Theoretical Advances in Behavior Genetics

The intention of this paper is to review the evidence support ing the major thesis that a knowledge of genetic architecture within a species gives clues to the evolution of behavior. To this end, a study of some of the origins of this idea, both within genetics and psychology, will be embarked upon, together with a review of the experimental evidence supportive of it. This review will concentrate on behavioral phenotypes, though not to the exclusion of other, usually morphological, character on which the original enunciation of the proposition was based. Essentially, the rationale is disarmingly simple. The study of the gene action governing a behavioral or other characteristic, by revealing the genetic architecture of the organism or species, indicates the forces of natural selection which have moulded the genetic architecture in the way that it is observed today. Thus natural selection leaves its imprint on the genome and it is argued that a sophisticated analysis of that genome in turn allows an inferential statement about the nature of those forces. It will be at once apparent that the substructure for this type of argument is that of Darwinian evolutionary theory, which is so widely and so pervasively accepted in contemporary biology that it seems hardly necessary to argue its case.

Klappentext

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Theoretical Advances in Behavior Genetics, Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada, September 29-October 8, 1978

Inhalt
Prologue.: The Need for unifying Theory.- Keynote Address: Genes, Molecules, Onganisms and Behavior.- Behavioral genetics and the general theory of evolution.- Molecular genetics of a stimulus-response system.- Whitaker's model of peripheral and central language systems.- Genetics, speech, and language.- Culture in non-human animals.- Two-way communication between man, chimpanzee and gorilla.- References.- I Evolutionary Theory and Behavior.- The Experimental Approach to Behavioral Evolution.- Ethotogy and the. Genetic Foundation of Animal Behaviour.- Genetical Constraints on Early Learning: A Perspective From Sexual Imprinting in Birds.- II Molecular Biology.- A Genetic Approach to Behavioral Plasticity and Rigidity.- Biological Trends in Behavior Genetics.- Familiar Likeness: Etiology and Function.- Adaptive, Significance of animal behavior: The role of gene-environment interaction.- IV Genetic Models.- Combining Data From Different Groups in Human Behavior Genetics.- Some, Implications of Biometrical Genetical Analysis for Psychological Research.- Genetic Correlations, Environmental Correlations, and Behavior.- V Methodological and Conceptual Issues.- A Critique of the Concept of Heritability and Heredity in Behavioral Genetics.- The Taxonomy of Psychophenes.- VI Psychological Theory.- Genetic Models, Theory of Personality and the Unification of Psychology.- The, Genetics of Information Processing.- The Factor-Gene Basis OF Individuality.- Epilogue, The Goals and Future of Behavior, Genetics.- Participants.- Author Index.