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Role of heredity in the development of behavior
How heredity affects human behavior
The role of genes in explaining behaviour
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During adolescence a person’s genetics and environment shapes their personality; therefore, after analyzing the events in the book, The Lord of the Flies, the boys’ future personality traits are more predictable. Genetics creates personal comforts and boundaries; therefore, genetics influence decision making, and ultimately personality. Scientists conducted studies in which they separated “identical twin boys after birth” and as adults, they “shared similar hobbies” and had some similar personality traits (Cherry). Genetics influence how the brain works, the twins had the same genes, and therefore, they found comfort in similar things; moreover, genetics influenced their comfort zones and decision making, creating somewhat similar personalities. Family, religion, friends, and school are all environmental influences that people grow up around and impact people throughout their …show more content…
lives.
People’s “upbringing and even [people’s] culture … shape who [people] are” and their personality (Cherry). In the end, it comes back to the archaic argument of nature vs. nurture. Nowadays, most people agree that “a mixture of the two forces ultimately shape[s] [people’s] personalities” and decision making (Cherry). While genetics sets boundaries and comforts, the events that happen in adolescence add detail and shape to people’s personalities. A simple formula, event plus response, equals outcome, explains why people do not develop their personalities after adolescence. Upon breaking it down further; the event, which was an outcome, plus response, influenced by the desired outcome, which the person’s personality influences, equals outcome; then the outcome becomes an event and the cycle repeats. Therefore, a person can only enhance their personality and not change it; because of this the future
personality traits of Ralph, Piggy, and Roger, from Lord of the Flies, are predictable. In 1960, a study was started to see if this theory was correct, the researchers gave children a personality test, and then 40 years later tested them again. Kids that were adaptable, like Ralph, as adults tended “to behave cheerfully, speak fluently and show interest in intellectual matters” (“Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade, Study Suggests”). Thus, Ralph as an adult would be intellectual, and engaged in society. Talkative kids, like Piggy, as adults would “speak fluently, try to control situations, and exhibit a high degree of intelligence” (“Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade, Study Suggests”). If Piggy, who always shares his ideas, had lived, he would have grown up to be politician, businessman, or a scientist. Impulsive students, like Roger, as adults “inclined to speak loudly, display a wide range of interests” (“Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade, Study Suggests”). Roger acts, not only impulsive, but also savage and cruel; accordingly, Roger as an adult, would never settle down and would jump from place to place, in addition, Roger will most likely join a criminal group due to the dark mind he developed on the island. Through the study of personality development, the future of the boys in the book, The Lord of the Flies, become predictable.
What makes a person who they are is a difficult dilemma. Mark Twain's novel, "Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins" is a critical analysis of how nature and nurture can cultivate emotions and free will, which in turn affects the life of individuals. "Twain's faltering sense of direction began about slavery, moral decay, and deceptive realities (Kaplan 314). The debate of `nature versus nurture' has been one of the most intriguing scientific and cultural issues for most of the twentieth century, in determining the behavioral aspects of human beings. The changes in environment, society, education, political influences, family values and morals and other external influences, combined with physical genes determines how mankind will evolve into adulthood. Both nature and nurture, in combination with emotions and free will, control the behavior of human beings and determines who we are.
In the book The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding a couple of boys stranded on an island must survive in the absence of adult supervision. These boys struggle between the choice of either constantly working to be rescued or beginning a new life on the island. In the end, there is a lot of killing and savage like behavior. I believe that both the environment and biological factors can be blamed for the boys’ savage and immoral behavior, however, the biological factors had the most impact on their behavior. The environmental factors that affect their behavior include the situation in which they are stranded on an island and the fact that their isn’t any adult supervision. Biological factors that affect the behavior of these boys include the
Have you ever thought about whether the way you are is based on your genetic makeup? Do you believe our environment shapes us into who we are, instead? In the psychology debate of nature versus nurture, I believe that nurture plays a big role in who
It is a common argument about whether humans are simply who they are because of genes, the nature of who someone is, or if it’s more due to interactions with outside ideas and actions, the nurture one receives. Different research has claimed both sides,
A layman would define personality as an individual’s characteristics in terms of how they think and behave. Many theorists, however, interprets personality differently resulting in various personality theories. Personality is determined by traits which are behaviours displayed by a person in most given situations. How a person reacts to common circumstances may also be used to foresee future behaviours. Traits are then categorized into types that allow easier comparisons to be made between each individual’s attributes. The focus of this paper would be on the biological aspects of personality whereby traits are thought to be inheritable through genetics and associated with the central nervous system. Behavioural genetics are research that makes use of results from studies done on family, twins and adoptions. The findings of how both genes and environment influences personality from the studies will be discussed. Some researchers found possible issues with the representativeness of such studies. The outline of Eysenck’s biological model of personality and arousal, Gray’s BAS/BIS theory and Cloninger’s biological model of personality will further explain the biological effect on personality.
