Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-5bvrz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-11T14:56:35.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Behavior genetics: Past, present, future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2013

Sara R. Jaffee*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania King's College London
Thomas S. Price
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Teresa M. Reyes
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Sara R. Jaffee, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3720 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104; E-mail: srjaffee@psych.upenn.edu.

Abstract

The disciplines of developmental psychopathology and behavior genetics are concerned with many of the same questions about the etiology and course of normal and abnormal behavior and about the factors that promote typical development despite the presence of risk. The goal of this paper is to summarize how research in behavior genetics has shed light on questions that are central to developmental psychopathology. We briefly review the origins of behavior genetics, summarize the findings that have been gleaned from several decades of quantitative and molecular genetics research, and describe future directions for research that will delineate gene function as well as pathways from genes to brain to behavior. The importance of environmental contributions, at both genetic and epigenetic levels, will be discussed. We conclude that behavior genetics has made significant contributions to developmental psychopathology by documenting the interplay among risk and protective factors at multiple levels of the organism, by clarifying the causal status of risk exposures, and by identifying factors that account for change and stability in psychopathology. As the tools to identify gene function become increasingly sophisticated, and as behavioral geneticists become increasingly interdisciplinary in their scope, the field is poised to make ever greater contributions to our understanding of typical and atypical development.

Information

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable