Behavioral Genetics Puns

We all know that through generations of selective breeding, humans created different breeds of dogs to best fulfill specific tasks or jobs. Whether that be assisting humans in locating prey, guarding livestock & territory, retrieving things, hearding sheep, etc.

Pitbulls are direct descendents of bull baiting dogs. These dogs were not bred to provide any type of utility, the purpose of these dogs was literally to mercilessly attack, maul, and chase bulls til the point of death for the purpose of bloodsport entertainment. They continued to be bred as violent, very aggressive attack dogs for quite a while.

Yes, bad owners don't help, but unfortunately they are simply more genetically prone to violent behavior because of their breeding history. I know this is a really hot topic, a lot of people believe pitbulls should be banned, they're probably the most controversial dog breed. This got me wondering, is there an active effort to reverse the negative behaviors of pitbulls with good ol' selective breeding? Is it unreasonable to think that maybe one day in the future, pitbulls won't be more genetically prone to aggression and violence than the average dog?

And if pitbulls are actively being bred to be less aggressive, we're pitbulls more aggressive 20 - 30 years ago?

Are breeders making an active effort to reverse there

Behavioral Genetics and the importance of understanding why your dog does what it does.

We have been having a lot of misinformation being spread on both sides lately about bully breeds on this subreddit. We wanted to address some common comments, concepts, and how this knowledge can also pertain to other breeds. It is possible to acknowledge the potential for underlying predispositions without overstating and/or dramatizing while continuing to advocate for them. One can recognize that like every breed, they have their issues.

Preface

We’ve been breeding dogs for hundreds of years to help us with certain jobs. You may have heard these quips in the past: “Border Collies Herd, Pointers Point, Retrievers Retrieve, Rat Terriers Rat, etc”. These are all behaviors and traits that were selectively bred for. While many of our dogs today no longer participate or are used/bred for the work the breed was originally created for, many still retain some of their distinctive behavioral traits.

How knowing this can help

Knowing your dog’s genetic breed history (or best guess) can help inform you as to why your dog behaves the way it does. A major part of Behavioral Adjustment Training and a LIMA approach is understanding the underlying reason of WHY so we can better adjust our training to fit each dog’s needs rather than just addressing the symptoms. This helps with foreknowledge of what environmental influences may trigger a response, what management you may need in addition to training, and can help you prepare for any changes down the road.

Ex – being prepared for a dog suddenly showing same sex aggression at around 3 years of age (sexual maturity) when it was never an issue before.

Ex - knowing that your sight hound can't be let off lead without a muzzle in places with wildlife or other small animals when not hunting.

Dogs that have genetic predispositions towards certain behaviors can be fantastic family dogs in the right homes. With proper understanding, training, and management they can also be great community dogs. That is why it is important to recognize the genetic components of different dog breeds and how that plays a part in their personality, behaviors, and actions. Not all dogs are good with other dogs, not all dogs can or should go to dog parks, not all dogs are good with other animals (small or large), etc. That is OKAY!

Let us talk about Bully breeds

We have been having a lot of misinformation being spread on both side

Best sources for each material to study fully and a for each system ( git , cns , mss ,... etc)

Hi all! Sorry if this isn’t necessarily the best sub for this. For the last two years I’ve been working towards applying to become a Genetic Counselor, but recently I’ve been rethinking if this is the right path for me because I’m more interested in examining behavioral genetics (especially as it relates to psychotic and mood disorders) and I know this is not a very well formed part of a GC practice. Ive been having difficulties finding any Masters/PhD programs that have a study in behavioral genetics, and just wanted to ask if anyone knew of any or if it is a field where you specialize during a postdoctoral program?

Studying the genetic and neurophysiological differences in women vs. men?

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I just applied for the Behavioral Genetics PhD at CU boulder. Does anybody have any tips or insight on the specific program? Or just being a grad student at CU boulder in general?

A general sense you get traveling through areas of internet-land on these issues is that Geneticists are sometimes running into dangerous territory when they talk or report about their findings on things like heritable behavioral traits. For example, Robert Plomin's book Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are contains a forward about how he could not have written this book years ago, due to the social science being unfriendly to notions of connecting personality and behavior to anything genetic. He also remarks that colleagues told him it was "career suicide" to publish such a work.

