how do we get our persoanlity?

[mustang292]

We are everyone me meet.

[Mokele]

And instincts have nothing to do with the environment right Mokele?

 

Many have only historical, evolutionary links to the environment that produced them via natural selection. However, in more complex organisms, there arises the ability to modify instincts. This does not, however, detract from their genetic basis; many animals have geneticly based decision-making systems of "If this environmental stimuli, do this, if not, do that" which are soley genetic.

 

Just because you computer games react to your input does not make them any less programmed.

 

The definition of personality is stable traits. If you're talking inherently unstable traits, then we are in agreement, and there is no such thing as personality.

 

I'll thank you not to put words in my mouth. That a trait is mutable and can be altered by environmental stimuli does not make it non-existant, as you seem to think.

 

A "trait" that is malleable is a contradiciton in terms. Now, the so-called "trait," which is stable, is 1- stable due to the environment, supporting the notion that personality does not exist. 2- What do you mean traits are produced inherently in the person? Give an example or something...

 

So, according to you, the color of Siamese cats is not a trait?

 

That's *exactly* what you just said. You said that a trait cannot be malleable. Therefore you claim that color of Siamese cats is not a trait.

 

See, what makes a cat (or just about any animal) black is a pigement called melanin. And, geneticly, Siamese cats are 100% black, all over. However, they have inherited a protien in the melanin synthesis pathway that is very temperature sensitive. So sensitive, in fact, that it cannot function at skin temperature over the body core, only at the skin temperature of the extremities, which is why you only see black on these cats in their extremities.

 

So, here we have a purely genetic trait which has it's expression dictated by the environment.

 

Let's look at another: In fruit fly larvae, there are two behavioral phenotypes, sitters and rovers. The sitters don't move very much in the search for food, while the rovers do. The trait is controlled by a single gene, and is entirely controlled by that gene. However, if you deprive a sitter of food, it becomes a rover, and reverts once it's in high-food environments, while rovers are *always* rovers.

 

Here, once again, we have a 100% genetic trait that reacts to input from the environment, and results in a modification of behavior.

 

Do you know anything about the assumptions of Behavioral Genetics research, especially the results of their studies? Name me one. You seem to be highly misusing the data. Your idea of malleability is a bit sophisticated though, and I agree with that. But you realize that personality is supposed to be an inherently stable characteristic, right? That's the definition in psychology, and it seems that you are agreeing with me that it should be discarded.

 

I know far more about Behavioral Genetics than you, as evidenced by this thread. While you restrict yourself to a single, comparatively uninteresting species, I learn from *all* animal life, and can apply what I learn there to humans easily, as we are results of the same evolutionary process.

 

And malleability does not indicate impermanence or instability. For instance, I have the personality trait of being rather introverted, in that I tend to prefer my own company to that of others. However, I have friends and interact with those friends. Does that mean I'm not really introverted? No, it simply means that I have a *general tendency* towards introversion, but can "come out of my shell" in the right environmental situation.

 

Interaction with trait and the environment does *not* make it "unstable" or "not a trait". Or do you *really* want to claim that Siamese cats have no "trait" for color?

 

Mokele