Genes are segments of DNA inherited by the offspring from the parent and are responsible for

the development of behavioural characteristic. Many genes will require a set or number of
environmental factors to switch certain genes on or off. One biological theory of depression is
genetic inheritance. Genetic inheritance is the theory that abnormal behaviour, in this case,
depression, can be passed down through genes, hence, partly explain the behaviour of
depression. Psychologists believe that if an individual has a specific combination of genes, they
are more vulnerable to depression. This can be seen in the study of Caspi et al and Kendler
(2005) et al.

In the study of Caspi et al was trying to find out the role of the 5-HTT gene and whether it's
linked to a higher or lower risk of developing depression in an individual from the response to
stressful life events. 5-HTT is a gene that plays a role in the serotonin pathways, which are
involved in controlling mood, emotions, aggression and sleep. Caspi hypothesized that people
who inherit two short versions of the 5-HTT gene are more likely to develop depression after a
stressful life event. 
 
Caspi used an opportunity sample from a cohort of 847 New Zealand participants that are 26-
year-olds. This experiment is a longitudinal study, all the participants then were split into three
groups using genetic mapping based on their 5-HTT alleles. Group 1 participants had both short
alleles of 5-HTT (s/s). Group 2 has one short and one long allele (s/l). Group 3 had both long
alleles (l/l). The participants were then asked to fill in a stressful life events questionnaire, which
asked them about the frequency of 14 different events, including employment, health and
relationship. The results show that the participants who had one or two short alleles of 5-HTT
(s/l or s/s) tend to react to stressful life events with more depressive symptoms than the other
two groups. Participants with two long alleles reported fewer depression symptoms. 
 
Therefore, we can conclude that the case study shows that the 5-HTT gene is responsible for
modulating an individual’s depression. Participants with short alleles will be more likely to suffer
from depression however the long alleles seem to protect against suffering from depression as a
result of stress. This then supports the idea that there is an interaction between genetics and
depression.

The strength of the study is that it has a very large cohort of males and females, and the age
was controlled in order to isolate the variable of a number of stressful life events between the
ages of 21 and 26, which removed extraneous variables and increase its generalizability of
population and accuracy. Moreover, it was a natural experiment, with the naturally occurring IV
being the length of the alleles, leading to high reliability and high ecologically.

However, the large same also acts as a limitation as such the large part of the population carries
the mutated 5-HTT gene, it is hard to conclude that the gene is a significant factor in depression.
This study only establishes a correlation between the short 5-HTT allele and depression, but not
the cause-and-effect relationship. Moreover, the symptoms of depression were self-reported,
the result then may not be entirely reliable. Furthermore, there’s no evidence against that it
could be the stressful events that made people depressed. Affecting the reliability of the result.
A twin study done by Kendler aims to investigate the heritability of depression in identical (MZ)
twins that share 100% of their genes and fraternal (DZ) twins that share 50% of their DNA by
using quasi-experiment and twin studies. There were 42000 twins from Sweden and
participants were interviewed to determine the level of heritability of depression through the
diagnosis of DSM-IV. A personal computer-assisted phone interview was conducted with all
participants and efforts were made to reach both members of a pair within one month. The
results showed that MZ twins had 44% concordance rate in females and a little less in males,
while DZ twins had a 16% concordance rate and a little less in males.

The result allowed Kendler to conclude that the heritability of depression (behavior) according
to the twin model (genetic similarity) was 38%. This means the study concluded that depression
is somewhat heritable, however since the MZ twin concordance rate was below 100%, which
shows that genetics don’t play as large of a role in depression, however environmental stimuli
and stress also played a role in this behavior.

The study is carried out in a very large sample size taken from a single population which helps to
strengthen the reliability of the findings. Furthermore, it also adherence to the ethical
guidelines.

The study is correlational, therefore, there’s no cause-and-effect relationship can be

determined. As there’s no particular genes were isolated and tested in the study. Information
about life-events and depressive symptoms was self-reported, which again can affect the
reliability of the result as problems could arise if men are less reliable in their reporting of
lifetime major depression than women.

In conclusion, both studies have demonstrated how genetic can influence the behavior of
developing depression. Caspi has concluded that participants with short alleles will be more
likely to develop depression which affect their behaviors. Where Kendler has concluded that the
heritability of depression can be developed between twins due to their genetic similarity.