Psyc 3102: Behavioral Genetics (Carey)
Final Exam Questions (Spring 2015)
Instructions: Below are a series of questions, some of which will appear verbatim on the
final exam. You may prepare for the final in any way you wish (e.g., study with friends, see
me, compose your answers beforehand), but the actual final will be closed book and closed
notes.
Define:
1) set point model of personality stability and change
2) meritocracy
3) heritocracy
4) smorgasbord model of personality development
5) heritability
6) environmentability
8) endophenotype
9) naturalistic fallacy
10) shifting-balancing theory of evolution
Essay Questions:
1) Name and define the five forces of human evolution.
2) Consider the following statement: "The United States of America is a vast melting pot.
Among its people are many groups of Native Americans, the original inhabitants of the New
World, as well as immigrants--some willing and some not so willing--from every area of the
world. People of different ethnic backgrounds have been marrying one another even
before the USA even became its own nation, and this process has been accelerating in
recent years. In evolutionary terms, the USA is beginning to develop its own race--the
American race." Critically evaluate this statement in terms of the social definition of race
and the genetic definition of race that we learned in class.
3) Here is a complicated statement: "Empirical evidence suggests that being raised in the
same family does not make siblings similar to one another in personality. However, these
same data cannot be used to say that parents have no influence on their children's
behavior." Give a lucid and common sense explanation of this statement to a layperson
who is educated but does not have much training in psychology. Make certain to include
the types of empirical data on which the above statement rests.
4) The following is a quote from a behavioral geneticist: “If a strong meritocracy evolves in
this country [i.e., USA], it is more likely to be an educationally-driven meritocracy than an
IQ-driven meritocracy.” Give a 2 to 3 sentence, COGENT explanation of this statement.
5) Describe the relationship among genes, intelligence (as measured by intelligence tests),
and social stratification in modern industrialized society.
6) The phenomenon of personal ornamentation (i.e., fashion in clothes, hair, jewelry,
tattoos, etc.) is found in every human culture. As is readily apparent to anyone who
watches National Geographic and old movies, ornamentation varies tremendously from
one culture to another and also changes over time within a single culture. There are also
marked individual differences in ornamentation within a culture. To my knowledge, no
one has ever done a twin or adoption study of ornamentation, but the results would
probably show a moderate degree of heritability.
Using your knowledge of both evolutionary psychology AND the genetics of
individual differences in behavior, write a lucid and coherent theoretical account of how
genes might relate to personal ornamentation. Do not forget to answer both parts of this
question!
7) An asteroid strikes earth and results in the extinction of all human populations except
for two--a group of native South American Indians living in the Andes and a population
inhabiting the mountains of Ethiopia. The two populations grow in size and expand their
areas until after several thousands of years, they eventually meet. Answer the following
questions about this fictitious scenario.
a.) Genetically, how similar and how different would these two populations be?
b.) On what phenotypic behavioral traits are they likely to differ the most?
c.) On what phenotypic behavioral traits are they likely to be most similar?
d.) Would you be able to distinguish the two populations by external morphology?
e.) Give reasons for your answers to the above three questions.
8) Describe the role that culture has played in human evolution and give two specific
examples of how culture has (probably) influenced the evolution of our species.
9) The following is an actual statement made to your professor by a very high ranking
person in the Department of Justice—“If crime is genetic, then the implications for the
penal system and the concept of rehabilitation are enormous.” Using your knowledge of
the major conclusions to this course and of the concepts of heritability and
environmentability, compose a lucid response to this statement.
10) Assortative mating:
a) Define assortative mating.
b) Give three traits on which we humans assort most strongly.
c) Give two traits on which we humans do not assort, but most people suspect we would
assort on.
d) Give the two mechanisms thought to be most important for assortative mating and
what is known about the relative importance of these two mechanisms for assortment.
11) Give four different generalizations from the empirical data on the genetics of
personality.
12) The following is a quote from Stephen Jay Gould in a critique on The Bell Curve. "The
general claim is neither uninteresting nor illogical, but it does require the validity of four
shaky premises, all asserted (but hardly discussed or defended) by Herrnstein and Murray.
