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Assignment on personal reflection of the big five personality test
Essays on big five personality traits
Big five personality test research paper
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In the ongoing debate about which factor has more of an influence on human behavior and intelligence, certain methodologies have been used to determine this in several different studies. The genetic component is made up of additive and non-additive components. The environmental component is separated into the effects of a shared environment where both subjects used experience the same environment and a non-shared environment where the two subjects experience different environments.
The studies that are used to determine the respective effects of genetics and environment are studies of how twins resemble each other, studies of adoption effects people compared to their relatives, and identification of genes. Twin studies use monozygotic twins who share 100% of their genes and dizygotic twins who are estimated to share 50% of their genes. Genetic identification tries to identify genes responsible for personality traits but is made difficult by the fact that many behaviors are caused by multiple genes.
Intelligence or IQ has been studied extensively. It has been found that in childhood the correlation of IQ between twins is about .5. This correlation has also been found to increase with age. Similar results have been found in adoption studies indicating that environmental differences are not as much of a factor on IQ scores.
In addition to IQ several other things have been studied to find out if their cause is in the environment or genetics. Personality has been studied using the Big five traits that are commonly used to test personality. Personality disorders have also been studied as well as occupational interests and beliefs and attitudes. For all of the heritability has been rated to be the majority of the cause. There has been a lot of effort invested in finding specific genes that cause people to be a certain way however they have not been very successful.
Studies have been conducted to determine the effects of shared environment on twins. Since they are known to have the same genes differences can only be attributed to environment and it has been found that twins raised in different environments do not necessarily have more in common with regard to personality. However it has been found that shared environment does have an effect on cognitive ability and juvenile delinquency.
While shared environment has not been shown to have a large effect non shared environmental factors have been shown to be a major source of variation.
The stigma of matching clothes, similar thoughts, and having the same fingerprints, surround being a twin but what about the correlation of education and growth on being a twin?
Today, realising that genes and environment cooperate and interact synergistically, traditional dichotomy of nature vs. nurture is commonly seen as a false dichotomy. Especially operant conditioning, i.e. the learning of the consequences of one's own behavior can lead to positive feedback loops between genetic predispositions and behavioral consequences that render the question as to cause and effect nonsensical. Positive feedback has the inherent tendency to exponentially amplify any initial small differences. For example, an at birth negligible difference between two brothers in a gene affecting IQ to a small percentage, may lead to one discovering a book the will spark his interest in reading, while the other never gets to see that book. One becomes an avid reader who loves intellectual challenges while the other never finds a real interest in books, but hangs out with his friends more often. Eventually, the reading brother may end up with highly different IQ scores in standardized tests, simply because the book loving brother has had more opportunities to train his brain. Had both brother received identical environmental input, their IQ scores would hardly differ.
The bioecological model of intelligence, introduced by Stephen Ceci, concentrates on the potential abilities, environmental influence and internal motivation. To perform well in an intelligent test a person must have the necessary abilities, be in a positive environment and be motivated (Comer et al.,
Studies have proven that no human being is born with knowledge or skills; however, every individual’s has a learned behavior that is either influenced or genetic inherited. Therefore, every individual born into a social and cultural environment are more likely to be effected by, family members, other social groups, religion, as well as languages. Most research psychologists study the genetic inheritance of an individual’s behavior while others focus on an individual’s development stage. However, during the process of psychological research, psychologists also focus on examining the influence that a community can have on one social behavior.
As a mother, I am shocked and dismayed by the general acceptance of the myth of genetic determinism. One's environment, including people one interacts with, has an undeniable influence on how one develops. Nonetheless, many scientists disregard the impact of environment on one's intelligence. I do not deny that one's biology is a crucial part of one's identity. Inheritance of physical traits is obvious. Children often look "just like" their father or mother, or another relative. One's genes determine eye and hair color, height and body build. I believe, however, that what makes us human is not something that can be found in...
...ctors, not environment. Nomothetic approach suggests that this is because everyone is generally the same. Yet intelligence is poor when environment is poor - idiographic explain this as it stress social influence, but nomothetic would ignore this factor.
Recent information collected showing an increase to our IQs have many asking the question, are we smarting than our ancestors? Unlike our predecessors, we live in a time that poses a greater range of cognitive problems than our ancestors encountered, and as a result we've developed new cognitive skills and the kinds of brains that can deal with these problems. So in a way we are getting smarter throughout history, though it is widely debated if this is due to our environment or genes. Since IQ tests have been standardised many times over the last one hundred years, scientists have participants take a test designed for a previous age and record the results. What (Flynn, 1994) unearthed was that new test takers score much higher than those of the older generation. Flynn and his colleagues guessed that the difference in scores was due to improving modern environments. To them IQ is part heritable and part environmental- provide a child with opportunities to learn and they're likely to have a higher IQ later in
interpreted as being caused by genetic or environmental differences among groups? A strong promoter of the belief that there is undoubtedly a racial difference in intelligence is Phillippe Rushton. As a professor of psychology, he argues that there is irrefutable scientific evidence of difference...
"Nature vs. Nurture - Twin Study Overview." Nature vs. Nurture - Twin Study Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Twins, who are raised together, whether identical or fraternal, have similar environments. If identical twins raised together are found to be more alike than fraternal twins on a certain trait, then that trait is assumed to be more influenced by heredity. But if identical twins and fraternal twins from similar environments do not differ on a trait, then that trait is assumed to be influenced more by environment.
Over the last couple of decades scientist, psychologist, and people have questioned over the idea, and the stereo typical question of nature versus nurture. Using twin studies, scientist have been given the understanding that the environment and heredity influence their behavior development. With using the adoption in twin studies, the doctors and scientists have been able to tell the extent to which the resemblance and families is due to the jeans that are shared and due to the environment that is shared. Because of the jeans that are identical carried by the monozygotic twins, identical twins, there has been a great appeal to most scientists and doctors. Psychologist have been able to link the strong genetic
The idea of shared environmental aspects meaning that the parents behave the same way with all their children, and that any consequences of being around those parents will have an effect of making two twins more similar to each other. An example of non-shared environmental factors discussed is peer relationships. Since each individual in a twin pair is likely to form different friendships outside of the home, the consequences of associating with different peers can contribute to observed differences between twins (Andershed). After the contribution of genetic factors was accounted for in the study, the role of environmental effects was examined. Findings showed that the contribution of non-shared environmental effects was fairly large, while shared environmental effects were negligible.
On the ‘nature’ side of the debate is the psychometric approach, considered to be the most dominant in the study of intelligence, which “inspired the most research and attracted the most attention” (Neisser et al. 1996, p. 77). It argues that there is one general (‘g’) factor which accounts for intelligence. In the 1880s, Francis Galton conducted many tests (measuring reaction times to cognitive tasks), (Boundless 2013), in order to scientifically measure intelligence. These tests were linked to the eugenic breeding programme, which aimed to eliminate biologically inferior people from society. Galton believed that as intelligence was inherited, social class or position were significant indicators of intelligence. If an individual was of high social standing, they would be more intelligent than those of a lower position. However he failed to show any consistency across the tests for this hypothesis, weakening his theory that social class correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, his creation of the intelligence test led many to continue to develop...
Heredity Versus Environment - The Nature-nurture Controversy, Exploring Heredity And Environment: Research Methods, Beyond Heritability
As numerous research and studies' findings have shown, both nature and nurture work together. These shouldn't be considered as separate, but instead intertwined, as they both interact and depend on each other. An interaction of genetic and environmental factors are responsible for influencing and determining intelligence levels.