What is Personality?

Do you think you have a unique personality?

On a piece of paper write down your likes, dislikes and

personality characteristics?

How do you think your personality affect the choices that

you make, the way you live your life, how you are as a
person individually and in a group?

What do you think determines (makes you to have or

display) these likes, dislikes and personality traits?
or
So it seems that our physical traits can be the result of NATURE
right?

However even physical traits may be the result of Environment

for example How tall you are may have more to do with your
environment than it might have to do with your genetic code!

Certain environmental factors can have an influence on a persons

height. Even if your grandfather was super tall, and your dad was
tall if during the developmental stages in your childhood, you did
not get the right types of food, vitamins and minerals you may not
grow to be as tall as your grandad and dad were.

So perhaps it is not so easy to say that our physical traits are

completely the result of genes or nature.
And so when it comes to personality we might have the same
problem.

How many of you would say that you have a fiery temper, or that you
get angry very easily?
Would you say that one of your parents has the same kind of temper
as you?
So it is fair to say that personality may also be a result of genetic
inheritance, nature or DNA?

How many of you would say that the reason that you think you have
such a fiery temper is because people, have in the past, and even still
take advantage of you and you react so angrily because you are mad
that people do that?
How many of you would say that the reason you raise your voice and
yell at someone when you are angry is because that is the way that you
are used to. It happens like that at home?
So is it fair to say that personality may be the result of NURTURE or
environmental factors?
The Nature versus Nurture Debate has been going on for centuries.

Most of the studies done on the Nature versus Nurture debate have been conducted on
the study of twin behaviour.

Biologically there are two types of twins Identical Twins and Fraternal Twins
 Two very important studies were done using twins to determine
whether certain personality traits were the result of their genes
or the result of their environment.

One was called: Happy Families: a twin study of humour (and it

was conducted in London)
http://twinsuk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Cherkas.TwinResearch.pdf

And the other was called: Sources of Human Psychological

Differences: The Minnesota Study of Twins reared apart
http://web.missouri.edu/~segerti/1000H/Bouchard.pdf

Both studies came to these conclusions :

-the Minnesota study seems to argue that NATURE or genetics do influence personality

- The London Study seems to argue that there is a case that NURTURE influences
personality.
Jim (real name James) Jim (real name James)
Lewis Springer
Thomas Bouchard of the University of Minnesota did the most
famous research on genetic influences in humans. He
studied identical twins separated since birth. Identical twins come
from a single egg, fertilized by a single sperm, which splits after the
egg starts to develop. Therefore identical twins are closer to being
genetically identical than any other humans. By studying identical
twins who were separated at birth and raised by different families,
Bouchard could see which similarities might emerge despite a
different family environment. These similarities might be those that
are heavily influenced by a person's genetic heritage.
Bouchard's data set was unique, probably a one-time event in
history, because modern adoption agencies no longer break up sets
of identical twins. Bouchard's project started when he read news
reports of two identical twins reunited after a lifetime apart: James
Lewis and James Springer were separated weeks after birth. When
they were reunited, an extraordinary collection of coincidences
emerged.
http://www.intropsych.com/ch11_personality/bouchards_twin_research.html
 "When the two first met, Lewis described it as "like looking into a
mirror." For starters, both had the same first name. They were
physically identical. But when they got talking, the similarities
were astounding. Both had childhood dogs named Toy. Both had
been nail biters and fretful sleepers. Both had migraines. Both had
married first wives names Linda, second wives named Betty. Lewis
named his first son James Allen, Springer named his James Alan.
For years, they both had taken holidays on the same Florida beach.
They both drank Miller Lite, smoked Salem cigarettes, loved stock
car racing, disliked baseball, left regular love notes to their wives,
made doll furniture in their basements, and had added circular
white benches around the trees in their backyards. Their IQs,
habits, facial expressions, brain waves, heartbeats, and
handwriting were nearly identical. The Jim twins lived apart but
died on the same day, from the same illness."
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/reife014/myblog2/2012/04/twin-studies.html
In one case, identical twin babies (Oskar and Jack) were raised in
extremely different cultures. The two were born in Trinidad and
separated shortly after birth. After that, their childhoods were very
different.
The mother took Oskar back to Germany, where his grandmother
raised him as a Catholic and a Nazi youth. Jack was raised in the
Caribbean as a Jew, by his father, and spent part of his youth on an
Israeli kibbutz.
But similarities started cropping up as soon as Oskar arrived at the
airport. Both were wearing wire-rimmed glasses and mustaches, both
sported two-pocket shirts with epaulets. They share idiosyncrasies
galore: they like spicy foods and sweet liqueurs, are absentminded,
have a habit of falling asleep in front of the television, think it's funny
to sneeze in a crowd of strangers, flush the toilet before using it, store
rubber bands on their wrists, read magazines from back to front, dip
buttered toast in their coffee... Bouchard professed himself struck by
the similarities in their mannerisms, the questions they asked, their
"temperament, tempo, the way they do things." (Holden, 1980)
http://www.intropsych.com/ch11_personality/bouchards_twin_research.html
 Bouchard did not find outstanding similarities between identical
twins on such standard measures as IQ tests or standardized
personality tests, but he did find striking similarities
were mannerisms (such as wearing rubber bands on the wrists, or
reading magazines backwards), personal choices (such as choice of
names for pets or children, or choice of clothing styles),
and expressive social behavior (shyness or social ease, laughter,
facial expressions and posture). These are exactly the sorts of
things many of us refer to as personality, so in that sense
Bouchard's findings can be interpreted as strong support for
genetic influences on personality.
http://www.intropsych.com/ch11_personality/bouchards_twin_research.html

