Individual Diffferences - How environmental factors affect Personality & Intelligence
Describe and evaluate the ways in which environmental factors can impact on the development of an individual’s personality and intelligence.
The discussion in this essay entails the extent to which environmental factors impact an individual’s development of personality and intelligence. Development can be defined as ‘improvement in function’ which would imply that it occurs with the progression of age. Personality has been found to have a substantial genetic influence however economic and social factors have been found to effect the development of personality traits such as stereotypes. On the other hand, the development of an individual’s intelligence has much supporting evidence stating that environmental factors such as education have a greater effect than genetic influences. “It is not nature vs. nurture, but the interaction of nature and nurture that drives development” (Bronfenbrenner 1992). This supports that both environmental factors and genetics interact together in order to form an overall context of a child’s development.
Personality is defined as "An individual's pattern of psychological processes arising from motives, feelings, thoughts, and other major areas of psychological function” (Mayer, 2005). This can be expressed in an individual's social behaviour. The overall consensus is that both nature and environmental factors play an important role in personality. Some psychologist such as Eysenck (1997) stated that genetics are the primary determinate of personality yet later suggested conditioning plays a role. According to his personality theory, all traits can be reduced which “are three broad personality factors, named neuroticism, extraversion-introversion, and psychoticism” (Eysenck 1997). These factors were supported with research; however his theory paid very little attention to environmental factors which was regarded too simplistic to fully describe personality.
Studies on twins and siblings have shown many individual differences which
The discussion in this essay entails the extent to which environmental factors impact an individual’s development of personality and intelligence. Development can be defined as ‘improvement in function’ which would imply that it occurs with the progression of age. Personality has been found to have a substantial genetic influence however economic and social factors have been found to effect the development of personality traits such as stereotypes. On the other hand, the development of an individual’s intelligence has much supporting evidence stating that environmental factors such as education have a greater effect than genetic influences. “It is not nature vs. nurture, but the interaction of nature and nurture that drives development” (Bronfenbrenner 1992). This supports that both environmental factors and genetics interact together in order to form an overall context of a child’s development.
Personality is defined as "An individual's pattern of psychological processes arising from motives, feelings, thoughts, and other major areas of psychological function” (Mayer, 2005). This can be expressed in an individual's social behaviour. The overall consensus is that both nature and environmental factors play an important role in personality. Some psychologist such as Eysenck (1997) stated that genetics are the primary determinate of personality yet later suggested conditioning plays a role. According to his personality theory, all traits can be reduced which “are three broad personality factors, named neuroticism, extraversion-introversion, and psychoticism” (Eysenck 1997). These factors were supported with research; however his theory paid very little attention to environmental factors which was regarded too simplistic to fully describe personality.
Studies on twins and siblings have shown many individual differences which
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