The trope is that this is connected to our modern culture wars, in which left-leaning centers of academic opinion may want to push a 'blank slate' ideology, and be hostile to notions of genetic predisposition, and that such claims may evoke accusations of racism or sexism or the like.

My question is basically - is this true? Or is it a lot of hokum - something inflaming culture wars outside of academia, but not accurate to what's actually going on inside academia, where the conclusions of geneticists and DNA researchers are happily accepted by other social scientists? Or, is there something more complicated going on?

Behavioral Abnormality

Understanding brain related symptoms and features

Symptoms may affect multiple parts of the body. Understanding which part of the body a symptom affects, can help us to better understand the potential underlying causes of a symptom, including a rare disease or genetic syndrome.

The brain is the central organ of the nervous system, a system which includes not only the brain but also the sensory organs of the body, the spinal cords and the nerves that connect them all. The nervous system is how the different parts of the body communicate with each other and controls their responses to both internal and external stimuli.

Generally, symptoms affecting the brain can not be seen with the naked eye. Although diagnosing a brain related symptom may involve different tests and assessments, both subjective and objective.

Symptoms relating to the brain may affect other parts of the body and development, including intellectual ability as well as the ability to move, speak and other crucial bodily functions.

What is a Behavioral Abnormality?

A behavioral abnormality is the result of issues with mental functioning that in turn affect an individual’s cognitive awareness, perception and behavior.

This in turn means behavior that is considered abnormal compared to the norm. It usually involves more than one problematic behavior, that lasts for more than six months, and can be seen across home, school and social settings.

Examples of specific behavioral disorders include: oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

I have a project in which we’re looking at ODD. I have a section in which I talk about behavioral genetics. I kind of understand the resources I have but I’m having a hard time transferring the information into the slides bc I don’t really know what’s important and what should be included in the slides.

This is my first psychology project ever so I’m having a hard time knowing what to include or what things to look for.

I don’t really understand how behavioral genetics work either 😭😭😭

While I think the research should continue and be discussed to some degree. The research thus far has been entirely non-explanatory and haven’t even attempted to explain how* genes cause* differences in intelligence or any other complex trait that are supposedly determined or have strong influence. Most of the research is useless at this point including a lot of the twin-adoption literature for this same reason. I’m not sure as to why this fact isn’t brought up more, although I think Brett W. and David Deutsch may have mentioned this as well.

Although the podcast Sam did with Ezra Klein was extremely cancer inducing, mostly due to Klein, and basically them repeating themselves for 2 hours. I think at this point I’m almost in agreement that this issue shouldn’t be discussed as if it can/should inform policy decisions or even at the individual level.

This issue, I think, isn’t just true of BG but also of good portions of Psychology in general. Explanation-less theories is synonymous with a bad explanation*

btw I’ve read Human Diversity, The Bell Curve, and Blueprint by Plomin

Hello there! I am currently enrolled at a local community college working towards an associate degree in chemistry. I am not stopping at my Associates; I plan on obtaining my doctorate. I would love to receive any advice, tips, job and research prospects (to get an idea of life once my degree is obtained), to hear what classes you would/would not take, etc. I am currently based in the US but I do not want to finish my education in the US and ideally will be accepted to an international university (anywhere in Europe, Asia, Africa, or Latin America).

A small note: the required classes for chemistry and biology at my community college are the same. My GPA is above 3.0 currently and I have about 2 more years left before I graduate, if I can continue full time status.

Thank you and I look forward to talking with the people of r/genetics!

I'm a bio major in my last semester and wanted to see some opinions on these two classes. Has anyone here taken either of these two?

Debating between these two options for an Area C. Could anyone who's taken one or both of these courses provide some input about what they're like? I already know stuff like the course format and what the material is like (have looked through the syllabi and respective textbooks) but am more curious to hear about things like workload, difficulty of assessments, how clear/accessible the professors are, etc. I like math and genetics, but I also really like the economic side of animal behavior (and writing for Wikipedia seems pretty fun), so subject interest isn't a deciding factor for me.