Final [BPP]

• Physiological

  Explanations of a person's physiology functions and how those functions affect a person's behavior.
• Ontogenetic

  Describes how behavior develops over a lifetime. This includes the genes, nutrition, and experiences of a person.
• Evolutionary

  Focuses upon the genetic history of a behavior.
• Functional

  Describes why a structure or behavior evolved as it did.
• Gregor Mendel

  demonstrated that inheritance occurs through genes.
• DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) is a double-stranded chemical that contains genetic information.
• • RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) is a single stranded chemical that can serve as a model for the synthesis of proteins.
• • Homozygous a person has an identical pair of genes on two chromosomes.
• • Heterozygous a person has an unmatched pair of genes on two chromosomes.
• Dominant Genes

  shows a strong effect in either the homozygous or heterozygous condition.
• Recessive Genes

  shows its effects only in the homozygous condition.
• Types of Genes

  Sex-limited Genes

  Sex-linked Genes

  Autosomal Genes
• Sex-limited Genes

  present in both series but active mainly in one sex.
• Sex-linked Genes

  Genes located on the sex chromosomes.
• Autosomal Genes

  All genes except for sex-linked genes.
• Mutation

  Change in a single gene that is rare, random, and independent of the needs of the organism.
• Recombination


  New combination of genes in the offspring that yield characteristics not found in parents.
• Epigenetics


  The study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. It deals with changes in gene expression.
• Histones

  A family of basic proteins that associate with DNA in the nucleus and help condense it into chromatin, they are alkaline (basic PH) proteins, and their positive charges allow them to associate with DNA.
• Heredity

  The mechanism used to pass the message of inheritance from one generation to the next.
• Hereditability


  Is a measure of how well differences in people's genes account for differences in their traits.
• Monozygotic (MZ) Twins

  Are conceived when a single egg fertilized by a single sperm splits into two after fertilization.

  Can also be called identical twins because of the same features of each twin.
• Dizygotic (DZ) Twins

  • Are conceived when two eggs are fertilized by two different sperms.
  • Can also be called fraternal twins because of its different features of each twin.
• Phenylketonuria (PKU)

  Is an inherited disorder that increases the levels of a substance called phenylalanine in the blood.
• Phenylalanine 


  is a building block of proteins that is obtained through the diet (amino acids).
• How Genes influence Behavior

  • A gene produces a protein that interacts with the rest of body chemistry and with the environment.
  • A gene could influence your behavior even without being expressed in your brain.
• Genes

  via their influences on morphology and physiology, create a framework within which the environment acts to shape the behavior of an individual animal. Genes also create the scaffold for learning, memory, and cognition, remarkable mechanisms that allow animals to acquire and store information about their environment for use in shaping their behavior.
• Environment


  can affect morphological and physiological development; in turn behavior develops because of that animal's shape and internal workings.
• Evolution and Behavior: The Basics

  1. The biological purpose of life is to procreate.
  2. We have evolved to behave in ways that are going to help our survival.
  3. Survival = procreation
  4. Survival of the fittest = survival of the best adapted to procreate
• To give an evolutionary explanation of a behavior, you must explain how that behavior helps us to survive and/ or procreate.
• Evolution and Behavior: Advanced

  • Behavior
  • Helps procreation.
  • Genes passed on.
  • Biology that helps behavior also passed on.
  • Offspring show same behavior.
• Evolutionary explanation of behavior 


  To give an evolutionary explanation of behavior means to explain how that behavior helps us to survive and/ or procreate.
• Central Nervous System

  • Brain and spinal cord
  • Integration and control center
• Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

  • Cranial nerves and spinal nerves
  • Communication lines between the CNS and the rest of the body
• Sensory (afferent) division

  • Somatic and visceral sensory nerve fibers
  • Conducts impulses from receptors to the CNS.
• Motor (efferent) division

  Motor nerve fibersConducts impulses from the CNS to the effectors (muscles and glands)
• Sensory (afferent) division

  Somatic senses
• Sensory [Afferent] Division

  Somatic senses

  Visceral senses

  Special senses
• Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)


  Sympathetic and Parasympathetic division
• Somatic Nervous System

  Somatic motor [voluntary]

  Skeletal muscles