Genetics and personality

A theme which you might have noticed is common across this

course, and in psychology more generally, is the conundrum
of where personality comes from – nature (biology) or nurture
(environmental influences).

The nature/nurture debate has historically been presented as an ‘all

or nothing’ proposition. In other words, traditionally, theorist argued
that personality was either the consequence of genetic or the result
of one’s upbringing.

Twin studies
A good deal of personality research comparing the role genetics
versus environment has employed twin studies. Twin studies
assess hereditary influence by comparing the resemblance of
identical twins and fraternal twins. The logic of twin studies hinges
on the genetic relatedness of identical (i.e., monozygotic) and
fraternal twins (dizygotic twins).

Identical twins emerge from one zygote that splits. Thus, they have
exactly the same genotype; their genetic relatedness is 100%.
Fraternal twins result from two eggs that were fertilised
simultaneously by different sperms, forming two separate zygotes.
Fraternal twins are no more alike than any other siblings. Their
genetic relatedness is 50%.
The idea behind researching identical twins is that if people who are
genetically more alike (i.e., identical twins) are also more alike on
traits like personality or intelligence, then the researcher can infer
heredity plays an important role in these traits.

The benefit of including fraternal twins in research, rather than other

siblings, is that fraternal twins are usually raised in the same home,
at the same time. Both individuals develop in conditions that are
equal. Thus, if differences are observed in these individuals, we can
feel confident that it is not the result of changes to family
circumstances across time (e.g., SES, diet, location, contact with
relative, neighbours etc). Let’s take a look at an example of twin
research.

The Minnesota Centre for Twin and Family Research

(MCTFR)
The MCTFR, located at the University of Minnesota, has a registry
of all twins born in the USA between 1936 – 1955 and 1961 – 1964.
Since 1979, the investigators at this centre have been studying the
resemblance of twins on traits such as IQ and personality. To do
this, researchers compare twins that live together and twins that
were separated in infancy and reared apart.

Their research shows striking similarities in identical twins across a

wide range of domains. Interestingly, identical twins who were
separated during infancy also displayed uncanny resemblances to
one another in IQ, personality, even leisure time, and social
attitudes - despite being reared apart.

The researchers suggest this means similarities in personality may

be the result of genetic influence. If this is of interest to you,
consider exploring the See also section of this step for a link to a
publication written by MCTFR researchers, and more. Exploring
these links are optional.

These papers and articles are included to help demonstrate some

of the research in this area, but we do not expect you to purchase a
subscription to read the full paper. Hopefully, just reading the
summary provided in the free abstract will be sufficient for those
that are wanting to know more about these studies.

In recent years, adoption studies (i.e., research investigating the

impact of genes in trait development using adoptees raised apart
from their biological parents) have increasingly been used to further
our understanding of the nature/ nurture debate. Collectively, this
research shows modest similarities in traits such as IQ and
personality between adopted children and their biological parents.
Interestingly, research suggests that adopted children resemble
their adoptive parent to roughly the same degree as their biological
parents (Grigorenko, 2000).

In contrast to MCTFR findings, researchers suggest these

findings indicate that environment influences personality
development.
To further investigate the role of nature/ nurture in trait
development, attention has turned to epigenetics. Epigenetics is the
study of heritable changes in gene expression that do not involve
changes to underlying DNA.

As we grow and develop, environmental factors trigger

chemical reactions that activate and deactivate parts of the
genome.

In other words, genes can be ‘turned on’ or ‘turned off’ at the

cellular level in response to things such as toxins, exercise, sleep,
trauma, aging, stress, disease, and diet. The result can be changes
to phenotype (i.e., traits we can observe, such as appearance or
behaviour) without a change in genotype (i.e., the genes that help
to create that phenotype).

These alterations in the expression of genes are known as

epigenetic changes. Importantly, research suggests that these
epigenetic changes can be passed through generations from
parent to child.

Taken together, this research suggests that genes alone do not

determine our personality. Nor is personality solely the result of
environmental factors. Personality seems to be a complex
interaction between genes and the environment, from conception to
death.

Talking point
Using what you have learned thus far regarding personality
theories, would you think that the influence of nature and nurture
would be similar across all personality traits, or would you expect
that genetic or environmental factors would influence some traits
more than others?