Deck 6: Genetics and Personality

Question 1

_____ refers to individual differences in the collection of genes of each person.

A)Heritability
B)Phenotypic variance
C)Genotypic variance
D)Environmentality

Answer 1

Genotypic variance

Question 2

Which one of the following is NOT one of the fears about genetic research?

A)Genetic research will lead to the development of "designer" babies.
B)If criminal behavior is genetic then attempts at rehabilitation will be fruitless.
C)Decoding genetic differences will reveal complexities in human nature.
D)Genetic research will marginalize research in other areas of psychology.

Answer 2

Decoding genetic differences will reveal complexities in human nature.

Question 3

The Human Genome Project has

A)been a large failure.
B)identified the sequence of DNA molecules in humans.
C)identified the functions of most human genes.
D)discovered that people differ widely in their particular genes.

Answer 3

identified the sequence of DNA molecules in humans.

Question 4

The percentage of variance in a group of individuals that can be attributed to nongenetic differences is called

A)heritability.
B)phenotypic variance.
C)genotypic variance.
D)environmentality.

Question 5

The "Jim twins"

A)prove that personality traits are heritable.
B)prove the effects of nonshared family environments.
C)are very similar despite having been separated at birth.
D)are identical in all ways.

Question 6

All human genes are located somewhere on one of _____ pairs of chromosomes.

A)12
B)17
C)23
D)32

Question 7

The term _____ refers to the complete set of genes an organism possesses.

A)"genome"
B)"eugenics"
C)"phenotypic"
D)"genotypic"

Question 8

The goal of the Human Genome Project is to

A)identify which genes are related to personality.
B)identify the particular sequence of DNA molecules in humans.
C)identify genotypic variance.
D)solve the nature-nurture debate once and for all.

Question 9

Which of the following statements about heritability is NOT true?

A)Heritability can be applied to an individual.
B)Heritability can change over time.
C)The heritability of the same trait can be different in different groups.
D)The phenotype is the expression of a characteristic's genotype.

Question 10

If the heritability of sociability is .30, the environment is responsible for

A)70 percent of phenotypic variation.
B)70 percent of genotypic variation.
C)30 percent of phenotypic variation.
D)30 percent of genotypic variation.

Question 11

_____ refers to observed differences among individuals.

A)Heritability
B)Phenotypic variance
C)Genotypic variance
D)Environmentality

Question 12

The human genome contains about _____ separate genes.

A)10,000-15,000
B)20,000-40,000
C)30,000-40,000
D)1,000,000-2,000,000

Question 13

Most psychologists who study genetics

A)support the idea of eugenics.
B)believe creating "designer babies" is a worthwhile goal.
C)believe that the environment does not contribute to personality.
D)are interested in the causes of individual differences.

Question 14

Behavioral geneticists are generally NOT interested in the

A)percentage of variance due to environment.
B)percentage of variance due to genes.
C)percentage of genetic variance in an individual.
D)ways in which genes and the environment interact to form personality.

Question 15

_____ refers to the proportion of variance in a group of individuals that can be accounted for by genetic variance.

A)Heritability
B)Phenotypic percentage of variance
C)The genome
D)Eugenics

Question 16

If the heritability of a trait is very large, then the _____ of the trait is small.

A)phenotypic variance
B)genotypic variance
C)environmentality
D)genomic variance

Question 17

The fact that Americans are, on average, 2 inches taller than a hundred years ago demonstrates that

A)the environment determines height.
B)the environment can contribute to highly heritable traits.
C)height is not heritable.
D)height is only slightly heritable.

Question 18

If a score for a characteristic is divided into its different causes researchers are typically assessing the _____ due each of the causes of that score.

A)genotype-environment interaction
B)genotype-environment correlation
C)percentage of variance
D)environmentalism

Question 19

The idea that people with "desirable" characteristics should be encouraged to have children while "less desirable" people should be discouraged from having children is called

A)eugenics.
B)molecular genetics.
C)selective placement.
D)heritability.

Question 20

The proportion of phenotypic variation in a group of individuals due to genetic variance is called

A)"heritability."
B)the "phenotypic percentage of variance."
C)the "genome."
D)"eugenics."

Question 21

Aunts and uncles share, on average, _____ percent of their genes with nieces and nephews.

