Deck 4: Genes, Environment, and Behavior

Question 1

The belief that genes determine everything about us, including our behavior, is referred to as

A) nature-nurture theory.
B) genetic determinism.
C) psychological relativism.
D) gene therapy.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which is most consistent with the textbook's characterization of how nurture influences behavior?

A) Nurture provides all of the necessary elements for determining our behaviors.
B) Genes activate our behaviors.
C) Learning experiences and social interactions affect how we use the genes that we inherited.
D) We learn most of our behaviors from social interactions.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

When psychologists use the term "nature" to refer to causes of behaviors, they mean

A) the external environment around our homes.
B) the extent to which we were raised in rural areas.
C) exposure to plant and animal life.
D) our genes and strictly biological influences.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

All of the following statements regarding gene-environment interactions is true except

A) Genes determine whether an environmental factor will affect behavior.
B) Genes influence every human behavior, but no gene determines behavior.
C) The environment has the same effect on behavior regardless of genes.
D) The environment determines whether a gene will affect behavior.

Question 5

If you and your sibling share a trait, then by definition you

A) have the same goals.
B) share a particular genotype.
C) inherited the same dominant gene.
D) share a physical or behavioral characteristic feature.

Question 6

Proteins are often described by scientists as the

A) building blocks of life.
B) subunits of DNA.
C) building blocks of amino acids.
D) sets of instructions for the sequence of nucleotides.

Question 7

The rod-shaped cellular structures that contain human DNA are called

A) lipids.
B) ribosomes.
C) mitochondria.
D) chromosomes.

Question 8

The molecule present in the chromosomes that "codes" hereditary information is called

A) RNA.
B) cyclic AMP.
C) DNA.
D) adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Question 9

All of the following are nucleotides that make up DNA except

A) adenine.
B) thymine.
C) cytosine.
D) glutamine.

Question 10

Which term refers to specific lengths of DNA that carry information needed to make the proteins that are required for proper bodily functioning?

A) Ribosomes
B) RNA
C) Genes
D) Amino acids

Question 11

Which of the following are subunits of proteins?

A) Genes
B) Ribosomes
C) Amino acids
D) Nucleotides

Question 12

How do genes control the creation of proteins in the cell?

A) Chromosomes carry the genes that specify how proteins can be strung together to form amino acids.
B) Genes on chromosomes specify which amino acids will be joined together, in order, to make each particular protein.
C) Genes on chromosomes include small particles that regulate how proteins enter and exit the cell.
D) Genes provide the cell with the energy that it needs to make proteins.

Question 13

Your first cell began making proteins when your father's sperm fused with your mother's egg in the process of

A) natural selection.
B) epigenetics.
C) fertilization.
D) spermatization.

Question 14

Genes with slightly different instructions for making the same protein are called

A) nucleotides.
B) recessives.
C) mitochondria.
D) alleles.

Question 15

Mutations arise from

A) mistakes in copying DNA from a parent when eggs or sperm are made.
B) exchanging of proteins during fertilization.
C) encoding of ribosomes during DNA generation.
D) faulty functioning of amino acids during conception.

Question 16

According to the process of natural selection, a mutation

A) will disappear from the genomes of future generations if it improves survival and reproduction.
B) will accumulate in the genomes of future generations if it improves survival and reproduction.
C) will accumulate in the genomes of future generations if it improves survival, but not reproduction.
D) can never be fully incorporated into the genomes of future generations.

Question 17

Regardless of what your current _______ displays, your _______ never changes.

A) genotype; phenotype
B) phenotype; genotype
C) prototype; phenotype
D) prototype; genotype

Question 18

An allele is _______ when it affects an individual's phenotype, regardless of what other allele the individual carries for that gene.

A) recessive
B) mediating
C) dominant
D) subdominant

Question 19

A recessive allele, such as the allele for white flower color in pea plants, affects an individual's phenotype only when

A) both parents have one copy of the recessive allele.
B) the individual inherits only one allele.
C) it is present on both chromosomes.
D) it is absent from both chromosomes.

