Question

Analyze the effects of hereditary and environmental influences on behavior when working with diverse populations as a medical assistant

Answer 1

Personality is a set of characteristics or traits that reflect in one’s cognitive, affective and behavioural states. Personality may be based on many factors. It may be based on innate or learned experience, or latent or manifest.Personality can be divided into two categories, innate or acquired characteristics. Heritability is a statistical measure that expresses the proportion of the observed variability in a trait that is a direct result of genetic variability.Environmental influences can be divided into two classes, shared and non-shared environment. Both heredity and environment contribute to personality traits and that the degree of their individual contributions cannot be specified for any traits. Although a person’s environment plays an important part in their personality development, heredity factors play a larger role in deciding disposition of this environment.A person’s genetic background has a strong influence on their personality. Some personality traits are strongly capable of being inherited by a person.A person’s personality is based more on heredity rather than environmental influences.

Heritability is a biologically based theories of personality. This can be seen in the Humoral Theory, also known as the Fluid Theory. According to Galen’s theory, one’s body fluid represented one’s personality. There are four fluids, namely yellow fluid, black fluid, phlegmatic temperament and sanguine temperament. These fluids are hereditary and not possibly influenced by environment. Schizophrenia is a hereditary deficiency which no environmental factors can completely counteract. Thus, the individual will be defective, regardless of the type of environmental conditions under which one is being brought up in.Environmental influences also have a part to play in the development of a person’s personality. They define the conditions under which human personality changed. They shape a variety of skills, values, attitudes and identities, they provide the solid forms in which personality traits are expressed and they supply the trait indicators from which personality traits are inferred and trait levels are asserted.Bandura also argued that personality is the effect of reciprocal determinism ,the interaction of behaviour, environment and person variables such as perception. Thus, through Bandura and Mischel theories, environmental influences play a part in shaping a person’s personality.Environmental influence has a pervasive effect on personality traits as well. According to the Five Factor Theory (FFT), personality is biologically based, but it is well established that perceptual and learning experiences can reshape the developing brain.Personality change is linked with life experiences. Life experience may influence personality through its effects on the brain.Environmental influences in terms of parenting influences a child’s personality. According to the FFT, the influence of parents on their children is surely incalculable, they nourish, protect, teach them; instils habits, aversions and values and provide some of the earliest models for social interaction and emotional regulation

In conclusion, both hereditary and environmental factors can influence a person’s personality. Heredity sets the limitation which environmental differences decide the concluding result. However, genetic factors have a larger effect on personality traits. Through twins and adoption studies, and the hereditary of schizophrenia, it can be seen that hereditary has a bigger effect on personality as compared to family environment. Thus, studies of heritability and limited parental influence all point to the notion that personality traits are more of expressions of human biology rather than products of life experiences.