The prevalence of whether personality is influenced by genetic or environmental factors has continued soar over the last few decades. The main aim of this study is to help clarify the doubts of how genes, environment and the gene-environment interaction contribute to every individual’s personality traits. In order to have a clearly view of this argument, a combination of studies and theories have been brought up. These include, the twin studies, the Big Five theory and adoption studies, which supports the genetic view of personality. This is then followed by, the social-cognitive approach, reciprocal determinism and the Five Factor Theory, which supports the environmental view of personality.
Personality, in layman’s term usually involves
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Hence, causing the interest of psychologists in seeking explanations of the motivational basis of behavior, how personality is formed and the various types of personalities. The aim of this essay is to show how genes play a role in one’s personality development. In order to do so, the aspects of how genes, environment and gene-environment interaction on personality development, will be investigated. Finally, it will be concluded that both hereditary and environmental factors can both influence a person’s personality …show more content…
The aspects of environment, such as parenting styles, parental role modeling, peer groups and cultures, help to shape an individual’s personality that includes an individual’s attitude, cultural values, abilities and identities. Besides, they supply the quality markers from which identity attributes are derived and characteristic levels are declared (McCrae et al., 2000). An American psychologist, Walter Mischel, who focuses on the importance of situations that it is often termed as the social-cognitive approach of personality, thinks that an individual’s personality is strongly influenced by the interaction of the environmental factors. He believe that every individual’s conduct are in fact, determined by the circumstances that they were exposed to, and are not expressed innately. Besides Mischel, Albert Bandura, a contemporary psychologist who specialized in the developmental of psychology and educational psychology, also supported the importance of the environmental factors in personality development. He debated
39). Personality can be determined through several different aspect, but one of the most debatable is that of “nature versus nurture,” nature being a person’s genes and nurture being the environment in which one grew up in. Susan Cain and the material of organizational behavior both have mutual ideas that an individual’s personality traits can potentially be shaped by the genes that we receive from our parents and/or by how or where we were raised whether lower, middle, or upper class, London or Arkansas, with an adoptive family or grandparents, or anything else. Through her research, Cain, who is an introvert, realized that she could have ultimately developed fifty percent, twenty percent, or hundred percent her social skills and behaviors from his parents and childhood environment. As we get older, we become more susceptible to our self-concept, whether we grew up in the confines of our own mind or in an outgoing environment, and engage in life
In conclusion, personality is a term that refers to the many patterns of similarities and patterns of differences among individuals. There are various ways with psychologists have examined individual differences in personality including the use of genetics. Through this method, psychologists have mainly examined biological underpinnings that contribute to individual differences in personality. While these measures provide some insights regarding personality, individual differences in personality cannot be adequately explained with reference to genes because of the weaknesses of these theories and the effect of environmental factors.
Either way, social scientists have been struggling for centuries deciding whether our personalities are born or made. Tests are done often on identical twins that were separated to see how they are influenced. In the past twenty years, it has been discovered that there is a genetic component to about every human trait and behavior (Pinker, 2002). However, genetic influence on traits and behavior is partial because genetics account on average for half of the variation of most traits (Pinker, 2002). Researchers are finding that the balance between genetic and environmental influences for certain traits change as people get older (Pinker, 2002).
“Personality is the combination of thoughts, emotions and behaviors that makes everyone unique. It 's the way people view, understand and relate to the outside world, as well as how they see themselves. Personality forms during childhood, shaped through an interaction of these factors: Genetics and Environment.” (Staff M. C., 2013) Genetics plays a major role in a person’s life because this has to deal with the person’s genes, DNA, and also traits. Each individual inherited two copies of genes, one from each parent. The type of genes passed down to a child can affect the lifestyle of that child if there are any possible disorders or diseases. The environment around us shapes who we are as an individual. Different environments gives off different behavioral skills. If there are any negative influences in the environment, such as violence in the home or community, this solely affects the way an individual is
Therefore it influences the way we learn, live and behave. Because of this definition theorists believe that this is an important factor of our personality. Personality is obtained thru culture, people who are born and raised in the same culture usually share common personality traits. Genetics are believed to play a role in personality traits as well like in determining the biological sex of a person. Males tend to attract females so the male species is sought to be more aggressive and competitive. Culture is one of the most important environmental factors that shapes
Do we ever think of past experiences or past events and wonder if they had any influence on our personalities? Whether or not that day affected the way that we are today? We are indeed most vulnerable to various impacts in our childhoods. In fact, Deborah Serani, Psychology Doctor said: “It can be argued that personality actually begins before birth, with each parent’s genetics influencing the development of temperament -- a behavioural response style. After birth, a child’s prewired temperament, personal, and social experiences will set the stage for personality development.” Until we are 7 years old, our personalities should be fairly developed. Everything that occurred throughout these years contributed to form our behaviours and reactions
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.
Personality can be defined as an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting. Many personality theorists have put forward claims as to where personality is derived from and how it develops throughout an individual’s life. The two main personality theories this essay will be focusing on is the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986) and the Trait Theory – Five Factor Theory (FFT) (McCrae and Costa, 1995). The SCT allocates a central role to cognitive, observational learning and self-regulatory processes (Bandura, 1986). An individual’s personality develops through experiences with their sociocultural environment. Whereas the Trait Theory proposes that all individuals are predisposed with five traits (Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) which determines our personality. This theory also puts forward that personality is stable and cannot change as it’s biologically determined.
Psychodynamic and behavioural approaches are the two major approaches to personality, however, they view personality from different perspectives. Psychodynamic approach makes the argument that personality is caused by forces in the unconscious that are not learned. The individual has little control over their behaviour as it is predetermined, and early childhood plays a crucial part in shaping a person’s personality. Behavioural approach, on the other hand, recognises personality as learned and focuses only on present behavioural matters. Because of
The Biological approach to personality places emphasis on the genetic influences related to the development of an individual’s personality. Some may believe that children and their parents can have very similar personalities, for example a young boy having his father’s anger (Stelmack, 1990). Though this approach has often been questioned by psychologists, it is not disregarded all together. Some believe that genetics do have a role in an individual’s personality development; however environments, as well as personal experiences all work in forming personality.
... 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).
This paper explores three different theories to discuss (Alex Blake’s) personality development. I will explore different online personality test as well as breaking down some of the way Alex reactions to different circumstances as I evaluate some of her reactions and conclude if she is adaptive or maladaptive to the situation(s)
...theories of nature and nurture as a precursor of personality may enable an individual to obtain a clear perspective of its evolution. However, in the study of personality, it is very important to understand the different theoretical approaches within its realm. It is important for the same reason that not one person is the same and neither are personalities; and for the very same reason why personality theorist’ differ when describing the concept and nature of humanity.
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.
Personality involves a blend of characteristics that make one unique. In reviewing personality, we consider the influence of the interactions that one is engaged in, the nature or the environment of one's upbringing and genetics. The characteristic traits may change over time while some of them becoming a lasting part of a person’s personality. In this essay will analyze the theories that relate to the character and the various stages that children undergo during development. We will use the same theories and developmental stages in analysis my progress from childhood up to date.