FACULTY OF COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT OF RETAIL AND LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

NAME REG NO LEVEL M.O.E

BAKO RAYMOND R145725G 2.1 CON

CHIKANGA BLESSING R145860Y 2.1 CON
CHIMANGA RAYNORLD R144342V 2.1 CON
GWAUYA LEONNA R143765C 2.1 CON
KARIYATSANDE NORIET R146127Q 2.1 CON
MAGADZIRE PRISCA R146215P 2.1 CON
MANDIMUTSIRA YOLANDA R146815E 2.1 CON
MUSIRA PETRONELA R147443X 2.1 CON
REMWA BRIAN R143989M 2.1 CON

LECTURER: MRS CHIVIVI

MODULE: BM205

To what extent is personality influenced by Heredity; Environment and situation?

Discuss using examples.
What is personality?

Personality is the individual’s natural and acquired impulses, habits, interests, sentiments,
ideas, opinions, beliefs projected to the outside world. There are three broad categories of
personality theory – nature which are the biological process, genes and processes that are
innate to human beings. There is nurture which encompasses the environment around us,
things like socio-economic status, our family, the schools we attended, our friends etc. Within
these categories, there are interactionists that side with one theory but don’t dispute that the
other theory helps explain personality; and there are other theorists who entirely reject the
other viewpoint and advocate their theory as the only possible explanation for personality.
What we do know, however, is that heredity; environment and situation play a role in shaping
our personalities and behaviors. We have yet to determine how much each factor contributes.

Heredity is the passing of phenotypic traits from parents to their offspring, either through
asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction thus genetic codes of parents are passed on to
their children. This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes
predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Genes are the real
determiners of hereditary characteristics which pass from one generation to another. At time
of conception, genes from both mother and father fuse together and determine the traits of the
offspring to be born.

Influence of heredity on personality

The genetic makeup of a child is a stronger influence and this is according to the first study to
examine the Jim twins.The findings emerged from a long term project at the University of
Minnesota in which since 1979 more than 350 pairs of twins have gone under through 6 days
of extensive testing.The results are reviewed for publication by the Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology and these findings are going to help us understand the influence of
heredity on personality. The example of the Jim Twins is also going to elaborate on the
influence of heredity on personality

The traits were measured using a personality questionnaire developed by AukeTellegen a

psychologist at the university and it assessed the many major aspects of personality such as
aggressiveness, striving for achievement e.t.c
Taking for instance one of the questions asked to the twins was, “when l work with others l
like to take charge”, this is an indication of the trait called social potency and, “l often keep
working on a problem even if l am tired”, indicates need for achievement

Jim twins research. One example of the amazing similarity of twins reared apart is the so-
called “Jim twins”. These twins were adopted at the age of four weeks. Both of the adopting
couples, unknown to each other, named their son James. Upon reunion of the twins when
they were 39 years old, Jim and Jim have learned that:

 Both twins are married to women named Betty and divorced from women named
Linda.
 One has named his first son James Alan while the other named his first son James
Allan.
 Both named their pet dog "Toy."
 Both had some law-enforcement training and had been a part-time deputy sheriff in
Ohio.
 Each did poorly in spelling and well in math.
 Each did carpentry, mechanical drawing, and block lettering.
 Each vacation in Florida in the same three-block-long beach area.

Both twins began suffering from tension headaches at eighteen, gained ten pounds at the
same time, and are six feet tall and 180 pounds.

One would not expect the tendency to believe in traditional values and the strict enforcement
of rules to be more of an inherited aspect but rather a learned trait but the studies found out
that it is one of the traits with the strongest genetic influence

The need to achieve including ambition and an inclination to work hard towards goals was
also found out to be genetically influenced though half of this is determined by life
experiences

People high in neuroticism are nervous and jumpy, easily irritated, highly sensitive to stimuli
and generally dissatisfied with themselves while those low on the trait are resilient and see
themselves in a positive light.
Studies showed that most individuals inherit these features from their parents and hence
many parents who suffer depression problems which lead to BP oftenly pass this on to their
offspring

No single gene is believed to be responsible for any of these traits hence: That’s why just a
short parent might have a tall child and an achievement oriented parent might have a child
with little ambition therefore The findings are sure to stir debate but that’s why there are
other factors that influence personality such as the environment and the situation

Environment as determinant of Personality

The nature versus nature battle has been going on for centuries and its major components as
the name implies are where does human personality come from, heredity that is nature and
the environment. The emphasis on this part is how the environment that is nurture affects the
makeup of an individual's personality. The environment includes all such factors that
surround a child when they are born, parents, culture, friends, values and norms, personal
experience all have great influence on personality.

