Genetic and environmental influences on personality development

Tema	Anglų kalba
Tipas	Topikas
Aprašymas	People differ in intellectual ability. How much of this difference is due to the particular genes we inherit, and how much is due to the environment in which we are raised? The heredity-environment issue, which has been debated in regard to many aspects of human behavior, has focused primarily on the area of intelligence. Most experts agree that at least some aspects of intelligence are inherited, but opinions differ as to the relative contributions made by heredity and environment.
Patalpinta	2005-05-08
Parsisiuntė	511
	Parsisiųsti5 KB

Išsamus aprašymas

Most of the evidence bearing on the inheritance of intelligence is derived from studies correlating IQs between persons of various degrees of genetic relationship.
Although genetic determinants of intelligence are strong the results indicate that environment is also important. Note that when siblings are reared together – in the same home environment – IQ similarly increases. Other studies have shown that the intellectual ability of adopted children is higher than would be predicted on the basis of their natural parents’ ability.
In the absence of better-controlled studies, a reliable estimate of heritability is not possible. Heredity clearly has an effect on intelligence, but the degree of this effect is uncertain. It is probably less influential than some researchers have claimed but not completely nonexistent, as others have claimed. Most probably, intellectual ability is determined by a number of genes whose individual effects are small but cumulative.

The environmental conditions that determine how an individual’s intellectual potential will develop include nutrition, health, quality of stimulation, emotional climate of the home, and type of feedback elicited by behavior.

Head Start Programs
Because children from underprivileged families tend to fall behind in cognitive development even before they enter school, efforts have been made to provide more intellectual stimulation for these children during their early years. In some programs, special teachers visited the children at home several times a week to play with them. They provided the kind of intellectual stimulation that children in upper-class homes usually receive from their parents. The visiting teachers also taught the parents how to provide the same kinds of activities for their children.
In general, the results of these early education programs have been promising. Children who have participated in such programs score higher on entering school and tend to be more self-confident and socially competent than children who have not received special attention.

Studies correlating IQs between persons with varying degrees of genetic relationship show that heredity plays a role in intelligence. Estimates of heritability vary, however; such environmental factors as nutrition, intellectual stimulation, and emotional climate of the home will influence where a person’s IQ will fall within the reaction range determined by heredity.

Raktiniai žodžiai

• genetic and environmental influences on personality
• environmental influences on personality development
• environmental influences on personality