The chromosome XX for women and XY for men determines their sex. . Behavioral differences are innate. E.g. Chomsky (1965) argues that acquisition of language is innate.
2. Biological differences between human beings reflect both hereditary factors and the influence of natural and social environments. In most cases, these differences are due to the interaction of both. The degree to which environment or heredity affects any trait varies greatly. 3.
Genetics might explain predispositions to certain behaviors such as mental illnesses that run in a family, but they do not explain the everyday behaviors that every individual engages in. Thought processes, environmental factors, observations, and life’s actions are what describe the behaviors that are present within every human. Behaviors are learned characteristics of a person and can be changed over time and many times. If genetics were to determine behaviors, this process would not be able to occur. In conclusion, behavior is derived from the underlying drives and motives that each human possesses that varies from person to person.
The nature versus nurture argument is one of the oldest debates amongst psychologists. The debate concerns whether certain aspects of your personality are inherited or if you learn them from your surroundings. It has long been acknowledged that our hair, skin colour and certain diseases are governed by our genes. Other physical attributes if not determined, seem to be strongly linked to the genetic makeup of our parents. Height, weight and life expectancy are all correlated between related individuals.
Although, personality is unique to the individual, experts in the field of psychology have studied the idea that personality is somewhat based upon biology, therefore implying that the biological makeup plays a role in a person’s personality. Extensive research and indisputable evidence through long-term studies has supported the idea that personality is directly influenced by genetics. Evidence that supports the biological influence on personality development is based on direct evidence through the examination of genes and studies of individuals who have the same genetic makeup. Both identical and fraternal twins are good candidates and are commonly used for genetic studies in medical and psychology research. Throughout history, many twins have been placed in situations where they were raised in completely different environments, therefore they have been utilized in testing to determine the influence of genetics on every aspect of our composition.
Contemporary researchers believe that both hereditary and environment are involved in every aspect of a child’s development (Berk, 2012, pg. 82). Physical aspects, such as the color of a child’s eyes or hair, and even behavioral similarities such as a child being outgoing or shy, are frequently the responsibility of genetics. Even so, while our observable characteristics are apart of our hereditary makeup, these aspects will constantly be affected by a lifelong history of personal experiences (Berk, 2012). A set of identical twins growing up in the same house will share 100% of the same genetic makeup (Barry, 2012).
Another factor that is affected by genes is one's’ personality. Scientists have studied many sets of twins and came to the conclusion that personality is based on five traits: agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and how extraverted a person is (Bouchard). Recently in my psychology class, my professor mentioned a story that I found very interesting. She told us that researchers found that identical twins who were separated at birth, still developed the same likes and dislikes, dressed the same, and were interested in the same career paths. This suggests that a large part of a person’s personality is genetic.
In any societies, there is the stratification by sex, that is, they differentiate whether somebody is a female or a male. Sex is the biological aspect of someone, whether that person was born as a boy or a girl. It depends on the reproductive system. If we consider the biological explanation, then it would be the xx chromosome or xy chromosome, whereas gender is the fashion where society highlights the sexual differences amongst men and women. From the moment we are born, our lives are shaped by our biological identity that is sex, which later on, is influenced by an unlimited number of social, cultural, environment and psychological forces.
Thus this study adds to the importance of the models contribution by hypothesising that in familial cultures there was poor selection pressures on personality characteristics that predict success in intimate relationships. The reason behind this was that fathers had control over ones mate choice and did not consider such traits in a potential spouse. The main model used for demonstrating the link between psychopathology and evolutionary theory was the balancing selection model. This model suggests that alleles that influence a disorder might increase fitness. In the gene pool there are alleles that influence dangerous alterations of personality that cannot be changed.
The outcome of a recent study published in the Nature Genetics, a summary carried out on 14,558,903 twins for period over fifty years, concludes that the debate remains “controversial”. The same study discloses that on average the difference in human characteristics is “49 per cent genetic and 51 per cent due to the environmental factors”. (Tinca J C Polderman, Beben Benyamin, Christiaan A de Leeuw, Patrick F Sullivan, Arjen van Bochoven, Peter M Visscher & Danielle Posthuma, 2015). Benyamin also clarified “that there are good reasons to study the biology of human traits, and that the combined effect of many genes on a trait is simply the sum of the effect of each individual gene” Socialisation as means of preserving culture Not only socialisation plays a crucial role in the development of the self, but it also serves the purpose of preserving one’s culture. Individuals are closely connected to their social worlds and society survives by incorporating its values to the new generations.