Heredity and Environment

We may begin be stating that there is no right or wrong answer to the question of what influences an individuals persona, is it environment or heredity? They are both intertwined with each other and depending on several factors one may rule over the other. It may be necessary to study each case separately In order to make any inferences of what may be affecting the individuals development. An organism is a product of its genes and its past environment and the present environment will influence the persons behavior. Many of the ratios of heritability are composed of population results and not individual results. Which describe a particular population under a particular circumstance at a given time. Any environmental factor will create an influence depending on the hereditary composition that it interacts with. In the same manner any hereditary factor will present itself differently under different environmental conditions. Stressful situations or environments can produce an effect on the individual producing genetic variations. There have several studies that intended to understand the many characteristics of humans such as twin studies, adoption studies, and family studies. It has been observed that identical twins raised apart appear to have more similarities in personality than fraternal twins. This makes it possible to infer that personality may have a component of heredity (Kinder2010). However, we must keep a close eye on the environment. The environmental effects can be broken down into two factors shared experiences and non-shared experiences. We have been able to observe that identical twins raised together in the same environment do not have the identical personalities. This can be explained as non-shared environmental effects such as the interactions and experiences they may have outside from their family. Another important effect that has been studied is that identical twins with depression tend to have a higher correlation than familial relationships. There are certain pathologies and physical attributes that are basically heredity therefore we must always understand that there may be certain particular populations with specific similarities that can have a stronger tendency toward the genetic or the environment (Haimowitz2005). Adopted children have also been part of studies and we can observe that those adopted children that have similarities with their adoptive parents have been affected by environment.. Studies have shown that adopted childrens IQ scores are more highly correlated with their biological parents IQs than with their adoptive parents IQs. Most psychologist believe that intelligence is a product of both genetic and environmental factors. However, genetic factors may limit the individuals intelligence potential and depending on how enriched the environment is then that will determine the intelligence (Fogiel 1997). We may conclude that nature or heredity sets the individuals potentialities while nurture or the environment determines to what extent this potentiality will be developed. Nurture has several influencing factors such as physical and social environments. An important element to focus on when discussing this topic is that we need to understand how complex humans are and both nature and environment plays a key role in their emotional, behavioral, and cognitive functions.

References Child Development and Education, by T.M McDevitt, J.E. Ormrod, 2007 edition, p. 291-296.

Kinder C. N.(2010) Heredity And Environment Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute Heredity Versus Environment - The Nature-nurture Controversy, Exploring Heredity And Environment: Research Methods, Beyond Heritability http://social.jrank.org/pages/300/Heredity-Versus-Environment.html#ixzz11mbM2qvf Haimowitz A.G(2005) Heredity vs. Environment: Twin, adoption and family studies Retrieved from:http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/haimowitz.html
Fogiel ,M Dr. (1997) Psychology a Complete Solution Guide, Research and Education Association Piscataway, New jersey pg.38-43.