Genes are the biochemical units of heredity that make up chromosomes, it passes from parent to

child. Genetic materials may in uence one’s behavior, for instance aggression or antisocial
behavior as demonstrated in the Raine and Baker study as well as the Meyer - Lindenberg et al
study. However individual’s behavior is not merely in uenced by gene but also by other factors
such as environment.

In the Raine and Baker study, researcher gathered 1210 twins to study in the relationship between
antisocial behaviors (bullying, cruelty, stealing, skipping school etc.) and genetics. The study aims
to investigate in the correlation of genes or heritability. Through gathered questionnaires with
questions on the kid’s personalities, behaviors, and social skills from the child, their teacher and a
caregiver provides a measure of the kid’s level of antisocial behaviors. The results showed that
out of the comparisons made between fraternal, identical twins, and correlation, the heritability
always come at around 50%. Hence, researchers concluded the antisocial behavior in these kids
was a half the product of genetics and half explained by environmental factors. From the study
results the 50% of heritability shows that because the antisocial behavior from their parents is
passed down by genes and in uences the kid’s antisocial behavior, suggesting that the gene
correlates with an individual’s antisocial behavior. Environmental factors also takes place as
shown by the explanation for di erent growing environment demonstrated in identical and
fraternal twins. As identical twins look exactly the same they are more likely a ected by the
environment in a more similar way compared with fraternal twins. With fraternal twins, the
di erence in gender might also impact the environment they stay in. Hence, the result between
di erent twins can be inaccurate.

In the other study by Meyer-Lindenberg et al, researchers conducted study aiming to investigate
in the correlation of MAOA gene and its a ects on brain activity. MAOA gene, or the warrior gene
is a commonly seen gene linked with violence and antisocial behavior. Researchers compared the
brain activity of two groups of healthy participants where one group had high expressing MAOA
gene and another had low expression MAOA gene. Participants were asked to view angry and
fearful faces in an fMRI, the result showed that the group with MAOA-L had shown signi cantly
increased activity in their amygdala and reduced activity in their ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
This results suggests a correlation of MAOA-L gene with possible aggression and impulsive
behavior as the reduced activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex indicates an lack of vmPFC’s
function, for instance to inhibit impulsive behavior when facing threats, in other words a lack of
regulation toward impulsive behavior. The amygdala, which is associated with fear and emotion
control, is also highly activated, the individual is more likely to show higher level of emotional
arousal when facing fear. This suggests that the participant with MAOA-L could present
aggressive behaviors. To go into more details, MAOA genes is a type of enzyme that breaks down
neurotransmitters in the synapse, lower expression of variant means less MAOA produced,
resulting in the a ected neurotransmitter levels and brain activities in parts like amygdala and
prefrontal cortex. This demonstrates the relationship of MAOA gene with individual’s behavior, in
speci c the study result suggested MAOA-L gene is associated with violent behavior.

? Do I just evaluate the limitation (low validity), and conclude because low internal validity it can
not be generalized hence result might be inaccurate, does not guarantee a 100% relationship of
gene in uencing individual’s behavior. However, the study also

Criterion A: Explains the problem/issue raised in the question. 1, you did explain how each study
shows genetics relation to behavior, but did not do a summary of how both studies respond to the
question: “to what extent does genetics in uence behavior?”. A suggestion will be to switch the
paragraph order, put Raine and Baker as the second study and Meyer as the rst, say that Meyer
establishes a ground that states MAOA gene is shown to strongly correlate with violent behavior,
but then Raine and Baker suggests as a counter argument that environmental factors also come
into play.

Criterion B: 5, used “suggests, shows a correlation”, but the paragraph is incomplete, would want
to see consistence performance in the nal summary and answering to the prompt paragraph.
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Criterion C: 6, explained the methodology (equipment used to measure, participants)…

Criterion D: 1-2, does not evaluate, you have been describing the studies for whole two
paragraph, there is no evaluation (even though the focus shouldn't be )

Criterion E: 1, I can follow through your explanation of study, the aim, method, results, but for the
whole essay, the structure is not clear enough because I don’t know what are you going to write
for the following paragraphs on evaluation and responding to the prompt.