Normally Occurring Environmental and Behavioral Influences on Gene Activity

Abstract

The central dogma of molecular biology holds that ''information'' flows from the genes to the structure of the proteins that the genes bring about through the formula DNA ! RNA ! Protein. In this view, a set of master genes activates the DNA necessary to produce the appropriate proteins that the organism needs during development. In contrast to this view, probabilistic epigenesis holds that necessarily there are signals from the internal and external environment that activate DNA to produce the appropriate proteins. To support this view, a substantial body of evidence is reviewed showing that external environmental influences on gene activation are normally occurring events in a large variety of organisms, including humans. This demonstrates how genes and environments work together to produce functional organisms, thus extending the author's model of probabilistic epigenesis.The new discipline of the genetics of behaviour, to judge by some recent books, is caught in the dogmas of Mendelian genetics without regard to developments in modem genetics during the last ten years, and to modern experimental approaches to the genetic roots of behaviour. Books on the subject usually begin with an account of the principles of Mendelian genetics. The material on behaviour deals mainly with mutated animals and their observed changes in behaviour. That is exactly what genetic principles predict. If an important mutation should not be followed by a change in behaviour -then geneticists would have to worry about the validity of the principles.

Adolescents’ Psychological Well-Being: A Multidimensional Measure

“…This study supports the idea of considering adolescence as a stage of opportunities and positive development, which in turn allows contemporary systemic models of development to be adopted, focusing on the study of the links between the individual and their context [ 24 ]. The focus on the organism-context as a unit of analysis [ 104 ] works on the principle that the process of human development involves mutually influential relationships with the environment [ 105 , 106 ] which, when mutually beneficial, become adaptive regulations for development [ 105 , 107 , 108 , 109 ]. Although relationships with our environment occur throughout our lives [ 110 , 111 ], they are of special importance in the study of well-being and positive functioning during adolescence, given the plasticity which characterizes this stage of human development [ 24 ].…”