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Behavioral genetics has as its goal the discovery of genes that play a significant causal role in complex phenotypes that are socially relevant such a parenting, aggression, psychiatric disorders, intelligence, and even race. In this article, I present the stories of the discoveries of three such important phenotypes: maternal nurturing behavior and the c-fosB gene; intelligence and phenylketonuria (PKU); and pair-bonding and monogamy (vasopressin and oxytocin) and show that the reality is considerably more complex than often portrayed. These accounts also lay bare some fundamental misconceptions of this field in which genes hold a privileged place and inherently subjective phenomena are mistakenly objectified.

How is it possible that in more than one hundred years, the nature-nurture debate has not come to a satisfactory resolution? The problem, Dale Goldhaber argues, lies not with the proposed answers, but with the question itself. In The Nature-Nurture Debate, Goldhaber reviews the four major perspectives on the issue - behavior genetics, environment, evolutionary psychology and developmental systems theory - and shows that the classic, reductionist strategies (behavior genetics and environmental approaches) are incapable of resolving the issue because they each offer a false perspective on the process of human development. It is only through a synthesis of the two holistic perspectives of evolutionary psychology and developmental systems theory that we will be able to understand the nature of human behavior.

There is a growing interest in empirically exploring the biological underpinnings of political attitudes and behavior. Heritability studies are a primary vehicle for conducting such investigations and data sets rich in political phenotypes are becoming broadly accessible. A bottleneck exists, however, in exploiting these opportunities because they involve a statistical re-tooling for political scientists and require a conceptual shift that has substantial implications for the field's traditional theoretical models. Methodologically, most twin studies rely on structural equation models unfamiliar to political scientists. We show this methodological bottleneck is easily navigable; it is the lesser discussed shift in theoretical assumptions poses the larger problem to integrating biological elements into the study of political attitudes and behavior. To address these issues we provide a detailed introduction to a regression-based method for analyzing genetic influence on political attitudes and behaviors that will be methodologically intuitive to political scientists with even minimum quantitative training. In doing so, we provide a platform for bridging important conceptual divides between political science and behavioral genetics. Adapted from the source document.

This paper is trying to put together two different researches, from theology and from genetics, about a general and undetermined topic, death. It is undetermined because no one can say something demonstrable and unequivocal about it, since no person alive can cross over the edge of life and come back from the domain of death with information about it. But we can discuss nevertheless things that are obvious and possible to be reasonably inferred about death even by livings. In this regard Theology will provide the mainline of what is to be known as death for religion in general, while Genetics will try to come with its research to sustain or contradict the general premise: death is not an ontological behavior of living matter, but an imposed attribute after the sin occurred into the world.

AbstractRecent research has provided strong support for the existence of a familial risk for suicide, and efforts have been made to separate genetic from enviromental risk factors. Twin studies have played a major role in the identification of genetic factors, and the results indicate that the concordance rate for suicide is higher in identical than in fraternal twins (Baldessarini & Hennen, 2004). Moreover, Segal and Roy (1995) reported a significantly higher frequency of nonfatal suicidal attempts by monozygotic (MZ) than by dyzygotic (DZ) twins whose co-twins had committed suicide. However, doubts remain as to whether the increased risk of suicide in MZ twins is a response to the intense grief over the loss of a close relative, or whether a common genotype is associated with suicidal behavior. Sudden loss, which may carry a stigma in the case of a suicide, has been linked to increased persistent emotional stress and physiological changes (Epstein, 1993; Martin & Dean, 1993). A number of researchers have reported greater suicidal ideation among bereaved MZ twins as compared to DZ twins, suggesting that a loss due to suicide may increase the risk of suicidal behavior in the surviving co-twin (Segal & Bouchard, 1993; Segal & Roy, 1995; Segal et al., 1995). The aim of the present article is to address the issue of the intense grief experienced by twins after the co-twin suicide.

