Genetics Are the Basis of Our Personalities
Nature vs. nurture has been a topic that scientists, theorists, and practitioners have argued for many centuries. They have formulated many conjectures from pragmatic to ridiculous, and have had many people along for the ride. This long standing arguments premise centers on the effect of two primary conditions. Nature, as expressed in hereditary factors that we are born with and nurture, as expressed by social and environmental factors we are exposed to. The question here is how much is nature a part of ones personality? Or is nurture the more logical for the persuasion of our personality traits? I believe that hereditary has more of an influence than the environment in ones personality.
Throughout many centuries there has been ongoing studies involving twins. These studies have shown dramatic information concerning the topic at hand. These tests were done with twins both living together and reared apart. The University of Minnesota has been conducting a long-term project since 1979 with over more than 350 pairs of twins. Among the twins that were separately reared there were 44 pairs of identical twins and 21 pairs of fraternal twins. By testing both reared and reared apart the scientists were able to distinguish how much is hereditary versus environment in their development. Test subjects were given a series of tests over six days that included analysis of blood, brain waves, intelligence, and allergies. And the finding revealed more than half the variation was due to heredity (Goleman, 1986), with these findings there is less than 50% due to parents and environment upbringing.
This scientific project used a personality questionnaire developed by Auke Tallegen a psychologist for the University of Minnesota to measure traits of the personality. This study was developed to assess the major figure of personality this encompasses aggressiveness, striving for...