Personality: genes or how you were raised?

[Themikemachine]

Well last night me and my father had this argument about what determines the way you are (if youre an asshole, a cool guy, timid, etc.) So I decided to bring it here for you guys to comment on it. My father kept telling me that the way you are is determined by how you are raised. But I believe its determined greatly(not completely) by your genetic makeup. I seen reports in magazines that tell about how genes partially determine how you are. The thing is that this hasnt been studied fully because if it were true then people would use that as an excuse for being asses at courts and everywhere else. It has been done once though: a guy that killed someone avoided death penalty by analyzing his family tree and seeing a pattern of killers and crazy people, he still got life in prison.

So my argument is if intelligence is almost totally genetic (thats been proven) then personality must be greatly thanks to our genes. Its just like in Metal Gear: someone says "dont let your genes control you"

So let me see your opinions!!

[Ziegfried]

Hmm. I'd assume genes have something to do with it, though I can at the same time trace nearly all my personality traits and what not to certain events in my life...

[SA-X]

id say its a mix of the two, but seeing as though you can only vote for one, i went for the way you were raised option

[Ashwinpower]

It's gotta be the way ones raised. for me most of my traits are completely different from either my moms or dads. Now i'm not saying they raised me bad. It's just that they raised me in a way different from how they were raised, thus i am different in personality.
Has anyone seen Hellboy ( I know that movie sucks, but anyway) in that satan's son who is genetically supposed to be bad, ends up being good because of his upbringing.
Just to prove my point.

[brit]

I went with upbringing. Genetics and heredity only amount to a very very small amount of traits and I doubt that the genes can impact such a dynamic thing as personality. Maybe the variations in personality (Mood swings, temper, depression, etc.) can be caused by it, but not completely. So I went with how you were raised.

Damn genetics class. I kinda over thought this one, eh?

[Xaenn]

No, you thought about it the right amount.

I obviously say upbringing. The way one's personality and behavior evolves over their lifetime due to events that occur, it seems obvious that genes can't hold that information...

[Dingy]

Personality is usually defined as the pattern of collective character, behavioural, temperamental, emotional, and mental traits of a person. I would say your genes make you what you are, but your upbringing (along with numerous other factors) specifies who you are.
There are always two factors which affect the person you are, natural and acquired. You cannot accredit either genes or upbringing to have the primary role in defining your personality. Of course, the environment of your upbringing matters. But your upbringing can be similar to someone elses, however, your genes, they make each one of us the dictinct and unique individuals we are today.
My upbringing has been ok I would say. My father has played little or no role in my life, except for being the one person in the world who I vigorously despise. He has had atleast 2 affairs but won't leave my mum, he's still having an affair with someone. All these factors do play a very important role in my life, in this case telling me more of what not to be than what to really be. But I can definitely say that one's upbringing has a more vital role to play than one's genetic make-up, because man is not born naturally with a personality, man is social in nature and it is this society that defines his personality.

[Roux!]

Human behaviour can always be modified by its environment, but yes, to an extent (or perhaps fully), it is predetermined... The Chaos Theory might have an influence here, otherwise, you and your brothers/sisters would have the exact same personality from birth...

I have officially owned this thread...

[Mistral]

This is actually a rather interesting continuing debate among scientific circles, and led to such things as the ongoing studies of identical twins, since they are genetically identical (While, depending on whether separated at birth or not, may not have the same upbringing). Two such projects are here and here. Some more information, anecdotal and not, on what appears to be a transcribing of a magazine article here. These kinds of stories in that last are always interesting to read.

I myself, however, believe that genetics and nature may play a very strong role in personalities, but upbringing and nurture will mould this still further. I would not be the same person I am if my parents hadn't bought me a computer back when I was in early elementary school, or if I had not been given a modem a couple years later. I may be very similar, but I certainly would be different.

Post-Konami EDIT: I claim the owning in the name of the Links.

[Chaos]

I think it's the way you were raised cos many children who are raised bad
will receive some probs
Atleast a kid at my school had such probs, his parents were dealing with him very strange. I heard he went to therapy.

[Themikemachine]

Well I thought you people should get to read this extract from the article sephyr posted here: http://www.nyu.edu/classes/neimark/TWIN1.HTM

The woman seated alone onstage at the opening of the Maury Povich show was already famous in the twin literature: Barbara Herbert, a plump 58-year-old with a broad, pretty face and short, silver hair, found her lost twin, Daphne Goodship, 18 years ago. Both had been adopted as babies into separate British families after their Finnish single mother killed herself.

