Acquiring a scientific attitude toward human personality is not easy. There are all sorts of emotional and theoretical problems involved in the study of it. It involves treating another human being as if he were a thing—a tree or a stone —to be analyzed, rather than loved, hated, or judged. While it 's clear that physical characteristics are hereditary, the genetic waters get a bit murkier when it comes to an individual 's behavior, intelligence, and personality. Scientists do know that our DNA and life experiences play a major role in who we are, but how much of that is still under question.
Researchers study variation in behavior as it is affected by genes, this study is called behavioral genetics. Genes are the units of heredity passed down from parents to offspring (Berg 1983; …show more content…
Each chromosome contains molecules called nucleotides. In the entire human genome, there are around six billion pairs of these nucleotides. The average human gene is three thousand base pairs long. The human genome contains an estimated 30,000 or more genes, yet these genes comprise less than 5 percent of the genomic material (Eysenck 1990; Collis & Messick 2001). All of this description about the genome is simply background to the question at hand, which is how genes, operating within environments, connect to behavior. Behavior results from the genetic coding that occurs in cells throughout the body, but especially in the nervous system (Heath 1994). Most physical traits and conditions such as height, blood pressure, weight, and digestive activity stem from many genes that vary in activity depending on environmental contexts. The same is true for all complex behaviors. Each is affected by multiple genes interacting with multiple environmental influences. For any given behavior, relevant genes and environmental factors number in the dozens, hundreds, or perhaps thousands (Matthews & Whiteman
Researchers study variation in behavior as it is affected by genes, this study is called behavioral genetics. Genes are the units of heredity passed down from parents to offspring (Berg 1983; …show more content…
Each chromosome contains molecules called nucleotides. In the entire human genome, there are around six billion pairs of these nucleotides. The average human gene is three thousand base pairs long. The human genome contains an estimated 30,000 or more genes, yet these genes comprise less than 5 percent of the genomic material (Eysenck 1990; Collis & Messick 2001). All of this description about the genome is simply background to the question at hand, which is how genes, operating within environments, connect to behavior. Behavior results from the genetic coding that occurs in cells throughout the body, but especially in the nervous system (Heath 1994). Most physical traits and conditions such as height, blood pressure, weight, and digestive activity stem from many genes that vary in activity depending on environmental contexts. The same is true for all complex behaviors. Each is affected by multiple genes interacting with multiple environmental influences. For any given behavior, relevant genes and environmental factors number in the dozens, hundreds, or perhaps thousands (Matthews & Whiteman