies for investigating the importance of genetic and environmental influence on behaviour, including twin and adoption designs, and DNA studies.
The aims of this unit are to provide students with a critical understanding of the methods in behavioural genetics, and how these have been used to investigate the roles of genes and environments in creating individual differences in behavioural outcomes.
On successful completion of this unit, a student will be able to:
Lectures and seminars.
2-hour written examination (70%) and 1600-word essay (30%).
Essential
Plomin, R., Defries, J. C., Knopik, V. S., & Neiderhiser, J. M. (2013). Behavioral genetics (6th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
Recommended
Bloss, C. S., Schork, N. J., & Topol, E. J. (2011). Effect of direct-to-consumer genomewide profiling to assess disease risk. New England Journal of Medicine, 364(6), 524-534.
Haworth, C. M. A. & Davis, O. S. P. (2014). From observational to dynamic genetics. Frontiers in Genetics, 5:6. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00006
Polderman, T. J. C., Benyamin, B., de Leeuw, C. A., Sullivan, P. F., van Bochoven, A., Visscher, P. M., & Posthuma, D. (2015). Meta-analysis of the heritability of human traits based on fifty years of twin studies. Nature Genetics, 47(7), 702-709.
Robinson, E. B., Koenen, K. C., McCormick, M. C., Munir, K., Hallett, V., Happé, F., Plomin, R., & Ronald, A. (2012). A multivariate twin study of autistic traits in 12-year-olds: Testing the fractionable autism triad hypothesis. Behavior Genetics, 42(2), 245-255.
Viding, E., Fontaine, N. M., Oliver, B. R., & Plomin, R. (2009). Negative parental discipline, conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits: Monozygotic twin differences study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 195(5), 414-9.
Recommended and further reading will be made available through Blackboard.