Question 20

Imagine that humans could be born with either pinkish or brownish fingernails, and that there is a different allele for each fingernail color. If your father had brownish fingernails, your mother had pinkish fingernails, and you were born with brownish fingernails, that means that

A) fingernail color is determined by your sex.
B) the allele for brownish fingernails is dominant.
C) the allele for pinkish fingernails is recessive.
D) the allele for brownish fingernails is recessive.

Question 21

Gene expression is the process by which a cell

A) directs a gene to make its protein.
B) extracts genes from DNA strands.
C) assembles amino acids to form chromosomes.
D) unpacks the DNA-making instructions in the genome.

Question 22

Variations in eye color are the result of alleles that differ in terms of

A) how much pigment they make.
B) what pigment they make.
C) how expression of the allele affects the ability of the iris to change when it encounters light.
D) how much of a particular receptor will be expressed in the retina.

Question 23

Next to each allele, a stretch of DNA contains instructions for

A) deletion of the allele.
B) expression of the allele.
C) duplication of the allele.
D) re-shaping the allele.

Question 24

The expression of genes

A) is fully dictated by your phenotype.
B) is the same in different parts of your body.
C) is in proportion to the number of genes inherited by a particular cell.
D) is constantly changing in response to the environment.

Question 25

When you are walking across campus, the movement of the breeze may change the way your skin cells generate proteins. This is an example of

A) gene expression.
B) gene therapy.
C) a discordant trait.
D) heritability.

Question 26

Which statement supports the relationship between behavior and gene expression?

A) A person can change his or her genome only with medical treatment.
B) By repeating an activity many times, a person can affect how certain genes are expressed in the brain.
C) Behavior affects gene expression in infancy, and then the environment takes over.
D) Elderly people are more susceptible to behavioral shifts because their gene expression is unstable.

Question 27

Gene expression is fundamentally linked to experience because

A) sensory experience from behavior affects gene expression in many neurons.
B) experiences are dictated by the type of genes expressed at any given time.
C) an individual phenotype must be present in sensory experience to alter gene function.
D) motor stimulation is a form of gene expression.

Question 28

The scientific study of factors that affect gene expression is called

A) population genetics.
B) epigenetics.
C) epidemiology.
D) ecological genetics.

Question 29

Factors that affect how our genes are expressed are involved primarily in the scientific study of

A) epigenetics.
B) clinical psychology.
C) psychoneuroimmunology.
D) phylogenetics.

Question 30

Based on other epigenetic studies, which of the following findings would you expect from a study of dogs that were raised by adoptive mothers?

A) Their behavior would be similar to that of their biological littermates that were raised by their biological mothers.
B) Their behavior would most closely mimic that of the person or people to whom they bonded.
C) Their behavior would be similar to that of other dogs that were raised by the same adoptive mothers.
D) Behavior would be unique to each dog, depending on specific genetic makeup.

Question 31

Which statement best describes a valid gene-environment interaction?

A) Mice reared by mothers of different strains always display the same exploratory behavior.
B) Chimps raised in an impoverished environment were just as good at navigating mazes as chimps raised in an enriched environment.
C) Identical twins adopted by different families often display many behaviors typical of their adoptive family.
D) Rhesus monkeys reared in captivity often display the same level of anxious behavior as rhesus monkeys reared in the wild.

Question 32

Cooper and Zubek (1958) showed that gene-environment interactions were at play in a study by illustrating that

A) "Maze-bright" rats raised in "impoverished" environments were always better at navigating mazes than "maze-bright" rats raised in "enriched" environments.
B) "Maze-dull" rats raised in "enriched" environments eventually learned to navigate mazes as well as "maze-bright" rats raised in "enriched" environments.
C) "Maze-bright" rats raised in "impoverished" environments were worse at navigating mazes than "maze-dull" rats raised in "impoverished" environments.
D) "Maze-dull" rats raised in "impoverished" environments were always worse at navigating mazes than "maze-bright" rats raised in "impoverished" environments.

Question 33

Your uncle has been stricken by delusions and is displaying strange, sweeping, involuntary movements of his arms and legs. He is most likely suffering from

A) schizophrenia.
B) Huntington's disease.
C) Phenylketonuria (PKU).
D) Alzheimer's disease.

