介绍:
[39.What Determines the Kind of Person You Are?]
What determines the kind of person you are?
What factors make you more or less bold,
intelligent, or able to read a map?
All of these are influenced by the interaction of your genes
and the environment in which you were raised.
The study of how genes and environment
interact to influence psychological activity
is known as behavioral genetics.
Behavioral genetics has made important contributions
to the biological revolution,
providing information about the extent
to which biology influences mind, brain and behavior.
Any research that suggests
that abilities to perform certain behaviors
are based in biology is controversial.
Who wants to be told
that there are limitations
to what you can achieve
based on something that is beyond your control,
such as your genes?
It is easy to accept that genes control physical characteristics
such as sex, race and eye color.
But can genes also determine
whether people will get divorced,
how smart they are,
or what career they are likely to choose?
A concern of psychological scientists is the extent
to which all of these characteristics are influenced
by nature and nurture,
by genetic makeup and the environment.
Increasingly, science indicates
that genes lay the groundwork for many human traits.
From this perspective,
people are born essentially like undeveloped photographs:
The image is already captured,
but the way it eventually appears can vary
based on the development process.
However, the basic picture is there from the beginning.
