The field of behavioral genetics strives to understand how and why we develop the way we do. Behavioral genetics seeks to find how not only heredity, but also environment, plays a role in the development of human beings. The field has evolved quite a bit in the last few years. Studying genetics helps us to be able to predict future behaviors and also potentially help us to use genetic engineering. Since the study of behavioral genetics can potentially lead us down the road of genetic engineering it attracts a lot of controversy.
As will be examined here genetics shows some strong correlations between heredity and environment. The field has studied numerous examples to help explain what is caused by heredity, what is caused by environment, and how the two can be linked together to further understand why we behave the way that we do.
Behavior Genetics"Human behavioral genetics, a relatively new field, seeks to understand both the genetic and environmental contributions to individual variations in human behavior."
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English: Meteorology and human behavior(McInerney, 2008) Human behavior genetics studies how an individual's genetics and environment influences their behavior. "Behavior genetics focus is on the effect of heredity on differences between individuals." (Boyd & Bee, 2006) Heredity refers to genetic and traits being transmitted from one generation to the next or from the parent to the offspring. "Traits or behaviors are believed to be influenced by genes when those of related people, such as children and their parents, are more similar than those of unrelated people." (Boyd & Bee, 2006) Behavior geneticists study behavior genetics and the way they can affect an individual. Behavior geneticists have shown in their studies that heredity can affect some traits and behaviors, like intelligence, shyness, and aggressiveness. The basic concepts of behavior genetics are: phenotypes which are observable or measurable characteristics...