1. Identical twins Oskar Strohr & Jake Yufe, who were reared apart, show remarkable similarities in personality charactersitics. Both like to dip their buttered toast in coffee, and sneeze in elevators to startle other passengers.
2. If your identical twin develops schizophrenia, you have a 46% chance of developing the disorder.
3. Up to 50 % of personality is inherited via basic temperament (innate predisposition- emotionality, activity and sociability)
4. First Born children tend to be perfectionists because of parental attention in the early years.
5. Genes-“We simply do not have enough genes for the idea of biological determinism to be right” (Humans possess 30,000 genes-barely twice as many as a fruit fly)-Nova
6. CAH girls, exposed to more androgen in the womb, were more likely to enjoy hunting, cars, and guns.
7. Female rat fetuses, injected with testosterone, grew up and exhibited male adult rat behavior patterns such as more aggressive behavior.
8. Female and male toys are segregated in toy stores. Male toys tend to promote more aggression (guns, video games) Female toys tend to promote nurturing (dolls, Barbie)
9. Research indicates that male babies are left to cry longer. Female babies are cuddled more often.
10 Research indicates that a region of the brain called the hypothalamus is different in male and females.
11. Males tend to be more skilled in spatial areas (directions). Females excel in verbal areas. (Language)
12. If one identical twin has Bipolar Disorder (or severe cycling depression) there is a 72% chance that the other twin will acquire the disease.
13. Research done on 72-hour-old newborns show that boys startle more easily, while baby girls rhythmically mouth (move mouth and lips) more frequently.
14. If a parent has depression, a child has a 40 % chance of acquiring the disorder.
15. The PET scans (brain) of an OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) show higher level of frontal lobe electrical activity (above the eyes) as compared to non-ocd patients
16. Identical Twins reared together have a .85 correlation in I.Q.
(Identical twins reared apart-.67, Siblings-.24)
17. By age 13 girls are twice as likely to report high or chronic levels of depression.
18. Similarity of temperamental characteristics between Twins
Identical Fraternal
Emotionality .51 -.05
Activity .59 -.24
Sociability .51 .11
· Correlation above .50 are considered statistically significant
19. In attachment tests physically separating a 1-year-old infant from its mother, males tested tend to bang against the barrier, females tend to stand and cry out for help.
20. Everyone carries five to fifty genetic glitches that might predispose that person to physical or psychological illness.
Discussion Question #1
“ Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in, and I guarantee to take any one at random, and train them to be any type of specialist I might select-doctor, lawyer…even beggar-man and thief” John B Watson
Is personality formation largely a result of inborn tendencies, or does it result from environmental influences?
Discussion Question #2
“Heredity deals the cards; environment plays the hand” Charles L. Brewer
Is gender identity the product of cultural prescriptions and expectations or is it a product of “natural” development?
Discussion Question # 3
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”
Krishnamurti (1895-1986)
Is psychological illness a factor of genetics, or does it develop as a response to environmental factors?