The concordances in their lives send a shiver up the spine: both women grew up in towns outside of London, left school at 14, fell down stairs at 15 and weakened their ankles, went to work in local government, met their future husbands at age 16 at the Town Hall dance, miscarried in the same month, then gave birth to two boys and a girl. Both tinted their hair auburn when young, were squeamish about blood and heights, and drank their coffee cold. When they met, both were wearing cream-colored dresses and brown velvet jackets. Both had the same crooked little fingers, a habit of pushing up their nose with the palm of their hand--which both nicknamed "squidging"--and a way of bursting into laughter that soon had people referring to them as the Giggle Twins. The two have been studied for years now at the University of Minnesota�s Center for Twin and Adoption Research, founded by Thomas J. Bouchard, Ph.D. It is the largest, ongoing study of separated twins in the world, with nearly 100 pairs registered, and they are poked, probed, and prodded by psychologists, psychiatrists, cardiologists, dentists, ophthalmologists, pathologists, and geneticists, testing everything from blood pressure to dental caries.

At the center, it was discovered that the two women had the same heart murmurs, thyroid problems, and allergies as well as IQ's a point apart. The two showed remarkably similar personalities on psychological tests. So do the other sets of twins--in fact, the genetic influence is pervasive across most domains tested Another set of twins had been reunited in a hotel room when they were young adults, and as they unpacked found that they used the same brand of shaving lotion (Canoe), hair tonic (Vitalis), and toothpaste (Vademecum). They both smoked Lucky Strikes, and after they met they returned to their separate cities and mailed each other identical birthday presents. Other pairs have discovered they like to read magazines from back to front, store rubber bands on their wrists, or enter the ocean backwards and only up to their knees. Candid photos of every pair of twins in the study show virtually all the identicals posed the same way; while fraternal twins positioned hands and arms differently.

Bouchard--a big, balding, dynamic Midwesterner who can't help but convey his irrepressible passion about this research--recalls the time he reunited a pair of twins in their mid-30s at the Minneapolis airport. "I was following them down the ramp to baggage claim and they started talking to each other. One would stop and a nanosecond later the other would start, and when she stopped a nanosecond later the other would start. They never once interrupted each other. I said to myself, "This is incredible, I can't carry on a conversation like that with my wife and we've been married for 36 years. No psychologist would believe this is happening." When we finally got to baggage claim they turned around and said, 'It's like we've known each other all our lives.'"

Its always good to hear things that seem to contradict our beliefs

[Jase]

i think it was how you where raised i know people that aint like there mom or dad

[Schutzstaffel]

I vote both.

[Themikemachine]

i think it was how you where raised i know people that aint like there mom or dad

many people have used that argument that we arent like our mom or dad, but form what I know I think its the combination of many genes that make like 50% of our personality, so that means that having genes from your mother and your father may make you a very differerent individual. I think you ppl should look at this information from the same article, it seems very interesting:

Both optimism and pessimism are heavily influenced by genes, but shared environment influences only optimism, not pessimism, according to a study of 522 pairs of middle aged identical and fraternal twins. Thus family life and genes can be equal contributors to an optimistic outlook, which influences both mental and physical health. But pessimism seems largely controlled by genes.



Religiosity is influenced by genes. Identical and fraternal twins, raised together and apart, demonstrate that 50 percent of religiosity (demonstrated by religious conviction and church attendance) can be attributed to genes.



Sexual orientation is under genetic influence, though not solely, according to studies by Michael Bailey, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Northwestern University. In one study he found that if one identical twin is gay, the other is also gay 50 percent of the time. However, when Bailey analyzed a sample of 5,000 twins from the Australian twin registry, the genetic impact was less. In identical male twins, if one was gay the likelihood of his twin being gay was 20 percent; in fraternal twins the likelihood was almost zero. In women, there was little evidence of heritability for homosexuality.


Twins tend to start dating, to marry, and to start having children at about the same time. David Lykken, Ph.D., and Matthew McGue, Ph.D., at the University of Minnesota, found that if an identical twin had divorced, there was a 45 percent chance the other had also. For fraternals, the chance was 30 percent. The researchers think this is due to inherited personality traits.

[Jase]

Okay here is one for you what if i had a chick who lived with her grand father but doesnt take after him or her mom and well she cant take after her dad cos his a bastard.
also my close friend is so different from her mom becuase her mom left her and she tries not to be like her in anyway so thats why i belive its how you were rasied