Genes, Race, and Psychology in the Genome Era: An Introduction.

The mapping of the human genome has reawakened interest in the topic of race and genetics, especially the use of genetic technology to examine racial differences in complex outcomes such as health and intelligence. Advances in genomic research challenge psychology to address the myriad conceptual, methodological, and analytical issues associated with research on genetics and race. In addition, the field needs to understand the numerous social, ethical, legal, clinical, and policy implications of research in this arena. Addressing these issues should not only benefit psychology but could also serve to guide such thought in other fields, including molecular biology. The purpose of this special issue is to begin a discussion of this issue of race and genetics within the field of psychology. Several scholars who work in the fields of genetics, race, or related areas were invited to write (or had previously submitted) articles sharing their perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Use of Race Variables in Genetic Studies of Complex Traits and the Goal of Reducing Health Disparities: A Transdisciplinary Perspective.

The use of racial variables in genetic studies has become a matter of intense public debate, with implications for research design and translation into practice. Using research on smoking as a springboard, the authors examine the history of racial categories, current research practices, and arguments for and against using race variables in genetic analyses. The authors argue that the sociopolitical constructs appropriate for monitoring health disparities are not appropriate for use in genetic studies investigating the etiology of complex diseases. More powerful methods for addressing population structure exist, and race variables are unacceptable as gross proxies for numerous social/environmental factors that disproportionately affect minority populations. The authors conclude with recommendations for genetic researchers and policymakers, aimed at facilitating better science and producing new knowledge useful for reducing health disparities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race and Genetics: Controversies in Biomedical, Behavioral, and Forensic Sciences.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 60(4) of American Psychologist (see record 2007-16797-001). In this article, Table 1 contains several errors due to an editorial mistake. In the Population and Incarceration columns, the data for Blacks and Whites were transposed. In addition, decimal points were omitted from the data in the Rate (%) of Incarceration per Population columns. The correct version of Table 1 appears in the erratum.] Among biomedical scientists, there is a great deal of controversy over the nature of race, the relevance of racial categories for research, and the proper methods of using racial variables. This article argues that researchers and scholars should avoid a binary-type argument, in which the question is whether to use race always or never. Researchers should instead focus on developing standards for when and how to use racial variables. The article then discusses 1 context, criminology, in which the use of racial variables in behavioral genetics research could be particularly problematic. If genetic studies of criminalized behavior use forensic DNA databanks or forensic genetic profiles, they will be confounded by the many racial biases of the law enforcement and penal system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intelligence: Genetics, Genes, and Genomics.

More is known about the genetics of intelligence than about any other trait, behavioral or biological, which is selectively reviewed in this article. Two of the most interesting genetic findings are that heritability of intelligence increases throughout the life span and that the same genes affect diverse cognitive abilities. The most exciting direction for genetic research on intelligence is to harness the power of the Human Genome Project to identify some of the specific genes responsible for the heritability of intelligence. The next research direction will be functional genomics--for example, understanding the brain pathways between genes and intelligence. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) will integrate life sciences research on intelligence; bottom-up molecular biological research will meet top-down psychological research in the brain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Race and genetics: Controversies in biomedical, behavioral, and forensic sciences": Correction to Ossorio and Duster (2005).

Reports an error in "Race and Genetics: Controversies in Biomedical, Behavioral, and Forensic Sciences" by Pilar Ossorio and Troy Duster (American Psychologist, 2005[Jan], Vol 60[1], 115-128). In this article, Table 1 contains several errors due to an editorial mistake. In the Population and Incarceration columns, the data for Blacks and Whites were transposed. In addition, decimal points were omitted from the data in the Rate (%) of Incarceration per Population columns. The correct version of Table 1 appears in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2005-00117-011.) Among biomedical scientists, there is a great deal of controversy over the nature of race, the relevance of racial categories for research, and the proper methods of using racial variables. This article argues that researchers and scholars should avoid a binary-type argument, in which the question is whether to use race always or never. Researchers should instead focus on developing standards for when and how to use racial variables. The article then discusses 1 context, criminology, in which the use of racial variables in behavioral genetics research could be particularly problematic. If genetic studies of criminalized behavior use forensic DNA databanks or forensic genetic profiles, they will be confounded by the many racial biases of the law enforcement and penal system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race as Biology Is Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem Is Real: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on the Social Construction of Race.

Racialized science seeks to explain human population differences in health, intelligence, education, and wealth as the consequence of immutable, biologically based differences between "racial" groups. Recent advances in the sequencing of the human genome and in an understanding of biological correlates of behavior have fueled racialized science, despite evidence that racial groups are not genetically discrete, reliably measured, or scientifically meaningful. Yet even these counterarguments often fail to take into account the origin and history of the idea of race. This article reviews the origins of the concept of race, placing the contemporary discussion of racial differences in an anthropological and historical context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In the Eye of the Storm: Race and Genomics in Research and Practice.

