Genes, Evolution, and Behaviour
Evolution
• Evolution: change in heritable traits in a
population over time
• Natural Selection: the process by which
evolution occurs
• “Survival of the fittest”
Behaviour
• Behaviour: an organisms actions in
response to some stimulus
Genes?
• Gene: basic unit of heredity
• How stuff is passed on from parent to offspring
• “You look like your mother”
• If you inherit something, you usually receive it
from an ancestor
DNA: Genetic Information
• Hereditary
• Inherited from parents
• Made up of bases
• adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine
(A, T, G, and C)
• Order of bases stores information
FYI
Chromosomes & Genes
Father Mother
23 Chromosomes 23 Chromosomes
You
46 Chromosomes
One pair of A gene on each
chromosomes chromosome
Father Mother
Gene B Gene B
Gene B helps determine eye
pigment colour
Father Mother
Gene B Gene B
The version of Gene B that you have
(also called an allele) determines which
coloured pigments you produce
Father Mother
Gene B Gene B
If you inherited a wild- If you inherited a
type allele from your mutant allele from your
father, you have the mother, you have a
original (unmutated) modified version of the
version of the gene gene
Brown Eyes Blue Eyes
How does your genotype affect your
phenotype?
Brown Eyes Blue Eyes
Allele Allele
Brown Eyed
Child
How does your genotype affect your
phenotype?
Brown Eyes Allele is Blue Eyes Allele is
dominant over Blue recessive to Brown
Eyes Allele Eyes Allele
Non-coding
DNA
Gene Gene Gene
Protein
Antibodies
Enzymes
Hormones
Structural bits
Etc.
FYI
Genotype vs. Phenotype
• Genotype:
• A person’s specific genetic makeup
• Phenotype:
• The observable characteristics due to the
genetic makeup
Genotype vs. Phenotype
Genotype Phenotype
• Specific genetic • Observable
makeup Characteristics
• Present from birth • Can be altered
• Unchanging • Other genes
• Environment
E.g. wild-type at gene X
E.g. height
How do genes work?
• They code for the production of proteins
• Complex, functional molecules made up of amino
acids
• Activation or deactivation of a gene can increase or
decrease protein production
• Change in protein levels can change functioning in
and around cells
Inheritance
• In somatic cells, humans have 46
chromosomes in 23 pairs
• One copy from mom, one from dad
• But with two copies, which do we see?
Inheritance
• If a gene in a pair is dominant, the
characteristic it controls will be displayed
• If a gene in a pair is recessive, the
characteristic will not show up unless the
partner gene is also recessive
One Gene? More?
• When a number of gene pairs combine to
crease a single phenotypic trait, know as
polygenic transmission
Epigenetics
• Lasting changes in gene expression during
development that are not caused by the
genes themselves
• External, or environmental, factors
Recombinant DNA Procedures
• Use enzymes to cut DNA into pieces
• Combine with DNA of another organism
• Insert combined DNA into host cell
•Useful for duplicating genes or the proteins the
genes make
FYI
Gene Knockout Procedure
• Alter a specific gene so it cannot function
• Observe results
• Problems:
• few behaviours linked to single genes
• multiple genes and systems can be involved
Behaviour Genetics
• The study of how genetic and
environmental components lead to changes
in behaviour
Terms
• Heredity: Passage of characteristics from
parents to offspring by way of genes
• Heritability: how much of the variation in a
characteristic within a population can be
attributed to genetic differences
Terms
•Heritability Coefficient: Estimate of how
much of a characteristic is due to genetic
factors
• aka Heritability Estimate
Heritability
•These coefficients
can vary
depending on the
population
studied
Terms
• Concordance Rate:
• Rate of co-occurrence of a characteristic
among individuals
• i.e., Chances of seeing two people with trait X?
