Description
Behavioral genetic methodologies drawn from twin and adoption studies will be described and applied to address long-standing questions about the origins of individual differences in behavioural traits.
Syllabus :
1. Week-1
- 1A: The Nature-Nurture Debate and Founding of Behavioral Genetics
- 1B: The Eugenics Movement
- 1C: What is Behavioral Genetics?
- 1D: The John/Joan Case
- 1E: Phenylketonuria (PKU)
- 1F: Huntington Disease - Supplementary
- Unit 1 Office Hours Video
2. Week-2
- 2A: Twins: A Natural Experiment
- 2B: How to Assess Twin Similarity
- 2C: Findings from Twin Studies
- 2D: Are Twin Studies Valid?
- 2E: Adoption Studies: Not by Twins Alone
- 2F: Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA)
- 2G: Conversation with Tom Bouchard - Supplementary
- Unit 2 Office Hours Video
3. Week-3
- 3A: Mendelian Inheritance (and Terminology)
- 3B: Galtonian Inheritance (aka Quantitative Genetics)
- 3C: How is Heritability Estimated?
- 3D: What Heritability Is and What It Is Not
- 3E: Gene-Environment Interaction
- 3F: Multivariate Approaches - Supplementary
- Unit 3 Office Hours Video
4. Week-4
- 4A: DNA
- 4B: What Is a Gene?
- 4C: Three Surprising Findings From the Human Genome Project
- 4D: Genetic Variation
- 4E: Williams Syndrome
- 4F: The X Chromosome
- 4G: Prader-Willi & Angelman Syndromes
- 4H: Genetic Regulation and Epigenetics
- 4I: Epigenetic Inheritance - Supplementary
- Unit 4 Office Hours Video
5. Week-5
- 5A: What Is Schizophrenia?
- 5B: The Epidemiology of Schizophrenia
- 5C: Twin and Adoption Studies of Schizophrenia
- 5D: What We Have Learned About Environmental Risk From Twin and Adoption Studies
- 5E: Identifying Schizophrenia Risk Alleles - The Positional Cloning Strategy
- 5F: Identifying schizophrenia risk alleles - The GWAS strategy
- 5G: Identifying schizophrenia risk alleles – rare variants
- 5H: Genetics, Race & Ancestry - Supplementary
- Unit 5 Office Hours Video
6. Week-6
- 6A: What Is intelligence?
- 6B: Twin, Adoption Studies, and The Heritability of General Cognitive Ability
- 6C: Heritability and The Malleability of General Cognitive Ability
- 6D: Gene-Environment Interplay In Studies of General Cognitive Ability
- 6E: Why is general cognitive ability heritable?
- 6F: Genetics of intellectual disability
- 6G: The replication crisis - Supplementary
- Unit 6 Office Hours Video
7. Week-7
- 7A: Shared versus Non-shared Environment Distinction
- 7B: The Moderating Effect of Development
- 7C: Gene-Environment Correlation
- 7D: Family Socialization: A Behavioral Genetic Perspective
- 7E: Gene-Environment Interaction II
- 7F: Genetics and Aging
- 7G: Epigenetics and twins - Supplementary
- Unit 7 Office Hours Video
8. Week-8
- 8A: Four Laws of Behavioral Genetics
- 8B: Behavior and Genomic Medicine
- 8C: Behavioral Genetics, the Law and Personal Responsibility, Part I
- 8D: Behavioral Genetics, the Law and Personal Responsibility, Part II
- 8E: Gottesman Interview
- 8F: Acknowledgements, Thank You, and Goodbye
- 8G: Genetic prediction - Supplementary
- Unit 8 Office Hours Video