How Genes Influence Behavior

How Genes Influence Behavior 2e takes a personal and lively approach to the study of behavioral genetics, providing an up-to-date and accessible introduction to a variety of approaches and their application to a wide range of disorders, and modeling a critical approach to both methods and results.

This second edition includes additional biology content to help students understand the biological foundations of the field, while maintaining an appropriate focus on the main issues of relevance to psychology students; updates coverage of genomic technologies and their applications; and covers a wider range of disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, eating disorders, and intellectual disability. A new final chapter guides students through a range of quantitative approaches using worked examples that relate directly to cases and examples used earlier in the text, and addresses current issues arising from debates around reproducibility.

The online resources that accompany this book include:

For students
*Multiple choice questions for students to check their threshold knowledge
*Data sets for students to manipulate, so that they can apply what they have learned

For lecturers
*Figures and tables from the book, ready to download

Jonathan Flint, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA,Ralph J. Greenspan, Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, University of California, San Diego, California, USA,Kenneth S. Kendler, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia, USA

Jonathan Flint is a Professor at the University of California Los Angeles where he works on the genetic basis of depression using both human and animal models.




Ralph Greenspan is a Professor at the University of California San Diego where he is Associate Director of Kavli Institute for Mind and Brain. He work includes analysis of the genetic control of nervous system development in the fruit fly and mouse, and genetic and neurobiological studies of innate and learned behaviors in the fruit fly.


Kenneth Kendler is a Professor at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He has conducted family and twin studies on a range of psychiatric and substance use disorders as well as molecular genetic studies on schizophrenia, alcoholism, and depression.