• Higher rates with increasing relatedness =
possible genetic contribution
Adoption Studies
• Start with a person who was adopted at a
young age
• Compare some characteristic(s) of that
person with both biological and adoptive
parents
• Biological = genes; Adoptive = environment
Twin Studies
• Monozygotic and dizygotic twins share
differing amounts of genetic material
• Hard to tell environmental effects from
genetic effects (same environment)
• Twins adopted into separate families make
great case studies
Genetic Influences on Behaviour
Heredity of Intelligence
• If intelligence is genetically determined,
people with the same genes would have
equal IQs
• In reality, genes account for 50 - 70%
Reaction Range
• Range of possibilities that genetic code
allows
• Inherit range for potential expression
• Environmental effects determine where
person falls within these limits
Reaction Range
Heredity of Personality
• Need to study:
• Genetic contribution
• Shared family environment
• Unique individual experiences
Heredity of Personality
• Need 4 groups:
• Identical twins reared together and apart
• Fraternal twins reared together and apart
Personality Traits
• The “big five”
: #MoNr e
• Extraversion - Introversion energy/sociability
• Agreeableness kindness/trust
• Conscientiousness thought process
-
• Neuroticism emotional stability
- ↓
• Openness -
imagination/ innovation
ถึ
Heredity of Personality
• Minnesota Twin Study
• Genetic factors: 39-58%
• Unique experience: 36-56%
• Familial environment: little or no effect
Heredity of Personality
Genetic Relatedness
Father Mother
50%
50% 50%
50%
You Sibling
50%
(25% Maternal, 25% Paternal)
Genetic Relatedness
• Parent = 50%
• Grandparent = 25%
• Twins:
• Identical = 100%
• Fraternal = 50%
Evolutionary Psychology
• How have behaviour and actions evolved in
response to environmental demands?
• Based on theory of evolution
Theory of Evolution
• A slow change in the genes (and therefore
characteristics) of a population over time
• Population: an interbreeding set of individuals
• Changes occur due to heritable genetic
mutations
Natural Selection
• Heritable characteristics that increase your
likelihood of surviving remain in the
population and become more common over
time
• You don’t die therefore you pass on more
genes than those that did die
• Adaptations: the traits that occur due to
natural selection
The Human Brain
• Growth in areas associated with higher
mental processes
• Attention, memory, thought, language
• Evolution of behavior also impacted by
culture
Types of Adaptations
e
Broad widepurpos
:
• Broad: pecific reason
Speck
Domain
• Wide use
• E.g., learn language, logical reasoning
• Domain-specific:
• Solve a particular problem
• E.g., mate selection, choosing safe food
Social Adaptations in Humans
• Innate ability to acquire language
• Responsiveness to human faces
• Group-seeking behavior
• Some universal emotions
Evolutionary Personality Theory
• Limited dimensions to personality
• These dimensions are universal
• Extraversion, emotional stability (neuroticism)…
• Exist because they facilitate core behaviours
• E.g., survival, reproduction
Parental Investment
• Time, effort, energy, risk associated with
caring successfully for each offspring
• Humans invest a lot in a small number of
offspring (k-selected)
• Mice produce large numbers of offspring
and offer little care (r-selected)
Parental Investment
• The two parents may not invest equally in
offspring
• These sex differences in investment can
explain mating systems (Trivers, 1972)
Altruism and Cooperation
• Cooperation:
• One individual helps another and gains some
advantage
• E.g., cooperating to achieve a goal
• Altruism:
• One individual helps another but there are
costs involved
• E.g., putting oneself in danger to help another
Altruism: Theories
• Kin Selection Theory:
• Arose to increase likelihood of relatives
surviving
• E.g., help individuals with similar genes
• Reciprocal Altruism Theory:
• Contributes to long-term cooperation
• E.g., I help you now, you help me later
Kin Selection Theory
• If true, we should see:
• Positive relationship
between acts of altruism
and degree of relatedness
• I.e., more altruistic acts
toward relatives
Reciprocal Altruism Theory
• If true, we should see:
• Individuals should remember how has and has
not helped in the past
• Help the helpers
• Ignore the ignorers
• Does not require relatedness
Aggression
• May have evolved to:
• protect one’s mate, young, territory, food
• take another’s resources
• gain access to new resources
Aggression
• In social animals, individuals can recognize
individuals and remember past encounters
• Dominance hierarchies
• animals fight once to establish “rank” then that
position and the access that comes with it are
set
• e.g., “pecking order”
Thought Pitfalls
• Genetic determinism:
• False idea that the effects of genes are
concrete and unchangeable
• Social Darwinism:
• False idea that those at the top of social
hierarchy are the “best”
• I.e., survival of the fittest and the less fit need to go
• Defending the status quo:
• Trait came from evolution - it must be good