Does Personality Has A Genetic Basis?

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

download word file, 7 pages 3.7 1 reviews

Downloaded 102 times

Does Personality Has A Genetic Basis??? It is clear from our everyday experience that all the people we meet are unique individuals. At the same time we can see many ways in which people are similar or resemble each other. There are many different theories of personality, even though they seem to differ in some ways.1 In 1937, A psychologist called Allport claims that these ideas about personality seem to have three aspects in common: first, that each one of us has a unique personality, second, that our personality is made up of lots of different characteristics and thirdly, that these characteristics remain stable over a longer period of time.1 There is a big controversy between whether inherited genes or the environment can influence, our personality.2 This controversy is most often recognized as the nature verses nurture conflict.3 Some psychologists believe that it is strictly genes that affect our way of life, while others believe that it is the environment and some believe that both of these influence us.2

This essay will look at how we inherit our genes and what indication is there that personality has a genetic basis, it will also look at two different psychological theories about personality are how genetics and environment affects personality. The use of twin studies in genetic research and what implications genetic research of personality will have for society will also be examined.

Cells of individual organisms contain a specific number of chromosomes.5 Within the nucleus, each chromosome has a match forming a homologous pair.5 One of the pair is inherited from the father, the other from the mother.5 Along each chromosome there are thousands of genes. The gene is the basic unit of inheritance ? a specific section of DNA controlling a characteristic (physical or chemical).5 Each gene may have two...