Role of Heredity and Environment — Hard

Q1. Consider the following statements about the twin-study evidence on heredity. (i) Thorndike, Newman, Freeman and David Winfield all carried out twin studies that support the role of heredity. (ii) The IQ correlation between unrelated children reared together is exactly the same as the correlation between identical twins. (iii) The general pattern is — the closer the blood-relationship, the higher the IQ correlation. Which of the above is/are correct?

• A. (i) and (ii) only
• B. (ii) and (iii) only
• C. (i) and (iii) only
• D. (i), (ii) and (iii)

Q2. Which of the following lists of traits is best explained by HEREDITY rather than environment?

• A. Mother tongue, religion, table manners and dress code
• B. Height, weight, eye-colour and skin-colour
• C. Marks in the class 7 Mathematics test, friends made at school, ability to debate
• D. Hobbies, language proficiency, classroom behaviour and political opinion

Q3. Twin brothers Anil and Sunil have very similar genetic make-up. Anil is enrolled in King George School with educated parents and completes an MBA; Sunil grows up in a remote village with limited schooling and works as a daily-wage labourer. The most appropriate diagnosis of this difference is that

• A. Sunil's chromosomes must have mutated after birth
• B. the difference is mostly due to environment — schooling, parental support and surroundings — because their heredity is comparable
• C. the difference is mostly due to heredity, since twins always develop differently
• D. neither heredity nor environment had any role; the difference is purely chance

Q4. Assertion (A): Woodworth held that heredity and environment are both equally essential for the development of an individual. Reason (R): If either heredity or environment is reduced to zero, the Ross formula H × E × T = DL also yields zero. Choose the correct option.

• A. Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
• B. Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is NOT the correct explanation of (A)
• C. (A) is true but (R) is false
• D. (A) is false but (R) is true

Q5. The following definitions are given by three different scholars: 'environment is everything that affects the individual except his genes', 'environment is the aggregate of all external forces, influences and conditions', and 'environment refers to anything immediately surrounding an object and exerting a direct influence on it'. The third definition is associated with

• A. Anastasi
• B. Douglas and Holland
• C. Gilbert
• D. F.L. Ruch

Q6. MacIver and Page, state that an individual is the 'product of BOTH heredity and environment, neither operating in isolation'. Which CTET-style classroom inference is MOST consistent with this view?

• A. A teacher should only address the child's heredity since the environment cannot be changed
• B. A teacher should only address the environment since heredity is fixed and cannot be improved
• C. A teacher should plan for BOTH — knowing each adolescent's hereditary profile AND enriching her classroom environment
• D. A teacher should treat heredity and environment as independent forces that can be added together

Q7. Examine the Winfield IQ-correlation values: Identical twins 0.90, fraternal twins 0.70, siblings 0.50, parent–child 0.31, unrelated children 0.30. Which of the following inferences is NOT supported by these values?

• A. Identical twins are far more alike in IQ than ordinary siblings
• B. Parent–child IQ correlation is only marginally higher than that of unrelated children
• C. Siblings are roughly midway between identical twins and unrelated children
• D. Fraternal twins are less alike in IQ than ordinary siblings

Q8. A class 7 boy whose parents are illiterate fishermen on the Konkan coast can already speak Konkani, Marathi, Hindi, English and a little Gujarati and Tamil picked up from tourists and television. The best explanation is

• A. His parents must secretly know all these languages and pass them on through heredity
• B. Language acquisition depends on the environment — a rich linguistic surrounding lets a child of illiterate parents learn many languages by age 10
• C. Konkani-coast children inherit a special language-gene at the zygote stage
• D. Only first-born children can learn more than two languages before adolescence

Q9. A study showing that the climate of the school is significantly related to the scholastic achievement of children. This finding is attributed to

• A. Sorenson
• B. Anastasi
• C. Ross
• D. Peterson

Q10. An upper-primary teacher notices that within a single class 7 section, students range from those who solve Maths problems independently to those who still need help reading the question in English. Drawing on the pedagogical implications of the heredity-environment view, her FIRST step should be to

• A. send the slower readers to a lower class
• B. ignore the differences and stick to a single teaching method
• C. make a serious study of the individual differences in Mathematics and English by knowing each learner's heredity-and-environment background
• D. teach only the gifted students because the rest cannot improve

Q11. Murphy's analogy describes the development of an individual as follows: 'Heredity is the ____ , culture is the ____ and the family is the ____ '. Pick the correct triplet.

• A. design, raw material, craftsman
• B. raw material, design, craftsman
• C. craftsman, design, raw material
• D. raw material, craftsman, design

Q12. Examine the following pair of statements about twins. Statement-I: Identical twins are always of the same sex. Statement-II: Fraternal twins are mostly brothers, sisters or brother-sister pairs and need NOT be of the same sex. Which of the following is correct?

• A. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are true
• B. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are false
• C. Statement-I is true but Statement-II is false
• D. Statement-I is false but Statement-II is true

Q13. Sunita, a 12-year-old, shows exceptional musical ability. Both her parents are accomplished singers, and they send her for voice-training classes after school. Her capabilities are most likely to be the result of an interaction between

• A. growth and maturation
• B. nutrition and discipline
• C. heredity and environment
• D. gender identity and genetic make-up

Q14. Which of the following statements about the role of heredity and environment in human development is correct?

• A. The only reason for individual differences is heredity
• B. Environmental influences totally shape the development of a human
• C. Neither heredity nor environment influences human development
• D. Heredity and environment both influence human development in a complex interplay

Q15. In a class 7 section in rural Bihar, one boy, Manoj, consistently deviates from the group norm — he speaks much less, refuses group activities and shows much higher Mathematics scores than the rest. Following an interactionist reading of the heredity-environment view, the teacher's MOST appropriate next step is to

• A. label Manoj a problem child and refer him out of the school
• B. treat him exactly like the rest of the class to avoid favouritism
• C. study his heredity-environment background, identify the deviation from the group norm and provide individual guidance through the school's guidance and counselling centre
• D. wait until Manoj reaches class 10 before any individual attention is given