we make in life. The argument of what shapes the personality of a person comes to play. Is
To begin with, our similarities to our parents in personality is entirely genetic, we are born with a set of genes that never change. For instance, during conception two set of genes joint together into one and from that moment D.N.A starts to determine certain characteristics that we possess. For example, we all accept that gene determines our eye color, height, blood type, gender, color of the hair and other biological factors. But scientists have begun exploring the role of gene in our behaviors, many believe that the power of gene determines all consequences in our lives and others believe that genes do not determine everything in a person life.
... have come to the conclusion that genetics is very important for the development of personality but even they have to determine how these genes are investigated for the purpose of determining a particular personality. “What scientists have found is that there does not appear to be a single gene for a particular trait, but that genes show their effects by working together in complex combinations. For example, there is no single gene for dancing or music. Whether a child will be musically inclined will be determined by the way that child's genes interact with one another. Some parents would like to believe that by creating an environment rich in music while the child is young will develop the child's talent towards music. However, despite assumptions like this, there is no evidence that shows long term effects of growing up in a particular environment” (Pinker, 2003).
Personality is the study of an individual’s unique and relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving over time and across situations and it is what distinguishes one individual from another. In the past changes in personality were thought to have only occurred in the developmental stages of childhood and solidifies in adolescence. After the teenage years it was thought to be set like plaster or the change seen to be inconsequential or absent( Srivastava, John, Gosling, and Potter, 2003). However, recent studies have suggested that changes in personality traits continue to occur throughout an individual’s lifespan due to multiple reasons.
The role of heredity in the development of personality is an old argument in the personality theory. Heredity refers to those factors, which were determined at conception, and reflexes, energy levels and biological rhythms are characteristics that are generally considered to be imported either completely or substantially by one’s parents. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes. And here are some of the character that are said to inherit by all humans.
The six tenets of personality play important roles throughout our lifetime. Each tenet will be discussed and explained how they preform independently to make up the personality principles. The reports will differentiate between the various percentages according to each tenant studied. They will also detail the obvious effects of the varying six tenets in daily living and personal relationships. Emphases will be established about nature verses nurture by studies conducted in the psychology community. Results implicated genetic traits were more profound than environment. Theoretically, our genes help to determine the decisions and outcomes of everybody experiences. This held true throughout the different conclusions, bringing about the idea
The period of development from adolescence to adulthood offers an abundance of opportunities and confronts (Kroger, 2007). Many theorists argue that an individual’s personality has an increased
Children come into the world with some temperament already instilled in their tiny little bodies. “Temperament refers to inborn, biologically based behavior and emotional patterns that are observable in infancy and early childhood; personality is the complex brew that emerges after cultural influence and personal experience are thrown into the mix. Some say that temperament is the foundation and personality is the building” (Cain 101). As the child grows and adapts to his or her surrounding more traits are picked up as their personality is really beginning to shape. Some studies have shown that personality types may be known just from paying attention to the way babies respond to certain stimuli and whether they will be more of an introvert
Personality is the expression of a person’s traits according to ones feelings, mentality and behavior. It involves understanding individuals’ traits such as withdrawal and willpower and how various parts of an individual link together to form personality. Personality expresses itself from within an individual and is comparatively regular throughout in an individual’s life. Different people have different personalities dependent on factors such as environment and genetic composition. Our personality is dependent on the success or failure of our development in the eight stages of life. This is proposed by Erik Erikson. Success in the development stages lead to virtues while the failure leads to malignancies.
The importance of family relations to a child are explained in various studies showing the impact. Studies measuring different types of personality in a family has shown correlation of around 0.20 (Ahern et al.,). Twin studies were conducted where monozygotic, same zygote, and dizygotic, two zygotes, twins were placed through a series of tests to acquire their personalities. Results show monozygotic twins having a higher correlation of personality than dizygotic twins; meaning that personality is affected by heritability (Ahern et al.,). Surprisingly, brother to brother correlation is at 0.23 whereas sister to sister correlation is a staggering 0.32(Ahern et al.,).