What is it that you inherit from your parents genetically? My understanding is that you inherit the physical attributes from your parents. But the personality characteristics are not genetically inherited rather may be passed down due to the parenting. The environment factor. But the person I was speaking to insisted that behavioral pattern or should I say some personality characteristics are also passed along? Your comments and your research on this?
There was a study suggesting that "intelligence" was linked to the x chromosome, so from yo mama.
I remember because our eccentric bio teacher (my demi god) made a big song and dance about this, and even proceeded to preach in bellowed tones.
Who knew one could be so easily pursuaded?
If however you are trying to argue the theory of nature vs nuture, ask the interbreeding caste regulaites who refuse to marry outside their own clan. They do indeed believe that the mental capacity of "neech com" is genetically inherited.
These cast walai do indeed proceed to inbreedness and much illness befalls them.
Indeed indeed, I apologise for deviating from your intended phychological musings.
Re: What do we inherit ?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by the_paindoo: *
What is it that you inherit from your parents genetically? My understanding is that you inherit the physical attributes from your parents. But the personality characteristics are not genetically inherited rather may be passed down due to the parenting. The environment factor. But the person I was speaking to insisted that behavioral pattern or should I say some personality characteristics are also passed along? Your comments and your research on this?
[/QUOTE]
There are two conflicting theories - one saying personality and intelligence are a result of environmental factors, others saying that its genetic, and to make things more complex, others saying its a combination of the two.
I personally believe that the basis of personality and intelligence are genetic, but environmental factors play a role in emphasising or hiding there traits.
The truth is, we don’t really know. But there are a lot of interesting studies around. Children are probably born with certain predetermined personality traits and parents have an important job in recognising and handling these factors with sensistivity, adaptability and skill.
Interesting studies were done on newborns in hospital nurseries in the 50s 60s and 70s by Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess. One interesting observation was about how their “congenital character” was predetermined, another was about how similar children and parents become in time. You can still find their books.
Here is some info about their work;
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020121/parenting.html
The idea of telltale infant behavior is not new. In the 1950s, husband-and-wife psychiatric team Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas, both now 87, identified nine parameters of temperament—activity level, attention span, adaptability, intensity, distractibility, mood, sensory threshold, response to challenge and predictability of functions such as eating and sleeping—that emerge at about four weeks and indicate a lot about personality. “At one month, behavior starts to be discernible,” says Chess today. “These differences define it.”
and here:
Two of the pioneers in the field of examining differences in infant temperament are psychiatrists Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas. They and their colleagues studied many infants and identified nine characteristics of temperament. They strongly advocated that parents understand and appreciate these characteristics so that they could interact with their children in a more effective and satisfactory manner.