Parents

http://organisationalbehaviourstudies.com identifies parents or immediate guardian as the

primary level of interaction between the child and the environment. The way a kid is raised
will mould their personality. An example of this is kids who are born and raised by sports and
musicians; they are likely to choose the same career path as their parents. Parents, who
encourage their kids to speak out, participate are more likely to raise kids who are extroverts
and are more eloquent. A popular adage under this parenthood says, "Parents raise us in their
image," our personality is not that different from that of our parents. Another element of
parenting is that is how in most cases last born are usually extroverts and attention as they
may feel the need to compete for the parent's attention.

Culture

Culture and religion are perhaps some of the most paramount factors when it comes to the
environment, a people's culture will determine an individual's values and norms, establish
moral standards that the right and the wrong. Culture establishes attitudes towards different
things and builds perceptions. For example the Asians who believe in Karma and or
Reincarnation are more likely to be humble, helpful and cheerful as they believe that this will
give them good fortunes in the future life. Those that are raised under a culture of "You Only
Live Once" and be best and better than everyone to succeed are more likely to have a
competitive and time conscious personality which is consistent with Type A personality.
Culture in this sense has considerable effect on personality.

Religion also affects people's personality in that people with strong Christian (or other
religions) values and principles are more likely to have an external locus of control in that
they may believe that everything is beyond their control while others with less religious
mindsets are more likely to have an internal locus of control, characterized by the motto, "we
are masters of our own destiny".

Society and the community

Social relations are also an environmental factor that greatly affects the personality of an
individual. These include friends and family, school, work and the community. The
interaction between these and an individual will mould personality, a person is likely to shift
or change personality in a goal to fit in with admired friends or family members. For example
hanging around with smart people can to some extend enable enhancement of one's own
capabilities, personality traits such as endurance and ambitious can come from social factors
e.g. watching others who have done it. Another example is how MSU instils time efficiency
and creative thinking in an individual. These are traits instilled from social interactions.

Personal Experience

These have a major impact on our personality and how it is moulded, the well-known saying
that says, "our past make us" has general truth in relation to how personal experiences can
affect our personalities. Abused victims are more likely to be intraversive or neuroticism.
Those who have failed again and again are more likely to be resilient and enduring e.g.
Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb failed hundreds of times said, "I have not failed
one thousand times, I have found one thousand ways that do not work." Some are risk takers
because it has paid well before. The past creates and stimulates various personality traits to
make up a person's.

However recent studies have shown that though the environment is crucial to personality
heredity plays a major role, it has the bigger piece of the pie by determining more than 50%
of a person's personality and the environment contributes 30% to overall human personality,
this comes out after the studies of identical twins raised apart and amazing similarities they
have shown. To a smaller extend the environment does contribute to the personality of an
individual.

This all has very broad implications to the manager and one of the important ones is that
managers should appreciate ad understand individual personalities, you do not know what
makes that person act the way they do, so appreciating the variety is probably the first and
important step then identify jobs that match the personality of that individual.

Situational factors as a determinant of Personality

Situation is a set of circumstances that one finds him/herself in. Although these factors do not
literally create and shape up an individual’s personality, Situational factors refers to cues
provided by environmental forces regarding the desirability of potential behaviours. They
alter a person’s behaviour and response from time to time. These can be observed when a
person behaves contrastingly and exhibits different traits and characteristics. For example a
lecturer may be very rigid with his students as compared to his family. A manager may also
behave with his subordinates differently as compared to his friends

In this way circumstances impact a person’s personality in a significant way. They often
bring out the traits of a person that are not commonly seen.

Strong situations

When a strong situation exists the relationship between personality variables such as
extroversion and risk taking behaviours are reduced. Thus they will act in the way detected
by the situation. For instance, when one sees a red traffic light, he or she should act in what is
being detected by the traffic light. Thus because of such a strong situation one is prevented
from engaging in behaviours that are consistent with his personality

Weak situations

Weak situation exists where there is less structure and more ambiguity with respect what
behaviours to perform. Thus it gives option to the victim to act in any way he or she wants
depending with his or her personality. For example, when one reaches a yellow traffic light
the course of action is not well defined and norms are inconsistent. Thus the more daring
ones are likely to speed up through the intersection and the more cautious one are likely to
stop.

In summation every person in an organisation has a different personality which results from
some of the above mentioned factors that shape it up .Contrary to many beliefs environmental
factors are indeed a major determinant of personality as they contribute up to 60% of one’s
personality. Heredity makes up 40% and situational factors are a moderator for both
environmental and heredity factors. Thus personality is not the result of only one factor but
every factor is responsible to give a complete share in its formation. As an individual grows,
experiences different environments lives and works with other people, and as his physical
structures change, his personality also evolves .Thus personality is not always stable but
rather changes over time.
REFERENCES

Robbins, S, P and Judge, A, T (2013) Organisational Behaviour USA:Pearson Eduaction

Ian Brooks (2003) Organisational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisations, 2nd
edition, Northampton Business School.

Jackson T (1993) Organisational behavior in International Management, Oxford:

ButterworthHeinemann.