Advances in embryology, genetics, and regenerative medicine regularly attract attention from scientists, scholars, journalists, and policymakers, yet implications of these advances may be broader than commonly supposed. Laboratories culturing human embryos, editing human genes, and creating human-animal chimeras have been working along lines that are now becoming intertwined. Embryogenic methods are weaving traditionalin vivoandin vitrodistinctions into a new "in vivitro" (in life in glass) fabric. These and other methods known to be in use or thought to be in development promise soon to bring society to startling choices and discomfiting predicaments, all in a global effort to supply reliably rejuvenating stem cells, to grow immunologically nonprovocative replacement organs, and to prevent, treat, cure, or even someday eradicate diseases having genetic or epigenetic mechanisms. With humanity's human-engineering era now begun, procedural prohibitions, funding restrictions, institutional controls, and transparency rules are proving ineffective, and business incentives are migrating into the most basic life-sciences inquiries, wherein lie huge biomedical potentials and bioethical risks. Rights, health, and heritage are coming into play with bioethical presumptions and formal protections urgently needing reassessment.

PART I. Behavior on Land and at Sea: Introduction -- Otariid Ethology: One Researcher's Historical Perspective -- When Physiology and Ecology Meet: The Interdependency Between Foraging Ecology and Reproduction in Otariids -- Maternal Behavior in Otariids and the Walrus -- PART II. Foraging Behavior -- Foraging Capacities, Behaviors and Strategies of Otariids and Odobenids -- Prey Capture and Processing in Fur Seals, Sea Lions and the Walrus -- PART III. Reproductive Behavior -- Polygyny in the Era of Molecular Biology: Revisiting Bartholomew's Model -- The Role of Females in the Evolution of Sexual Dimorphism and Mating Systems -- Site Fidelity, Male Harassment and Female Gregariousness: Factors Shaping the Highly Polygynous Mating System of the Northern Fur Seal (Callorhinus Ursinus) -- Mating Games and Raiding Parties in Southern Sea Lions -- Infanticide in Eared Seals -- Genetic Consequences of Dispersal, Philopatry and Reproductive Behaviors -- Intergeneric Fertile Hybridization in Otariids -- Visual Species Recognition and Mate Choice in Fur Seals: An Experimental Study -- PART IV. Cognitive Behavior, Communication, Personality and Behavioral Development -- Vocal Communication in Otariids and Odobenids -- Non-vocal Communication in Otariids and Odobenids: The Involvement of Visual and Olfactory Cues in Their Social Lives -- The Sensory World of Otariids -- The Mind of a Sea Lion -- The California Sea Lion: Thriving in a Human-Dominated World -- Pinniped 'Personality', or Consistent Individual Differences -- Playing at the Edge of the Sea: A Comparative Analysis in Otariids and Odobenids -- PART V. Diving Deeper into Species -- Responding to Human Influence: Southern Sea Lion Males Adapt to Harbor Habitats -- Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of the Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), with Emphasis on Communication and Social Behavior -- Behavioral Insights into the Decline and Natural History of Steller Sea Lions -- Exploitation and Recovery of the South American Sea Lion in the Southwestern Atlantic -- Living on the Edge, the New Zealand Sea Lion -- The Enigmatic Life History of the Australian Sea Lion -- Australian Fur Seal: Adapting to Coexist in a Shared Ecosystem -- Guadalupe Fur Seals and California Sea Lions: Two Sympatric Otariids from the California Current Ecosystem -- Fur Seal Trophic Ecology in Uruguay -- Galapagos Sea Lions and Fur Seals, Adapted to a Variable World. .

White moves from a simple proposition maintaining that all individuals seek suitable surroundings to propose a provocative approach to social and political action. Rooting his position in modern life sciences and particularly in sociobiology and neurobiology, he establishes an IMPish model that is interactional, mentalist, and populational. Interactional in that both heredity and environment are credited for due influence on individuals' traits; mentalist in that individuals' actions can be purposeful rather than simply determined; and populational in his insistence that the unique persona mus.

AbstractDr Nick Martin has made enormous contributions to the field of behavior genetics over the past 50 years. Of his many seminal papers that have had a profound impact, we focus on his early work on the power of twin studies. He was among the first to recognize the importance of sample size calculation before conducting a study to ensure sufficient power to detect the effects of interest. The elegant approach he developed, based on the noncentral chi-squared distribution, has been adopted by subsequent researchers for other genetic study designs, and today remains a standard tool for power calculations in structural equation modeling and other areas of statistical analysis. The present brief article discusses the main aspects of his seminal paper, and how it led to subsequent developments, by him and others, as the field of behavior genetics evolved into the present era.