Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence

This document will help you in understanding the concept of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence

Adoption studies – Scientific studies in which researchers assess hereditary and environmental influences by examining the IQ correlation between adopted children, their biological and their adoptive parents
Family studies – Scientific studies in which researchers assess hereditary influence by examining blood relatives to see how much they resemble each other on a specific trait
Genes – the units of hereditary transmission
Genetic hypothesis – The view that group differences in intelligence are due, at least in part, to genetic factors
Heredity – biologically determined characteristics passed from parents to their offspring
Intelligence – Individuals’ abilities to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, to overcome obstacles by careful thought
Nature – An organism’s biological inheritance
Nurture – An organism’s environmental experience
Twin studies – A research design in which hereditary influence is assessed by comparing the resemblance of identical twins and fraternal twins with respect to a trait