Character is Equally Genetics and Environment

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Recommended: Heredity or environment and socialization

Sperm donors do not make fathers, nor does an egg donor a mother make. There has always been a large controversy over whether inherited genes or environmental influences affect our personality, development, behavior, intelligence and ability. This controversy is commonly referred to as the nature verses nurture conflict or as I like to refer to it as genetics or environment. Some people like my ex-husband believe that it is strictly genes that affect our ways of life, others like me believe that environmental factors affect us, and some people like my husband believe that both factors influence who we are. No matter which way you believe, scientists all over the world have been struggling for centuries deciding whether our personalities are born to us or made by the world around us.

How much of people’s behavior is due to their genetically determined nature (heredity), and how much is due to nurture, the influences of the physical and social environment in which a child is raised; is one of the major issues that psychologists address. For people like my ex-husband that believe heredity is the reason we are, I offer them behavioral genetics. Behavioral genetics studies the affects of heredity on behavior. These researchers are finding increasing evidence that cognitive abilities, personality traits, sexual orientation, and psychological disorders are determined to some extent by genetic factors (Feldman, R., 2008, p. 72). I do not deny that genetics to play a role in what makes a person who they are. I mean after all you do get DNA from two individuals when you are conceived.

I am around children seven days a week; every day I am amazed at how much children’s personalities are influenced by the environment they are in. My o...

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...ronmental backgrounds are changed, the amount of variation that is due to heredity can change.

In conclusion, our traits and behaviors are equalized by the role of genetics and the environment in our lives. You nor I can blame either one because without one, the other would not be activated. Heredity affects an abundance of your personality and behavior but the environment manipulates and molds the way we as a society act. Genetics verses environment will always be an ongoing controversy; saying so it will be nearly impossible to pin point accurately where the roles interchange with each other.

References

Feldman, R.S. (2008). Understanding Psychology 8th edition. Boston: McGraw Hill.

Oswalt, A., (2005). www.mentalhelp.net, Urie Bronfrenbrenner and Child Development, MSW Updated: Oct 13th.

Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene-environment_correlation

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