Question 34

Which is true for a twenty-year-old woman with a gene for Huntington's disease?

A) It is likely that symptoms of Huntington's disease have already started to appear.
B) It is likely that symptoms of Huntington's disease appeared in childhood and have since faded.
C) She will probably be stricken with Huntington's disease before her 25^th birthday.
D) She is most likely to develop symptoms of Huntington's disease by middle age.

Question 35

Which area of the brain does Huntington's disease damage the most?

A) Frontal cortex
B) Cerebellum
C) Striatum
D) Brain stem

Question 36

Harmful dominant alleles, like those for the huntingtin gene, are not common because in most cases

A) the brain does not make very many of them.
B) the carrier can only pass on the allele to another dominant carrier.
C) the body tends to suppress the action of dominant genes until adulthood.
D) the carrier does not survive long enough to pass on the allele via reproduction.

Question 37

A person who has PKU should avoid all food containing

A) phenobarbital.
B) lactobacillus.
C) phenylalanine.
D) phenylephrine.

Question 38

Foods containing phenylalanine are problematic for people with

A) Huntington's disease.
B) Parkinson's disease.
C) PKU.
D) irritable bowel syndrome.

Question 39

Before scientists fully understood the cause of PKU, infants with the disorder often developed

A) mental impairment.
B) colorblindness.
C) somatosensory hallucinations.
D) early-onset schizophrenia.

Question 40

The modern treatment for PKU is an example of a gene-environment interaction because it involves

A) altering the genome of the mother before fertilization.
B) control of the amount of phenylalanine in the child's diet.
C) surgical intervention before birth.
D) control of the type of mating behavior the child can have after puberty.

Question 41

Colorblindness is more common in males than in females because

A) males receive only one allele (on the X chromosome) for that gene for color vision.
B) females often do not experience the same gene-environment interactions as males.
C) the gene for colorblindness is on the Y chromosome.
D) the gene for red-green colorblindness is dominant.

Question 42

Both of your best friend's biological parents were born deaf, yet your friend is not deaf because

A) deafness is not a heritable trait.
B) deaf people often adopt children.
C) he inherited some functional and some dysfunctional alleles for hearing.
D) he inherited only functional alleles for hearing.

Question 43

Imagine that a single dysfunctional allele for a given gene could derail our ability to see at birth. How could two people who were blind for that reason have a child with normal vision?

A) If the allele was recessive, the child could carry one dysfunctional and one functional allele.
B) If the allele was dominant, the child could carry only a functional allele.
C) If the child inherited only recessive alleles for that gene, the child would have normal vision.
D) If the child inherited only dominant alleles for that gene, the child would have normal vision would.

Question 44

Why is it difficult for psychologists to define the specific genes involved in disorders like depression and schizophrenia?

A) The specific gene that causes each disorder is usually the same.
B) A person with a disorder like depression or schizophrenia tends to have a much higher number of genes than a person without such a disorder.
C) There are likely numerous genes that influence the various symptoms of each disorder.
D) It is difficult to distinguish a depressed person from a person who is schizophrenic.

Question 45

A friend is concerned because her brother has started to tell the family that he believes he talks directly to God. He is also becoming emotionally withdrawn. You recommend sending him to a psychiatrist because he might be showing signs of

A) depression.
B) generalized anxiety disorder.
C) schizophrenia.
D) bipolar disorder.

Question 46

What does it mean to say that schizophrenia is heritable?

A) People who inherit the genes for schizophrenia will always present symptoms of the disorder.
B) People with close blood relatives with schizophrenia are more likely to develop symptoms than the general population.
C) One percent of the population will inherit schizophrenia.
D) People with close blood relatives with schizophrenia are immune to the disorder.

Question 47

When scientists study a phenomenon like schizophrenia, two variables often change together, making it difficult to know which one is at work. These variables are called

A) categorical variables.
B) intervening variables.
C) confounding variables.
D) covariables.

Question 48

One of the best methods of determining the influence of confounding variables on the heritability of human traits is to conduct a

A) cross-sectional study.
B) study of identical twins.
C) case study.
D) study of fraternal twins.

