Genes+and+Personalities

Source: The American Psychological Association [] Genes and Personalities When I was consering interesting topics, I thought of nature vs. nurture, the ongoing psychological debate about what determines a person's traits. I considered that maybe some of the genes that are passed on through families many affect a person's personality, so I searched for an article like this. In the article, the author discusses how much progress researchers have made towards behavioral genetics. The researchers believe that through more research they will see how an environment affects a person's genes and settle the debate once and for all. When they determine the psychological impact genes have, they may even be able to determine a person's susceptibility to psychological issues.

In the article, the author details the progress of the research and explains some theories and difficulties scientists have encountered in their studies. They have found trends within cultures of certain traits, so some personality traits can be hereditary. They have also linked certain traits with corresponding neurotransmitters (chemicals that trigger actions in the brain). The problem is that there are a staggering amount of genes in the human genome, and there is a possibility that personalities may be influenced by an entire group of genes, so tracing a personality trait to its source would be nearly impossible with our current technology. So far, scientists have made correlations between a few genes and behaviors, so the efforts aren't entirely fruitless, but they won't figure out the exact genes that induce personalities anytime soon.

Joshua Harris 3/10/10