<p>I’m not a parent by any means but I’m really curious about this, and especially about parents’ opinions on it.
In my opinion a lot of it is environment-affected, and very little of it is inborn. Parents obviously can’t shape a child’s personality/behavior alone because other factors like school and friends affect children a lot, but I’ve heard a lot of people say that behavior is mostly inborn.
Circumstances are just different for a lot of people - the way I look at it, there’s an infinite amount of variables in one’s life that separates one from others, which is what makes every personality different. I think even things like temper [whether one is short-tempered or extremely patient] are determined by how others act this out in front of him/her, bar specific circumstances.</p>
<p>also its sometimes arbitrary to draw the distinction. IIUC there is evidence that parents engage differently with newborns depending on how those newborns react - so (relatively small) genetic diffs in IQ or personality can be increased by parental interaction. </p>
<p>Oh, and there are also diffs that are environmental BUT are present from birth - its odd that folks who obsess about prenatal nutrition, lead exposure, stuff like that consider everything either genes or upbringing.</p>
<p>dbwes, can you provide a few explicit examples of the brain studies you are referring to?</p>
<p>I am aware that there are physiological/neurochemical/whatever processes underlying behavior. But I firmly believe that the biological reason for aberrant behavior can itself be caused by environmental factors.</p>
<p>I think environment out weighs generic. Parents play a great role in how their kids turn out. One person told me that kids are windows to their parents. Once they leave home and have greater exposure to outside world, they will begin to be influence by their friends, but at the end of day their core values will still be intact.</p>
<p>Judging by how successful Nanny 911 nannies can be in helping a dysfunctional family right its ship, I’d say that substantial chunk of child bad behaviior is due to parents who don’t know how to parent.</p>
<p>Anyone who has more than one child knows that they differ from the time of birth – and maybe even before. (When I was pregnant with kid #1, I could balance a cup of coffee on the “bump.” With kid #2, I could never have done that. She would have knocked it off. She also turned out to be the more athletic of my children.)</p>
<p>And it’s not just inborn personality (such as activity level) that influences people. One of my children’s personalities is very much affected by a medical problem that he has to cope with – one that runs in our family. </p>
<p>But of course parents – and other aspects of the environment – have effects. Your kids will tell you that. For example, one of mine, who just turned 21 but is still a nondrinker even though drinking is now legal for her, told me that unlike some of her friends, she never felt a need to drink alcohol as a rite of passage to adulthood because she grew up in a family where the adults didn’t drink. To her, the association of drinking and adulthood makes no sense. </p>
<p>Parental influence can also work two ways: My mother was chronically late and often made me late when I was growing up – which I hated. So throughout my life, I have tried to schedule myself so that I’m always on time (which means I’m usually early). My kids picked this up from me; they’re prompt, too. So parental influence can work two ways – sometimes you pick up a habit from your parents, and sometimes you make a point of doing the opposite of what your parents did.</p>
<p>I’m an adoptee and I guess I have a slightly different persepctive on this. Years ago, when I went through the adoption system, babies were thought to be “tabula rasa” - empty slates upon which the adoptive parents can write their version of what they think their child should be. I’ve learned from experience - my own and others I know whe are adoptees - that this is not the case. I have been greatly influenced by my adoptive parents, but a lot of traits are inborn and as much as my adoptive parents tried to change some of these, they were never completely erradicated. I love my adoptive parents but I am a very different person from what they wanted and it’s been hard on us all, especially on them because I believe they honestly don’t know why I turned out to be so different, when they did everything the social workers told them to …</p>
<p>RobD has referenced twin studies above. I don’t have a bibliography or anything. Most of my reading either comes from the slant of brain-based learning in education or (very significantly for me) attempts to understand depression. Peter Kramer’s works on depression, particularly, argue for actual differences in the brain that cause behaviors.</p>
<p>I think it’s both but genetics are stronger I think. Parents can modify to a certain extent making genetic make-up a bit better or worse but not by that much. Parents can teach children how to deal with what they’ve been genetically given.</p>
<p>I think that a lot of behavior is inborn, but environment also is important.</p>
<p>My sons have been totally dissimilar since birth. One was a baby that was easily stressed, was very demanding, and energetic. At age 10-months old, he wanted to nap hugging a soccer ball. By 2, he was avidly following his favorite sports teams, and continues to be a big sports fan as an adult. Despite having professor parents, he hated school and always has resented authority and has long been a cynical person.</p>
<p>Younger son always has been laid back, flexible, hasn’t liked sports, while he underperformed in school until college, he always loved school, and blossomed academically in college. He was an extremely shy kid whose motto was go with the flow.</p>
<p>Same parents, similar intelligence, but very different personalities and interests.</p>
<p>footballmom, I’m an adoptee, too, and I completely agree with you. </p>
<p>My sister (not adopted) is so much like my adoptive parents in many ways and I’m the polar opposite. I was fortunate to find my birthfamily about 15 years ago. My birthparents were both deceased but I have four full birthsisters. I am so much more like them in personality.</p>
<p>As a mother of b/g twins with very different personalities and style, I have to go with genetics, since they’ve had the same environment. They still have personality traits that they each showed as infants.</p>
<p>OTOH, environment can–and does–significantly change the brain in a lot cases. The brain/environment balance differs from behavior to behavior and person to person, I think.</p>