Intelligence, in their formulation, must be depictable by a single number, capable of ranking
people in linear order, genetically based, and effectively immutable. If any of these
premises are false, their entire argument collapses." Stephen Jay Gould, "Curveball," The
New Yorker, November 28, 1994.
In class, we did not fully discuss the issues of representing IQ by a single number
and linearly ordering people by this, so it is not necessary for you to treat these issues.
Otherwise answer the questions below about this quote:
a) What does the empirical evidence suggest about intelligence being "genetically based"?
b) How necessary is the “genetically based” assumption for Herrnstein and Murray?
c) What does the empirical evidence suggest about intelligence being "effectively
immutable"?
d) Gould later goes on to say that because of the failures of these assumptions, intelligence
(as measured by IQ tests) plays no role in eventual social status. Criticize this conclusion.
13) Describe the Flynn effect, what is known about it, what is not known about it, and the
implications of the Flynn effect for group differences in intelligence.
14) The following is an actual statement made to your professor by a very high ranking
person in the Department of Justice—“If crime is genetic, then the implications for the
penal system and the concept of rehabilitation are enormous.” Using your knowledge of
the major conclusions to this course and of the concepts of heritability and
environmentability, compose a lucid response to this statement.
15) Much has been made in this course of the fact that behavioral genetics is moving into
the area of explaining the “how” of heritability and away from documenting the fact of
heritability. Like every substantive behavior, divorce has a moderate heritability. How
would behavioral geneticists go about explaining the “how” of the heritability of divorce?
16) Briefly give an overview of the results on the genetics of psychopathology, including
prospects for the future.
17) Describe how the study of an endophenotype can help us learn more about the genetics
of psychopathology.
18) Parental investment theory has been used by a number of evolutionary psychologists
to explain differences in sexual behavior between men and women. The theory states that
the parent that invests the more time and energy in conceiving and raising offspring will be
the choosier mate. In terms of the physical capabilities for procreation, a human male has
the potential to father hundreds of children. A human female, being limited by nine months
of pregnancy and many more months of nursing, can never physically have as many
potential offspring as a male. Hence, the argument goes, human females are likely to be
much “chooiser” of a sex partner than human males.
Like many behaviors, however, technology and culture can change the “biological
rules” that evolved for millennia before that technology came on the scene. With modern
methods of contraception, the probability of an unplanned pregnancy is reduced and hence,
both men and women can engage in sex without the risk of “parental investment” that
happened in the past. Write two paragraphs on how modern contraception may or may
not impact parental investment theory and the issue of which gender will be “choosier” in
terms of sex partners.
19) What are “idiosyncratic parental effects?” What role might they play in the estimation
of “common [i.e., familial] environmental effects” on personality? What is empirically
known about these effects?
20) The biggest “genetic marker” for alcoholism is the Y chromosome. Give a plausible
scenario of how the Y might have achieved this status.
21) The biggest “genetic marker” for anxiety disorders is the absence of the Y
chromosome. Give a plausible scenario of how the XX genotype achieved this status.
22) The President of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, was an invited speaker at a
recent conference sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research on the issue of
gender and minority differences in top-level positions of science, math, and engineering. At
that meeting, he acknowledged many of the traditionally-stated reasons for such gender
differences but also brought up the possibility that biology and genetics might play a role in
these differences.
According to news reports of the meeting, some participants viewed his remarks as
“healthily provocative” while others were offended. A small furor erupted and Dr.
Summers “eventually apologized for his remarks”
(http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/20/harvard.summers.ap/).
Using all your knowledge about what you have been taught thus far in this course
(and, of course, all that you have been taught in other courses), write a coherent twoparagraph statement on how genetic differences between men and women might or might
not contribute to the observed prevalence of men over women in academic positions of
math, science, and engineering.
23) Why do many population geneticists eschew the word “race” and instead prefer to use
the word “population?”
24) Describe how the studies of fears and phobias illustrate principles of evolutionary
psychology and the genetics of individual differences.