Behavioural genetics
The behavioral genetics is that part of the field of genetics, which examines the influence of genes on behavior of animals and humans. In this biological research area overlap developmental genetics, ethology and psychology (especially evolutionary psychology and developmental psychology ).
The classical behavior geneticists studied the heritability of behavioral traits. Francis Galton published in 1869 the first empirical study of human behavior genetics: " Hereditary Genius " ( Hereditary Genius ). Galton sought to prove that " the natural abilities of man are inherited, under exactly the same conditions as the shapes and the physical properties of the whole organic world. "How often he exaggerated his conclusions in pioneering work. His investigation was related to kinship structures on inheritance of giftedness and talent. Galton guessed correctly that the similarity among relatives can be determined by both the common genes and common environment also.
The current behavioral genetics examines specific population groups in the anthropological research and in twin research. In behavioral biology, they pay attention to achieved by animal breeding breeding lines and results to differ genetically inherited from by environmental influences conditional.
The motif of behavioral genetic research is primarily the search for clues on how badly the behavior is genetically influenced. In psychology, this phase lasted because of the special influence of the so-called classical comparative behavioral research, especially in the first half of the 20th century. Subsequent behavioral genetic studies (including by Seymour Benzer ) shifted their study area on quantitative methods, and today the emphasis is focused on the application of molecular genetic methods and techniques to locate individual genes that influence behavior.
Currently, the behavioral genetics focuses particularly on the psychiatric genetics and examines phenomena such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer 's disease and alcoholism.