Activity . Genes Every chromosome stores thousands of genetic commands in the form of genes. These genes dictate much of the course of an organism’s development. They contain instructions for the production of specific proteins, which regulate the body’s physiological processes and the expression of phenotypic traits.
The observable traits of an organism are called phenotype (e.g., body built, physical strength, intelligence, and that so? Try to think how people have come to behave so differently in terms of food intake. If you explore further you will also find variations in the manner in which food is eaten (e.g., directly with hand, or with the help of spoons, forks and knives). Sexual behaviour can be taken as another example.
We know that this behaviour involves hormones and reflexive reactions in animals and human beings alike. While among animals sexual behaviour is fairly simple and reflexive (all animals indulge in sexual behaviour almost in the same manner), it is so complex among human beings that it can hardly be described as reflexive. Partner preferences are a key feature of human sexual behaviour. The bases of these preferences widely differ within and across societies.
Human sexual behaviour is also governed by many rules, standards, values, and laws. However, these rules and standards also remain in a continuous process of change. These examples illustrate that biological factors alone cannot help us very much in understanding human behaviour. The nature of human beings is very different from those provided to us by biological scientists.
Human nature has evolved through an interplay of biological and cultural forces. These forces have made us similar in many ways and different in others. Concept of Culture You have read that human behaviour can be understood only by viewing it in the In relatively modern years, a discipline called sociobiology has emerged that deals with the interaction of biology and society. It explains human social behaviour in an evolutionary framework on the basis of “inclusive fitness”, which means that each organism is supposed to behave in a manner so as to maximise its reproductive success.
Researchers, who have studied several social behaviours (e.g., courtship, mating, child rearing), underscore the continuity of development of biologically related creatures. They recognise that human behaviour cannot be attributed solely to biological predispositions. It is greatly affected by learning. Heidi Keller, a distinguished psychologist, recently argued that genetic endowment should not be misunderstood as expressing fixed, deterministic relationships between genes and behaviour.
She has proposed the notion of “genetic preparedness”, which suggests that acquisition of particular behaviours via learning occurs in fairly efficient ways to facilitate our adaptations with the environment. It is now believed that human evolution involves both genetic and cultural transmissions. These transmission processes are different in certain respects, but they have parallel features. Genetic transmission is a process that occurs in all organisms in a similar manner, but cultural transmission is a unique human process.