The difficulties of operationalizing race in research and practice for social, behavioral, and genetic researchers and practitioners are neither new nor related to recent genetic knowledge. For geneticists, the bases for understanding groups are clines, observed traits that gradually change in frequency between geographic regions without distinct identifiable population boundaries and population histories that carry information about the distribution of genetic variants. For psychologists, race may not exist or be a social and cultural construct associated with fluid social inferences. Because definitions of populations and race can be socially and biologically incongruent, the authors suggest that geneticists and social and behavioral scientists and clinicians attend to external validity issues by operationalizing population and racial categories and avoiding race proxies for other biological, social, and cultural constructs in research designs, data analyses, and clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalist Genes and Learning Disabilities.

The authors reviewed recent quantitative genetic research on learning disabilities that led to the conclusion that genetic diagnoses differ from traditional diagnoses in that the effects of relevant genes are largely general rather than specific. This research suggests that most genes associated with common learning disabilities--language impairment, reading disability, and mathematics disability--are generalists in 3 ways. First, genes that affect common learning disabilities are largely the same genes responsible for normal variation in learning abilities. Second, genes that affect any aspect of a learning disability affect other aspects of the disability. Third, genes that affect one learning disability are also likely to affect other learning disabilities. These quantitative genetic findings have far-reaching implications for molecular genetics and neuroscience as well as psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intelligence, Race, and Genetics.

In this article, the authors argue that the overwhelming portion of the literature on intelligence, race, and genetics is based on folk taxonomies rather than scientific analysis. They suggest that because theorists of intelligence disagree as to what it is, any consideration of its relationships to other constructs must be tentative at best. They further argue that race is a social construction with no scientific definition. Thus, studies of the relationship between race and other constructs may serve social ends but cannot serve scientific ends. No gene has yet been conclusively linked to intelligence, so attempts to provide a compelling genetic link of race to intelligence are not feasible at this time. The authors also show that heritability, a behaviorgenetic concept, is inadequate in regard to providing such a link. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial differences in birth outcomes: The role of general, pregnancy, and racism stress.

Objective: This study examined the role of psychosocial stress in racial differences in birth outcomes. Design: Maternal health, sociodemographic factors, and 3 forms of stress (general stress, pregnancy stress, and perceived racism) were assessed prospectively in a sample of 51 African American and 73 non-Hispanic White pregnant women. Main Outcome Measures: The outcomes of interest were birth weight and gestational age at delivery. Only predictive models of birth weight were tested as the groups did not differ significantly in gestational age. Results: Perceived racism and indicators of general stress were correlated with birth weight and tested in regression analyses. In the sample as a whole, lifetime and childhood indicators of perceived racism predicted birth weight and attenuated racial differences, independent of medical and sociodemographic control variables. Models within each race group showed that perceived racism was a significant predictor of birth weight in African Americans, but not in non-Hispanic Whites. Conclusions: These findings provide further evidence that racism may play an important role in birth outcome disparities, and they are among the first to indicate the significance of psychosocial factors that occur early in the life course for these specific health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gene-environment interactions across development: Exploring DRD2 genotype and prenatal smoking effects on self-regulation.

Genetic factors dynamically interact with both pre- and postnatal environmental influences to shape development. Considerable attention has been devoted to gene-environment interactions (G × E) on important outcomes (A. Caspi & T. E. Moffitt, 2006). It is also important to consider the possibility that these G × E effects may vary across development, particularly for constructs like self-regulation that emerge slowly, depend on brain regions that change qualitatively in different developmental periods, and thus may be manifested differently. To illustrate one approach to exploring such developmental patterns, the relation between variation in the TaqIA polymorphism, related to D2 dopamine receptor expression and availability, and prenatal exposure to tobacco was examined in two exploratory studies. First, in 4-week-old neonates, genotype-exposure interactions were observed for attention and irritable reactivity, but not for stress dysregulation. Second, in preschool children, genotype was related to Preschool Trail Making Test (K. A. Espy and M. F. Cwik, 2004) task performance on conditions requiring executive control; children with both the A1+ genotype and a history of prenatal tobacco exposure displayed disproportionately poor performance. Despite study limitations, these results illustrate the importance of examining the interplay between genetic and prenatal environmental factors across development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Meaning of Race in Psychology and How to Change It: A Methodological Perspective.

The primary purpose of this article was to offer a methodological critique in support of arguments that racial categories should be replaced as explanatory constructs in psychological research and theory. To accomplish this goal, the authors (a) summarized arguments for why racial categories should be replaced; (b) used principles of the scientific method to show that racial categories lack conceptual meaning; (c) identified common errors in researchers' measurement, statistical analyses, and interpretation of racial categories as independent variables; and (d) used hierarchical regression analysis to illustrate a strategy for replacing racial categories in research designs with conceptual variables. Implications for changing the study of race in psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Under the Skin: On the Impartial Treatment of Genetic and Environmental Hypotheses of Racial Differences.

