Genetics behavioural

It has become one of the commonplaces in this area, however, that such behavioural genetic stories are regularly trumpeted in the popular press and almost always withdrawn without ceremony in the professional scientific literature a few weeks or months later. 

There is no reason to think that the other kind of hypothetical module, the kind exemplified by the rape module that directs different responses to different situations, will be any less susceptible to developmental variation than quasi-deterministic modules such as the homosexuality module. Plus, for that matter, there is no particular reason to suppose that there will be less initial genetic variability in cases such as the rape module. So perhaps the perspectives of evolutionary psychology and behavioural genetics should not be seen as fundamentally disparate. 

Gerlai, R., Lahav, M., Guo, S., and Rosenthal, A., Drinks like a fish Zebra fish (Danio rerio) as a behaviour genetic model to study alcohol effects, Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav., 67, 773-792,2000. 

Gerlai, R., Zebra fish an unchartered behaviour genetic model, Behav. Genet., 33,461-468,2003. 

Jallon J.-M. (1984) Afew chemical words exchanged by Drosophila during courtship and mating. Behaviour Genetics 14, 441-478. 

Behavioural genetic analyses provide support for a theory that assumes that the unitary structure of g derives from the influence of genotypes on phenotypic manifestations ofg. Four different kinds of analyses are relevant. 

Psychometric, experimental, behavioural genetic and sociologically oriented research may be construed as supporting a hegemonic position for g. g is the essential construct in the domain of intellect. 

The paradox of heritable variation for adaptive (and their logically necessary complement, maladaptive) traits applies more generally than merely to intelligence. Indeed, in the human behaviour genetics literature most traits are moderately heritable. (Elsewhere I have recommended the generalization that =0.40 0.20 as Bailey s Law [Bailey 1997].) This appears to be true even of traits associated with reproductive success, such as schizophrenia versus... 

Brody Reynolds et al (1996) studied the behaviour genetics of assortative mating. The paper indicates that assortative mating occurs as a result of social homogamy. 

Rutter Throughout the whole of the meeting no one has questioned the value of either quantitative or molecular behaviour genetics. What will either tell us about the nature of intelligence, however, and does the conjunction of evolutionary psychology add to this ... 

Ecology is the most obvious discipline affected by the inability to correctly identify organisms, but obviously all field studies (behaviour, genetics, parasitology, demography, etc.) depend on a capacity to recognize taxa in other words, to be able to practice taxonomy, at least at a basic level Evolutionary studies are also involved. Thus the adaptationist... 

King J (1967) In Behaviour genetic analysis. Academic Press, London New York, pp 130-157... 

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