Epigenetics in psychology

Epigenetics is a branch of psychology that studies how our environment can affect how our genes are expressed or used. It is the science of how our experiences - things like the people we meet, the places we go, and the things we do - can influence how the genetic instructions inside our cells are used.

For example, if two people have the same genetic instructions for a certain trait, like intelligence or eye color, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will both have that trait. It could be that one person’s environment - like the school they go to or the friends they have - influences their genes so that they have a higher intelligence or a different eye color than the other person. Epigenetics helps us understand why this is.