Genetic and environmental influences on human psychological differences
Abstract
Psychological researchers typically distinguish five major domains of individual differences in human behavior: cognitive abilities, personality, social attitudes, psychological interests, and psychopathology (Lubinski, 2000). In this article we: discuss a number of methodological errors commonly found in research on human individual differences; introduce a broad framework for interpreting findings from contemporary behavioral genetic studies; briefly outline the basic quantitative methods used in human behavioral genetic research; review the major criticisms of behavior genetic designs, with particular emphasis on the twin and adoption methods; describe the major or dominant theoretical scheme in each domain; and review behavioral genetic findings in all five domains. We conclude that there is now strong evidence that virtually all individual psychological differences, when reliably measured, are moderately to substantially heritable.
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As heritability rises, the shared environmental component of traits like intelligence tends to become insignificant.
“As heritability rises, the shared environmental component of traits like intelligence tends to become insignificant [30,31].”
From Global Ancestry and Cognitive Ability (2019) · cites this paper as [30]
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“As heritability rises, the shared environmental component of traits like intelligence tends to become insignificant [30,31].”
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- Authors
- Bouchard, T. J., & McGue, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bouchard, Thomas J.
- Venue
- Journal of Neurobiology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2002-12-16
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 4-45
- ISSN
- 0022-3034 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-4695
- OpenAlex
- W2003676727
- Cited by
- 870
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 42 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 45 · 2017: 50 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 38 · 2014: 52 · 2013: 60 · 2012: 54
- FWCI
- 2.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Neurobiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- individual differences, heritability, behavioral genetics, twin studies, adoption studies, cognitive ability, personality, social attitudes, psychopathology, environmental influences, methodological errors
- MeSH terms
- Adoption, Age Factors, Attitude, Mental Disorders, Cognition, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Family Relations, Female, Genetics, Behavioral, Humans, Individuality, Intelligence Tests, Learning, Male, Personality, Religion, Sex Characteristics, Social Environment, Statistics as Topic, Twins, Work, Twin Studies as Topic
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