Postgraduate Course: Genetics and Individual Differences (PSYL11116)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The purpose of this course is to teach students about an important and ever-growing area of Psychology, Behavioural Genetics. The course covers complex
statistical methods and requires some fundamental genetics learning.; it will provide students with a basic understanding of the methodologies that
behavioural geneticists use, and knowledge of the latest research and methods in areas of personality, cognitive abilities and mental health. |
| Course description |
The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest in Psychology. This course introduces the research methods (e.g., twin designs) used to estimate relative
influences of genes and environment on behaviour; and the methods (e.g., genome-wide association studies) used to pinpoint genetic variants associated
with traits, and to understand causality between traits and gene-environment interplay. In doing so the basic principles of genetic transmission and
multifactorial inheritance are outlined. We will focus on the most recent genetic and environmental findings in the areas of personality, cognitive abilities and
mental health. The implications of these findings (including ethical applications) for psychologists will be discussed, and the exciting directions that the rapidly
advancing field of genomics is moving in will be highlighted.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Small group oral presentation: 30%
Essay: 2000 words, 70% |
| Feedback |
Individual written feedback on assessments and in-class group level feedback |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the biology of how genes influence behaviour
- Understand the research methods used to study genetic and environmental effects on behaviour
- Demonstrate awareness of the application of behavioural genetics in psychology
- Critically evaluate research in behavioural genetics
- Communicate ideas clearly and concisely
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Reading List
Indicative reading list:
Knopik, Valerie S., Jenae M. Neiderhiser, J. C. DeFries, and Robert Plomin. Behavioral Genetics. Seventh ed. New York: Worth, Macmillan Learning, 2017.
Loehlin, John C. "History of behavior genetics." Handbook of behavior genetics. Springer, New York, NY, 2009. 3-11.
Tabery, J. (2015), Why Is Studying the Genetics of Intelligence So Controversial? Hastings Center Report, 45: S9-S14. doi:10.1002/hast.492
Russell (2010) iGenetics: a molecular approach (3rd ed). Pearson Education Inc: San Francisco. Chapter 12, stop at 'Nondisjunction of X chromosome'
Klug, William S., et al. Essentials of Genetics, Global Edition, Pearson Education Limited, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ed/detail.action?docID=5185715. Chapter 3, stop at section 3.8
Frühling V. Rijsdijk, Pak C. Sham, Analytic approaches to twin data using structural equation models, Briefings in Bioinformatics, Volume 3, Issue 2, June 2002,
Pages 119-133, https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/3.2.119
Visscher, P. M., Hill, W. G., & Wray, N. R. (2008). Heritability in the genomics era-concepts and misconceptions. Nature reviews genetics, 9(4), 255.
Wiebe, A. W. and Luciano, M. (2017). Genetics of Human Personality. In eLS, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (Ed.). doi:10.1002/9780470015902.a0027255
Uffelmann, E., Huang, Q.Q., Munung, N.S. et al. Genome-wide association studies. Nat Rev Methods Primers 1, 59 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-021-
00056-9
Mills, Melinda, Nicola Barban, and Felix C Tropf. An Introduction to Statistical Genetic Data Analysis. Cambridge, Massachusetts; The MIT Press, 2020. Print.
Chapter 1 (and 4 for those who want to know more about GWAS - not essential)
Zhou, Q., Gidziela, A., Allegrini, A.G. et al. Gene-environment correlation: the role of family environment in academic development. Mol Psychiatry (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02716-0
Luciano, M. (2017). Making Reading Easier: How Genetic Information Can Help. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4(2), 147-154.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732217720464
Belsky, D. W., & Harden, K. P. (2019). Phenotypic Annotation: Using Polygenic Scores to Translate Discoveries From Genome-Wide Association Studies From
the Top Down. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 82-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418807729
Davies N M, Holmes M V, Davey Smith G. Reading Mendelian randomisation studies: a guide, glossary, and checklist for clinicians BMJ 2018; 362 :k601
doi:10.1136/bmj.k601 https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/362/bmj.k601.full.pdf
Barker, E. D. (2018). Epigenetics, early adversity and child and adolescent mental health. Psychopathology, 51(2), 71-75.
Cesarini, D. (2016). Rare mutations and educational attainment. Nature neuroscience, 19(12), 1538.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Critical thinking; Problem solving; Collaboration; Communication; Curiosity; Reflection; Data and Digital Literacy; Inclusivity; Adaptivity; Individuality
This course will develop research and enquiry skills through their coursework assessments which require them to identify challenges in behavioural genetics research, their implications and solutions.
The course requires personal and intellectual autonomy to keep pace with the lecture content requiring them to critically evaluate ideas and evidence and to successful organise these thoughts in their assessments.
Successful completion of the course will require effective, proactive skills that will require them to positively adapt to new situations within group discussion and assessment with sensitivity, inclusivity, and integrity especially given controversies around behaviour genetics (it further asks them to reflect on ethical issues which may be influenced by their own personal experiences).
This course has a weekly class discussion component requiring skilled communication to enhance their understanding of a topic and to engage effectively with others. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Michelle Luciano
Tel: (0131 6)50 3603
Email: michelle.luciano@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Mollie Fordyce
Tel:
Email: mfordyc2@ed.ac.uk |
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