heritability

Examples of heritability in the following topics:

• Genetic and Environmental Impacts on Intelligence

  • Some traits, like eye color, are highly heritable and can be easily traced.
  • However, even highly heritable traits are subject to environmental influences during development.
  • However, the heritability of IQ in juvenile twins is much lower at 0.45.
  • Thus, despite the high heritability of IQ, we can determine that there is an environmental influence as well.
  • This chart illustrates patterns in studies of heritability of traits in certain individuals.

• Nature vs. Nurture

  • Individual development, even of highly heritable traits such as eye color, depends not only on heritability but on a range of environmental factors, such as the other genes present in the organism and the temperature and oxygen levels during development.
  • However, some traits which reflect underlying talents and temperaments—such as how proficient at a language, how religious, or how liberal or conservative—can be partially heritable.
  • Trait A shows a high sibling correlation but little heritability (illustrating the importance of environment).
  • Trait B shows a high heritability, since the correlation of the trait rises sharply with the degree of genetic similarity.
  • Trait C shows low heritability as well as low correlation generally, suggesting that the degree to which individuals display trait C has little to do with either genes or predictable environmental factors.

• Gene-Environment Correlations: Nature or Nurture?

  • Parents create a home environment that is influenced by their own heritable characteristics.
  • Since intelligence is moderately heritable, it can be argued that intelligence in the child is inherited rather than a factor of the home environment created by the parents.
  • Evocative gene-environment correlation happens when an individual's (heritable) behavior evokes an environmental response.
  • Studies of adult twins are used to investigate which traits are heritable.

• Genetics, the Brain, and Personality

  • These findings suggest the heritability of some personality traits, implying that some aspects of our personalities are largely controlled by genetics.
  • Twin studies have shown that heritable factors are not the only predictor of personality or even diseases such as schizophrenia; the biological perspective does not fully address non-heritable factors.

• The Influence of Genes on Behavior

  • Behavioral genetics studies heritability of behavioral traits, and it overlaps with genetics, psychology, and ethology (the scientific study of human and animal behavior).

• Evaluating the Biological Perspective on Personality

  • Twin studies have shown that heritable factors are not the only predictor of personality, or even diseases such as schizophrenia; however the biological perspective does not fully address these additional factors.

• Genetic Basis of Intelligence and Learning

  • There has been significant controversy in the academic community about the heritability of IQ, or Intelligence Quotient, which seeks to determine to what extent an individual's IQ level is influenced by genetics.

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder

  • Although there have been few investigations into the disorder's heritability, a summary of available family and twin studies suggests that genetic factors play a moderate role in its development (Hettema et al., 2001).

• Panic Disorder and Panic Attacks

  • ., 2001), and family and twins studies indicate that the heritability of panic disorder is around 43% (Hettema, Neale, & Kendler, 2001).

• Cluster A: Paranoid, Schizoid, and Schizotypal Personality Disorders

  • Research has found that an individual is more likely to meet the criteria for SPD if they have a relative with schizophrenia or schizotypal personality disorder; this suggests that genetics play a partial role in heritability of this disorder.