A)0
B)12.5
C)25
D)50

Question 22

_____ are also known as "monozygotic twins."

A)Fraternal twins
B)Genotypic twins
C)Identical twins
D)Phenotypic twins

Question 23

A parent shares, on average, _____ percent of his or her genes with each child.

A)25
B)50
C)75
D)100

Question 24

The use of selective breeding in animals can be used to study

A)sexual selection pressures for behaviors.
B)the heritability of behaviors.
C)natural selection pressures for behaviors.
D)the dominance hierarchies of animals.

Question 25

If we were attempting to determine how much of George's personality was due to genetics and how much were due to the environment we would

A)measure George's genome.
B)compare George to his siblings.
C)be asking an impossible question.
D)map his chromosomes

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT a problem with the family-study method?

A)Family members sharing environments.
B)The degree of genetic similarity is often correlated with environmental similarity.
C)Siblings may share traits because they grew up in the same household.
D)The fact that parents contribute 50 percent of their genes to each child.

Question 27

A trait is likely to be heritable if _____ are more similar in that trait than _____.

A)dizygotic twins; monozygotic twins
B)monozygotic twins; dizygotic twins
C)ordinary siblings; dizygotic twins
D)dizygotic twins; ordinary siblings

Question 28

Which of the following could potentially develop from a single fertilized egg?

A)All siblings
B)Fraternal twins
C)Identical twins
D)Zygotic twins

Question 29

At the level of the individual

A)there is no nature-nurture debate.
B)genes are useful in studying personality.
C)the idiographic genetic approach should be used.
D)genes determine most of personality.

Question 30

Which of the following share 100 percent of their genes?

A)Parents and children
B)All siblings
C)Dizygotic twins
D)Monozygotic twins

Question 31

Which of the following methods provides the LEAST conclusive evidence that a trait is heritable?

A)Family studies
B)Twin studies
C)Adoption studies
D)Selective breeding

Question 32

Selective breeding in dogs demonstrates that

A)behavioral traits can be heritable.
B)human personality is heritable.
C)the equal environments assumption is not violated.
D)the representativeness assumption is not violated.

Question 33

Dizygotic twins share _____ genes compared to ordinary siblings, and _____ genes compared to monozygotic twins.

A)the same amount; less
B)more; less
C)more; more
D)less; more

Question 34

If a trait is highly heritable,

A)all family members will possess the trait.
B)all children in the family will possess the trait.
C)the more closely family members are genetically related; the more similar they will be on the trait.
D)all members of the population will possess the trait.

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT a reason why heritability can vary?

A)It is an imprecise estimate.
B)Environments change.
C)Unreliability in measurement.
D)Heritability coefficients are fixed in a population.

Question 36

Which of the following methods in NOT used with humans?

A)Selective breeding
B)Twin studies
C)Adoption studies
D)Family studies

Question 37

For selective breeding to be successful, the desired trait must

A)be entirely under genetic control.
B)occur in all offspring.
C)be heritable.
D)not effected by the environment

Question 38

The technical term for dividing a trait's score genetic and environmental variance at the population level is called

A)apportioning.
B)subdivision.
C)partitioning.
D)extrapolating.

Question 39

The argument over whether the environment or genes determines personality is known as

A)the eugenics debate.
B)the nature-nurture debate.
C)heritability.
D)the equal environments assumption.

Question 40

_____ is shown when successive generations show more and more of a trait.

A)Shared environment
B)Selective breeding
C)Genotype-environment correlation
D)The equal environments assumption

Question 41

One of the most common formulas for assessing heritability is

A)heritability = (r_dz - r_mz).
B)heritability² = (r_mz - r_dz).
C)heritability² = 2(r_mz - r_dz).
D)heritability = 2(r_mz - r_dz).

Question 42

Combining adoption studies and twin studies

A)methodologically is not appropriate in behavior genetics studies.
B)provides an especially powerful method for studying behavior genetics.
C)requires selective breeding over many generations of lab animals.
D)provides an error-free estimate of heritability for behavior genetics studies.

Question 43

Which of the following could be a violation of the equal environments assumption?

A)Dressing identical twins in the identical clothes.
B)Dressing fraternal twins in the identical clothes.
C)Twins are treated differently than other children.
D)Fraternal twins are similar to ordinary siblings.

Question 44

Selective placement is a potential problem with behavior genetics studies as it artificially inflates the

A)estimates of genetic influences.
B)estimates of nonshared family environment.
C)estimates of environmental influences.
D)effects of the equal environments assumption.

Question 45

An advantage of adoption studies is that they

A)depend on the equal environments assumption.
B)depend on the representativeness assumption.
C)do not depend on the equal environments assumption.
D)do not depend on the representativeness assumption.

Question 46

Chimpanzees show moderate heritability for dominance and

A)extraversion.
B)well-being.
C)aggressiveness.
D)sociability.

Question 47

A trait is heritable if

A)adoptive parents and the children they have adopted have similar levels of a characteristic.
B)the biological parents of children they placed for adoption have similar levels of a characteristic.
C)adoptive parents and biological parents of a child have similar levels of a characteristic.
D)the children that have been adopted have levels of a characteristic that are similar to those of the other siblings in the home.

Question 48

Recent findings from behavioral genetics and brain research point to the possibility that sexual orientation may

A)be heritable only in men.
B)be heritable only in women.
C)be heritable in both women and men.
D)not be at all heritable.

Question 49

If adopted children differ in important ways from most other people, it would violate the _____ assumption.

A)representativeness
B)equal environments
C)eugenics
D)shared family environment

Question 50

Most major personality traits

A)have been found to be moderately heritable.
B)have been found to be not at all heritable.
C)have not been studied with respect to heritability.
D)are more heritable than height.

Question 51

The personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism have been found to be

A)highly heritable.
B)moderately heritable.
C)slightly heritable.
D)not at all heritable.

Question 52

Jerold was adopted by his mother's sister (his maternal aunt) and his uncle.If he were to participate in a behavior genetics study his scores would

A)skew the results to favor the percentage of the variance for his scores to genetic influences.
B)skew the results to favor the percentage of the variance for his scores to environmental influences.
C)the results of his test scores would be skewed to show the greater effects of maternal influences.
D)the results of his test scores would not bias the effects for either the genes or the environment.

Question 53

Mary Jo and Bobbi Jo are identical twins.Their parents dress them alike, put them in the same classes and treat them identically.If Betty Jo and Mary Jo were selected to participate in a twin study, they may contaminate the results by leading to a violation of the _____ assumption.

A)Nonshared family variance
B)Shared family environment
C)Equal environments
D)Confluence effects

Question 54

Which of the following estimates heritability most accurately?

A)The difference between the correlations of MZ twins and DZ twins.
B)Twice the difference between the correlations of MZ twins and DZ twins.
C)One-half the difference between the correlations of MZ twins and DZ twins.
D)Multiplying the correlations between MZ twins and DZ twins.

Question 55

The equal environments assumption states that

A)all people in a population share similar environments.
B)dizygotic twins are not treated differently from monozygotic twins.
C)twins are not treated differently from ordinary siblings.
D)parents treat all their children the same.

Question 56

Which of the following is probably most heritable?

A)Drinking behavior in men.
B)Drinking behavior in women.
C)Alcoholism in men and women.
D)Alcoholism is not heritable.

Question 57

Which of the following attitudes has been found to be somewhat heritable?

A)Traditionalism
B)Belief in God
C)Involvement in religious activities
D)Attitudes about racial integration

Question 58

______ traits show moderate to high heritability.

A)Psychopathic
B)Religious
C)Idiographic
D)Political

Question 59

If the correlation between adoptive parents' traits and adopted children's traits is high we can assume

A)a genetic influence.
B)an environmental influence.
C)an influence of shared environment.
D)adoptive parents pick children similar to themselves.

Question 60

Researchers have studied cases where parents were wrong about whether their twins were identical or fraternal to address

A)shared environments.
B)selective breeding.
C)genotype-environment correlation.
D)the equal environments assumption.

Question 61

Shared family environment is BEST expressed by which of the following?

A)The friends a child selects while growing up.
B)A shared family vacation.
C)A parent's rapid rise up the corporate ladder.
D)Differential effects of grandparenting on children.

Question 62

Juanita is a fantastic basketball player.She has great innate ability.She is tall, agile, and has a great head for the game.Her parents take every opportunity to send her to basketball camps and clinics, and make sure she gets extra coaching.Juanita's basketball skills are due to a genotype-environment

A)interaction.
B)correlation.
C)variance.
D)concordance.