Question 49

Twin studies (studies of identical twins) are especially effective for examining the effect of what confounding variable in heritability research?

A) The shared environments of relatives
B) The shared embryo of monozygotic twins
C) The differential effect of stress
D) The genetic influence of a single gene

Question 50

Identical twins are called _______, while non-identical twins are called _______.

A) monozygotic; dizygotic
B) monozygotic; heterozygotic
C) homozygotic; monozygotic
D) dizygotic; heterozygotic

Question 51

Your friend has a twin brother who bears very little resemblance to her. They are most likely _______ twins.

A) monozygotic
B) identical
C) heterozygotic
D) dizygotic

Question 52

_______ twins share 100 percent of their DNA.

A) Dizygotic
B) Monozygotic
C) Fraternal
D) Discordant

Question 53

Brad and George are twins whose parents both have blue eyes. Brad and George also have blue eyes, meaning that the twins are _______ for that trait.

A) discordant
B) bisimilar
C) concordant
D) confounding

Question 54

Both parents of twins Mary and Shelly have schizophrenia. However, only Mary developed the disorder. This means that the twins are _______ for schizophrenia.

A) discordant
B) bisimilar
C) concordant
D) confounding

Question 55

What have twin studies revealed about the traits of monozygotic twins compared with the traits of dizygotic twins?

A) Monozygotic twins tend to be more concordant than dizygotic twins.
B) The two types of twins are equally concordant.
C) One monozygotic twin is usually more concordant with other (non-twin) siblings than with the other monozygotic twin.
D) Two monozygotic twins are less concordant than two dizygotic twins.

Question 56

What conclusion is consistent with the results of twin studies of schizophrenia?

A) Though monozygotic twins are more concordant for schizophrenia than dizygotic twins, genes account for only about 10 percent of the differences.
B) Differences in dizygotic genes account for about 90 percent of the instances of schizophrenia among family members.
C) Differences in genes account for about 50 percent of the differences between people, in cases of schizophrenia.
D) Differences in genes account for about 27 percent of the differences between people, in cases of schizophrenia.

Question 57

A heritable trait is one that

A) is influenced by genes inherited from one's parents.
B) is guaranteed to present itself if inherited from one's parents.
C) can be perfectly mapped within the genome.
D) cannot be found using genetic testing.

Question 58

When one identical twin has schizophrenia, the other develops it only about half of the time. What is the most likely explanation for this?

A) There is an environmental component involved in developing schizophrenia.
B) The twin who develops schizophrenia has a genetic mutation that the other twin does not have.
C) Identical twins share most genes, but they do not share the gene for schizophrenia.
D) Any genetic links to schizophrenia disappear once a person reaches early adulthood.

Question 59

Estimates of the heritability of risk-taking, parental warmth, and openness are between 38 and 57 percent. This implies that

A) most of the behaviors we present are caused by our genes.
B) genes account for some of the variation in those traits, but experience is also important.
C) experience accounts for the majority of the variation in those traits.
D) it is not possible to measure how much of the variation in those traits is due to the environment.

Question 60

If a study finds that the heritability of aggression is 40 percent, it means that

A) 40 percent of the population will behave very aggressively.
B) a person who commits a crime has a 40 percent chance of having aggressive parents.
C) only one of a set of identical twins born to aggressive parents will inherit aggression.
D) 40 percent of the variability in aggression in the population is due to variations in the genes in that population.

Question 61

Which statement is most consistent with the concept of heritability of alcoholism?

A) Any person with alcoholism in his or her family is likely to inherit the condition.
B) Alcoholism is heritable, but this does not mean that a person with alcoholism in his or her family is destined to also have the condition.
C) Alcoholism can run in families, but only when it is left untreated.
D) Alcoholism is not heritable; it is the result of environmental influence early in life.

Question 62

One issue with studies of heritability that compare monozygotic and dizygotic twins is that such comparisons

A) overestimate the influence of genes on behavior.
B) underestimate the influence of genes on behavior.
C) overestimate the influence of the environment on behavior.
D) cannot differentiate between prenatal and postnatal environments.