Environmental and genetic explanations have been given for Black-White racial differences in intelligence and other traits. In science, viable, alternative hypotheses are ideally given equal Bayesian prior weights; but this has not been true in the study of racial differences. This article advocates testing environmental and genetic hypotheses of racial differences as competing hypotheses. Two methods are described: (a) fitting means within structural equation models and (b) predicting means of interracial children. These methods have limitations that call for improved research designs of racial differences. One improvement capitalizes on biotechnology. Genetic admixture estimates--the percentage of genes of European origin that a Black individual possesses (independent of genes related to skin coloration)--can represent genetic influences. The study of interracial children can be improved by increasing sample size and by choosing family members who are most informative for a research question. Eventually, individual-admixture estimates will be replaced by molecular genetic tests of alleles of those genes that influence traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress, race, and body weight.

Objective: Stress has been identified as a significant factor in health and in racial/ethnic health disparities. A potential mediator in these relationships is body weight. Design: Cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between stress, race, and body weight were examined in an ethnically diverse sample of overweight and obese women with Type 2 diabetes (n = 217) enrolled in a behavioral weight loss program. Main Outcome Measures: Stress (Perceived Stress Scale) was assessed at baseline only and body weight (body mass index) was assessed at baseline and 6 months. Results: Stress was not related to baseline body weight. With every 1 unit lower scored on the baseline stress measure, women lost 0.10 kg ± .04 more at 6 months (p     

Genetic testing and psychology: New roles, new responsibilities.

Advances in genetics and genetic testing promise to catalyze a fundamental change in the practice of medicine. Psychologists have much to offer as psychotherapists, researchers, educators, and policymakers to a society heavily influenced by the genetic revolution. To make the most of new opportunities available to mental health professionals in genetics, psychologists must know basic genetic principles and learn what is new about 21st-century genetics. The core competencies for all health professionals developed by the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics are related in this article to the significant roles psychologists can play in helping individuals with genetic concerns to cope with vulnerability, optimize family interaction, and improve health behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race, Family Interactions, and Patient Stabilization in Schizophrenia.

This study examined family interactions associated with a failure to stabilize in schizophrenia. Fifty-eight patient and parent dyads completed a problem-solving task soon after an acute episode. Stabilization was assessed over the following 6 months. African American patients' self-initiated discussions of substance use and increased anxiety during the interaction were associated with a failure to stabilize. Nonstabilization in White patients was associated with high levels of both the patients' odd thinking and the parents' criticism. White patients who were depressed during the interaction were also less likely to stabilize. Findings suggest that family relationships may play in important role in determining whether patients stabilize after an acute episode. Results also point to the importance of cultural factors in predicting patient stabilization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial and ethnic identity theory, measurement, and research in counseling psychology: Present status and future directions.

The present article integrates and expands on the special section contributions of K. O. Cokley (2007); J. E. Helms (2007); J. E. Trimble (2007); S. M. Quintana (2007); and J. S. Phinney and A. D. Ong (2007). The authors of the present article begin with a note on politics and ideology in writings on racial identity development and review general progress the field has made on the topics of racial and ethnic identity development. The present challenges in both explicating clear and concise theories of racial and ethnic identity development and operationalizing and measuring these constructs in paper-and-pencil form are identified. The need for interdisciplinary work on theory testing is highlighted, and select examples of best practices in measuring racial and ethnic identity are presented. The article closes with directions for research in racial and ethnic identity development, and with implications for counseling practice, supervision, and systemic change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic and Environmental Etiology of Social Behavior in Infancy.

A twin analysis was applied to infants' social behavior in standardized situations that permitted the comparison of social responding to mother and a stranger in different contexts. Ninety-two middle-class children (members of 21 identical twin pairs and 25 same-sex fraternal twin pairs, with an average age of 22.2 months) were observed in their homes using time-sampled observations of specific behaviors in seven situations: (a) a 5-minute warm-up period, (b) approach by stranger, (c) play with stranger, (d) play with mother, (e) cuddling with mother, (f) cuddling with stranger, and (g) separation from mother. Comparisons between intraclass correlations for identical and fraternal twins yielded significant differences for social behavior directed toward the stranger but not toward the mother. In addition, a novel measure of attachment using the difference in social responding toward the mother and stranger suggested heritable influences only in the initial warm-up situation. We conclude that in infancy, heredity affects individual differences in social responding more to unfamiliar persons than to familiar persons. The behavioral-genetic analysis also suggests that the substantial influence of environment in the development of social behavior may occur primarily within families (making members of a family different from one another-including systematic as well as stochastic effects) rather than between families (making family members similar to one another and different from other families), as is widely assumed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk for Separation Anxiety Disorder Among Girls: Paternal Absence, Socioeconomic Disadvantage, and Genetic Vulnerability.

The authors examined genetic and environmental influences, including the contributions of 2 measured aspects of the shared environment of twins (paternal absence, socioeconomic disadvantage) on the development of mother-reported separation anxiety disorder (SAD) history in a sample of 1,887 female twin pairs. Four different symptom categories of SAD were considered. Results revealed that all 4 SAD symptom categories were significantly heritable, whereas the contribution of shared environmental influences to the variation in risk was significant for only 2 of the 4 SAD categories. Paternal absence was found to have an important influence in vulnerability for SAD, whereas the effect of socioeconomic disadvantage was less robust. Evidence for race differences in the etiology of SAD was not found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)