However there have been other twin studies that seem to point in an opposite
direction that of twins who are raised together in the same environment but
yet develop very different and unique personalities. Even within the case of
Oskar Stohr and Jack Yufe they developed different worldviews and ideas
about what it right and wrong, ethical or not ethical. Consider this excerpt:
Lets look more closely at the case of Oskar and Jack. Do they have
any differences?
Well, for one, they had opposing political viewsJack is politically
liberal, Oskar is conservative. These contrasting values certainly
played a role in their relative ambivalence towards each other when
they first met.
Our political views and values do appear to be strongly affected by
our upbringing, as do our attitudes and religious beliefs. These are
aspects of a child that a family environment can often influence.
Although the effects of a shared environment are relatively small, we
cannot say that genetics are the only factor contributing to our
behavior.
Even so, the specific aspects of our environments that shape us are
still not clear; the research is continuing to evolve. We often like to
think that our experiences are what define us. We feel influenced by
our surroundings, and we feel that we can influence the things
around us through our personality and behavior.
http://alfre.dk/identical-identical-twins/
 Also consider this case:

An interesting case to consider is that of Brian Dugan, a man who

admitted to abducting, raping, and killing a 10-year-old girl in 1983.
His defense lawyers used brain scans and the testimony of
prominent neuroscientists to argue that Dugan's brain had been
hardwired to commit violent acts, that it was in his nature to kill and
he was unable to control his behavior.
This argument falls in sharp contrast to the idea on which laws are
based, that all people have free will and can choose whether or not
to follow the law. The environment may influence the ease of that
choice--a starving man might have little regard for laws against theft
if it means he can eat--but ultimately the individual has the ability to
choose. To say that nature has the most influence in determining
personality, then, provides a scapegoat for a person when he does
something considered unlawful or morally unacceptable: I couldn't
help it, it's in my nature. Like an animal, such an individual would
exist outside the realm of right or wrong, innocent or guilty, because
he would be acting purely on instinct. How could that person
justifiably be punished? The converse, saying nurture has the most
influence in determining personality, similarly frees a person from
accountability for his actions by placing blame on those who raised
him.
http://www.brighthub.com/science/genetics/articles/75468.aspx
What is your opinion?
Remember that this course is all about developing
your skills to argue and express your thoughts in
an expert manner! Think about the following
discussion points on the next slide and make a
note of what you think and how you can back up
your idea when you try to convince someone else
of your thoughts on the subject.
Do you think personality traits are the result of NATURE or are they
the result of NURTURE?

Why do you think the NATURE versus NURTURE argument is debated

in the first place, in other words why is it important to figure
whether nature or nurture is more dominant in determining a
persons personality? Do you think it is possible to answer this
question definitively? Or is it possible to have a clear indication of
whether nature or nurture determines a persons personality? Why?

Do you think it is possible to change your personality? Why or why

not? And if so how would you go about making those changes?

If you are not a twin, would you rather be an identical or a fraternal

twin? Why? What do you think would be some of the challenges of
being a twin? If you are a twin, write a couple of sentences about the
experience. Is it fun? Difficult? If you have other siblings,
is your relationship with your twin different from the relationship
with your other siblings? If so, what makes it different?