ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the fascinating world of genetics. A basic understanding of genetics must be an integral part of any social scientist’s intellectual armamentarium. A concept of central importance in behavioral genetics is heritability. Heritability is a quantification of the extent to which variance in a trait is due to genes. Heritability is a population parameter, the value of which varies considerably depending on the population. Different heritability values on important traits found within different environments could provide sociologists with important information on relative environmental advantage or disadvantage for the trait in question. Gene-environment interaction and correlation are also important concepts for sociologists. G × E involves the assumption that different genotypes will interact with and respond to their environments in different ways. The chapter offers a number of criticisms of behavior genetic assumptions and research designs. These criticisms and responses to them are scattered throughout the literature.