Question 63

Genotype-environment _____ describes what occurs when people with different genotypes are exposed to different environments.

A)interaction
B)correlation
C)variance
D)concordance

Question 64

The number of books in a child's home is an example of

A)phenotypic variance.
B)genotypic variance.
C)shared environment.
D)nonshared environment.

Question 65

The idea that individuals with different genotypes respond differently to the same environmental cues is called

A)passive genotype-environment interaction.
B)genotype-environment interaction.
C)active genotype-environment correlation.
D)genotype-environment correlation.

Question 66

A child shows early musical ability, which causes her parents to buy a piano for her.This scenario demonstrates the idea of genotype-environment

A)interaction.
B)correlation.
C)variance.
D)concordance.

Question 67

David, an extravert, and Tom, is an introvert, are studying in a small room with the television's volume is quite loud.Based on what you know about genotype-environment interactions, what can you say about how effectively the two are studying?

A)Tom will most likely study better then David due the background noise of the television.
B)David will find the television much more distracting than Tom will.
C)Tom will find the television much more distracting than David will.
D)Both David and Tom will start watching television and scheme to move the test back one week.

Question 68

All of these are significant shared family environment variables EXCEPT

A)smoking and drinking.
B)gender nonconformity.
C)verbal intelligence.
D)health behavior.

Question 69

Evidence for the extremely small effects of shared family environment includes the low correlations

A)across biological siblings for personality traits.
B)between adopted children's personality traits in the same family.
C)between adopted and biological children in the same family for personality traits.
D)between adopted children and their parents personality traits.

Question 70

Winston, the son of a professional musician, grew up surrounded by many musical instruments in his home.This is an example of a _____ genotype-environment correlation.

A)interclass
B)active
C)passive
D)reactive

Question 71

Nonshared family environment is best expressed as those aspects of the family environment that

A)are uniquely experienced by the family.
B)are uniquely experienced by an individual family member.
C)are hoarded by the family members.
D)represent differential genetic dimorphism

Question 72

Research on brain differences between homosexual and heterosexual men has found some evidence that homosexual men have

A)brains substantially more like women's brains than heterosexual males' brains.
B)substantially larger ascending reticular activating systems than heterosexual men.
C)substantially smaller medial preoptic regions of the hypothalamus than heterosexual men.
D)substantially smaller occipital lobes of the brain than heterosexual men.

Question 73

A yearly family trip to Uncle Earl and Aunt Eunice's farm would be considered part of the _____ environment.

A)shared common family
B)nonshared family
C)family experiential
D)phenotypic family

Question 74

_____ refers to the unique things that happen to one sibling and not another.

A)Phenotypic variance
B)Genotypic variance
C)Shared environment
D)Nonshared environment

Question 75

According to recent research (e.g., the Bailey et al.study discussed in the text as support for Bem's 1995 theory), it appears that

A)sexual orientation is extremely heritable.
B)childhood gender nonconformity may be the inherited component of adult sexual orientation.
C)gender nonconformity is not heritable.
D)homosexuals' brains are the same as heterosexuals' brains.

Question 76

Barbara is a renowned naturalist.Her parents were both park rangers and she grew up in various national parks.Barbara's predilection to become a naturalist was most likely due to a ______ genotype-environment correlation.

A)active
B)positive
C)negative
D)passive

Question 77

Which of the following is NOT a type of genotype-environment correlation?

A)Interclass
B)Active
C)Passive
D)Reactive

Question 78

Which of the following is an example of a shared environmental influence?

A)A child's friends
B)The grades a child gets
C)Special treatment from a parent
D)Parents' values and attitudes

Question 79

Research indicates that shared environmental factors correlate about _____ with personality.

A).05
B).25
C).50
D).65

Question 80

One problem with attempting to study the effects of nonshared family environment is that

A)there are myriad environmental variables that affect personality, but each may have only a small effect.
B)the nonshared environmental effects on each child in the family are too subtle to analyze with current methods.
C)the effects of shared family environments interfere with clearly observing the effects of the nonshared family environments.
D)the equal environments assumption is violated by variables attributable to nonshared family environment.