Biometrical Genetics

Abstract

The principles of biometrical and quantitative genetics lie at the heart of virtually all of the statistical models examined in this book. Thus, an understanding of biometrical genetics is fundamental to our statistical approach to twin and family data. Biometrical models relate the “latent,” or unobserved, variables of our structural models to the functional effects of genes. It is these effects, based on the principles of Mendelian genetics, that give our structural models a degree of validity quite unusual in the social sciences. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief introduction to biometrical models. Extensive treatments of the subject have been provided by Mather and Jinks (1982) and Falconer (1990). Here we employ the notation of Mather and Jinks.