Suchergebnisse

The last several decades have witnessed remarkable advances in neurobiological approaches, including evolutionary, neuropsychological, behavioral genetic, and physiological methods to explore individual differences in social and political phenomena. In this special issue, we seek to include these advances into the greater political psychology discourse through a series of articles focused on topics of enduring interest to political psychologists, such as candidate evaluation, voter turnout, race, and public preferences concerning social welfare policy.

Are people free to make choices, or do genes determine behavior? Paradoxically, the answer to both questions is "yes," because of neurogenetic individuality, a new theory with profound implications. This theory emerged from gene discoveries by Dr. Goldman and his colleagues which have been recently published in 'Nature'. Genetic studies reveal pathways from DNA to behavior that are helping us understand the diversity of human behavior and behavior of other species. In this book, the complexity of human behavior and a person's ability to choose is explained as deriving from a relatively small number of genes which direct neurodevelopmental sequence. The author uses judicial, political, medical, and ethical examples to illustrate that this lifelong process is guided by individual genotype, molecular and physiologic principles, as well as by randomness and environmental exposures we choose and do not choose. Poses and resolves challenges to moral responsibility raised by modern genetics and neuroscience Preface will be written by a world renowned geneticist or neuroscientist. Authoritatively written, provides a neurogenetic mechanism for the origins of free will and ability to make moral choices to engage a broad audience of professionals

ABSTRACTResearch reported up through and including the 1970s directly bearing upon the relationship between genetics and criminality is reviewed. Studies using four classes of research designs are considered: general pedigree (or family) studies, twin studies, karyotype studies, and adoption studies. Only the latter three offer solid evidence at least consistent with a partial genetic etiological hypothesis, and of these, only one type of karyotype study and the adoption studies appear to be on the verge of definitely settling the matter. Among the fairly definitive types of studies, most of the evidence is extremely supportive of the proposition that human variation in tendencies to commit criminal behavior is significantly affected by some genetic factors.

"Genetics and Heritability Research on Political Decision Making" published on by Oxford University Press.

Political scientists are making increasing use of the methodologies of behavior genetics in an attempt to uncover whether or not political behavior is heritable, as well as the specific genotypes that might act as predisposing factors for—or predictors of—political "phenotypes." Noteworthy among the latter are a series of candidate gene association studies in which researchers claim to have discovered one or two common genetic variants that predict such behaviors as voting and political orientation. We critically examine the candidate gene association study methodology by considering, as a representative example, the recent study by Fowler and Dawes according to which "two genes predict voter turnout." In addition to demonstrating, on the basis of the data set employed by Fowler and Dawes, that two genes do not predict voter turnout, we consider a number of difficulties, both methodological and genetic, that beset the use of gene association studies, both candidate and genome-wide, in the social and behavioral sciences.

Abstract
In the following review article, we aim to summarize the current research progress in the field of evolutionary and behavior genetics studies on human religiousness and religious behavior. First, we provide a brief (and thus incomplete) overview of the historical discussions and explain the genetic basis of behavior in general and religious behavior in particular, from twin studies to molecular data analysis. In the second part of the paper, we discuss the potential evolutionary forces leading to human religiousness and human religious behavior, emphasizing the emergence of "axial age" and the so called "big gods" in the relatively recent history of humans.

From a biologist's perspective, social behavior includes any behavior that involves at least two actors. By this definition, social behavior can include aggregation in slime molds, the colony structure of the eusocial insects, or the coordinated efforts of humans across vast distances to successfully land on the moon. The diversity of this range of behavior shares one driving force: natural selection. While natural selection acts at the level of phenotype (e.g., morphology, metabolism, behavior) the ultimate unit of natural selection is the gene contained in DNA-the object of inheritance. The relationship between DNA and social behavior is uncovered in the field of sociogenomics, defined as the mechanistic study of genes, gene products, and gene × gene interaction networks supporting emergent social behaviors.

The Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behavior and Aggression presents the current state of knowledge related to the study of violent behaviors and aggression. An important extension of the first Handbook published ten years ago, the second edition maintains a distinctly cross-disciplinary focus by representing the newest scholarship and insights from behavior genetics, cross-cultural comparative psychology/criminology, evolutionary psychology, criminal justice, criminology, human development, molecular genetics, neurosciences, psychology, prevention and intervention sciences, psychiatry, psychopharmacology, public health, and sociology. The Handbook is divided into introductory and overview chapters on the study of violent behavior and aggression, followed by chapters on biosocial bases, individual and interpersonal factors, contextual factors, and prevention and intervention work and policy implications. It is an essential resource for researchers, scholars, and graduate students across social and behavioral science disciplines interested in the etiology, intervention, and prevention of violent behavior and aggression

This authored monograph presents a mathematical description of the time evolution of neutral genomic regions in terms of the differential Lyapunov equation. The qualitative behavior of its solutions, with respect to different mutation models and demographic patterns, can be characterized using operator semi group theory. Mutation and drift are two of the main genetic forces, which act on genes of individuals in populations. Their effects are influenced by population dynamics. This book covers the application to two mutation models: single step mutation for microsatellite loci and single-base substitutions. The effects of demographic change to the asymptotic of the distribution are also covered. The target audience primarily covers researchers and experts in the field but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students