Question 63

The key difference between twin studies and adoption studies is that in adoption studies

A) the adopted siblings are treated as twins.
B) identical twins are separated at birth and raised apart.
C) adoptive parents do not know whether their adopted children are twins.
D) nothing is known about the genetic makeup of the biological parents.

Question 64

Which result provides evidence that genes play a role in schizophrenia?

A) Only about 1 percent of the population displays schizophrenia.
B) Children of identical twins, one of whom had schizophrenia, are more likely to develop the disorder, regardless of whether their parent was the twin with schizophrenia or the twin without it.
C) Identical twins are more likely to be discordant for schizophrenia than non-identical twins are.
D) Parents of identical twins with schizophrenia are more likely to show symptoms of the disorder, even after their children's symptoms are in remission.

Question 65

Many research findings indicate that disease, malnutrition, and neglect _______ the probability that a person will develop schizophrenia.

A) increase
B) decrease
C) do not affect
D) negate

Question 66

Your friend is concerned about her brother presenting symptoms of schizophrenia. What question would be most relevant to ask in light of research on genes and schizophrenia?

A) Did her brother show signs of the disorder in infancy?
B) Do her parents have schizophrenia?
C) Did her brother ever threaten to harm himself?
D) Is her family comfortable with genetic testing?

Question 67

Which environmental influence is most closely linked with the development of schizophrenia in children who inherit genes for the disorder?

A) Exposure to a family member with the disorder
B) Complications during birth
C) Extreme pressure to achieve
D) Poor performance in school

Question 68

Based on the conclusions from the Walker and Lewine (1990) study of home movies, what signs might one look for in an infant who may eventually develop schizophrenia?

A) Abnormal hair growth
B) Well-developed social skills
C) Abnormal crawling behavior
D) High birth weight

Question 69

Which is the most likely reason that Hester was the first of the Genain quadruplets to develop schizophrenic symptoms?

A) Her genes were identical to her mother's.
B) She spent most of her time alone.
C) She had the highest birth weight of the quadruplets.
D) She had the lowest birth weight of the quadruplets.

Question 70

A warm and nurturing home environment could affect the future of a baby with a family history of schizophrenia by

A) teaching him that he is safe and secure, even when he is not.
B) leaving him alone to teach him independence at a very early age.
C) reducing or eliminating controllable sources of stress.
D) modeling "normal" behavior so he will not develop schizophrenia.

Question 71

Dogs that release less corticosterone in response to stress may have had mothers that

A) did not model effective stress responses.
B) had underdeveloped amygdalae.
C) were raised in stressful environments.
D) were attentive to their puppies.

Question 72

Rats whose mothers were attentive and licked them more frequently as pups tend to

A) produce less stress hormone as adults.
B) produce more stress hormone as adults.
C) show some signs of embarrassment as pups.
D) show heightened response to stress as pups.

Question 73

In general, it is easier for psychologists and biologists to determine the influence of genes on behavior when the underlying cause of that behavior can be attributed to

A) chance, rather than genetics.
B) a single gene rather than multiple genes.
C) multiple related genes, rather than a single gene.
D) the workings of multiple unrelated genes.

Question 74

Scientists estimate that the heritability of depression is around 37 percent. This suggests that

A) 37 percent of people who carry a gene for depression will develop depression at some point in their lives.
B) genes explain 37 percent of people with depression, while environmental influences explain the other 63 percent.
C) about 37 percent of the variability in depression in the population is due to the variability in the genes in the population.
D) about 37 percent of depressed people in the population have expressed a gene carried by everyone in the population.

Question 75

You believe that people are born with musical talent and thus, you attribute musical ability to _______.

Question 76

Scientists consider _______ to be the building blocks of life on Earth.

Question 77

Your _______ represents genetic information that is with you from birth, while your _______, or your actual physical appearance, and behavioral tendencies change from day to day.

Question 78

Next to each allele on a strand of DNA are instructions for _______.

Question 79

_______ is the study of factors that affect gene expression, without making any changes in the nucleotide sequence of the genes.

Question 80

The genes for _______ are carried on the X chromosome, meaning that any dysfunctional allele will have a greater effect on males, who only have a single X chromosome.