Unit 8: Summary, Public Policy & Prospects

MOOC Summaries - Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics - Four Laws of Behavioral Genetics

Unit 8: Summary, Public Policy & Prospects

“Four Laws of Behavioral Genetics… Behavior and Genomic Medicine… Behavioral Genetics, the Law and Personal Responsibility, Part I… Behavioral Genetics, the Law and Personal Responsibility, Part II – UPDATED… Interview with Irv Gottesman…  Acknowledgements, Thank You, and Goodbye…
Supplemental – Genetic Prediction… “
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Unit 7: Genes, Environment, and Development

MOOC Summaries - Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics - Gene-Environment

Unit 7: Genes, Environment, and Development

“Shared versus Non-shared Environment Distinction…The Moderating Effect of Development… Gene-Environment Correlation… Family Socialization: A Behavioral Genetic Perspective… Gene-Environment Interaction II – UPDATED… Genetics and Aging – UPDATED… Supplemental – Epigenetics and Twins…”
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Unit 6: Intelligence and General Cognitive Ability

MOOC Summaries - Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics - Intelligence and General Cognitive Ability

Unit 6: Intelligence and General Cognitive Ability

“What Is intelligence?… Twin, Adoption Studies, and The Heritability of General Cognitive Ability… Heritability and The Malleability of General Cognitive Ability… Gene-Environment Interplay In Studies of General Cognitive Ability… Why is General Cognitive Ability Heritable? – UPDATED… Genetics of Intellectual Disability – UPDATED… Supplemental – The Replication Crisis…”
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Unit 5: Schizophrenia

MOOC Summaries - Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics - Schizophrenia

Unit 5: Schizophrenia

“What Is Schizophrenia?… The Epidemiology of Schizophrenia… Twin and Adoption Studies… What We Have Learned About Environmental Risk From Twin and Adoption Studies…Identifying Risk Alleles – The Positional Cloning Strategy… Identifying Risk Alleles – The GWAS Strategy – UPDATED… Identifying Risk Alleles – Rare Variants And CNVs – UPDATED… Supplemental – Genetics, Race & Ancestry… ” 
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Unit 4: What Everyone Should Know About the Human Genome

MOOC Summaries - Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics - Human Genome

Unit 4: What Everyone Should Know About the Human Genome

“DNA… What Is a Gene?… Three Surprising Findings From the Human Genome Project… Genetic Variation.. Williams Syndrome… The X Chromosome… Prader-Willi & Angelman Syndromes… Genetic Regulation and Epigenetics… Supplemental – Epigenetic Inheritance… ” 
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Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics

MOOC Summaries - Introduction to Behavioral Genetics - Behavioral Genetics

Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics

Matt McGue, Regents Professor, Department of Psychology (and co-directs Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research)
University of Minnesota
“One of psychology’s defining issues concerns the origins of individual differences in behaviour… At the core to answering these questions is the ages-old “nature-nurture” debate: Are the behavioral differences among us due predominantly to inborn natural differences or the cumulative impact of our experiences? The nature-nurture debate generated much controversy and acrimony within psychology, although today most are willing to retire the debate and declare both sides victorious.
This course provides an introduction to behavioral genetics, the field within psychology that demonstrated that Nature and Nurture both play a fundamental role in the development of psychological traits. We will explore how early behavioral genetic research radically changed how psychologists conceptualized human behavior and how the mapping of the human genome is fundamentally altering current research approaches to a wide range of behavioral characteristics. The course will cover the traditional behavioral genetic methodologies of twin and adoption studies as well as modern approaches based on molecular genetic techniques.
… a basic understanding of… how behavioral genetic research has changed psychology’s view of human behavior… strengths and limitations of traditional behavioral genetic methodologies such as twin and adoption studies… the behavioral genetic approach to psychiatric phenotypes (to be illustrated by schizophrenia) and psychological phenotypes (to be illustrated by intelligence)… and the structure and function of the human genome and the prospects for identifying the specific genetic variants underlying individual differences in behavior…”
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