Phenotype: a trait or traits determined by the interaction of genes and environment


FDIS: Nature - Nurture: It's About the Hyphen!

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One of the themes of contemporary investigations in biology, medicine, psychology, and other inquiries into "human nature" has been the attempts to answer the question "is it nature or nurture" that guides our destiny. This question has both stimulated and restricted our understanding of ourselves and the living world around us. The question has also been reformulated in important ways to provide more helpful though often more complex "answers" and avenues to approach the pursuit of understanding ourselves.

Learning Experience: The development of the E-1 and E-2 competences through this independent study is based first on learning to assess the role of environment on health using a framework that puts environmental factors in relation to non-environmental factors (e.g., biology) and secondly, on taking the perspectives of this competence into ways that the question 'what is human nature?' may be explored. Overall, hopefully this study will provide a means of analysis that is generalizable to many areas of interest and concern. There will be several steps - activities - of the study designed to progressively develop your facility with these ideas. You will develop this facility through research activities in pursuit of various questions that will require the use of library and internet database searches, your own observations, and assigned readings.

You will develop a basic understanding of hereditary mechanisms and work with several examples to gain an appreciation for and facility with the various ways in which we are coming to understand how genes and environment interact. Most of what there is to be understood about these interactions lies ahead of us and so this study will offer a basis for both future understanding and the application of the competence to lives today.

Because of the extent that you will be tracking down sources and gathering information, completion of Research Seminar is a prerequisite.

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Learning Outcomes of this FDIS

By the conclusion of the study, you should be able to: There are several options in the study to pursue areas of learning that get your attention.

Course DescriptionLearning OutcomesCommunicationsBack Home