PSY 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Twin, Novelty Seeking, Dopamine Receptor
Document Summary
Personality: a person"s characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors. Personality is dynamic in that it is goal seeking, sensitive to particular contexts, and adaptive to a person"s environment. Personality trait: a pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that is relatively consistent over time and across situations. Genetic makeup may predispose certain traits or characteristics, but whether these genes are expressed depends on the unique circumstances that each person experiences. Environment determines when or if gene expression happens. Nearly all personality traits have a genetic component. A study proved that identical twins shared more traits than fraternal twins because identical twins share nearly the same genes, whereas fraternal twins do not. Parenting style may have relatively little impact on personality. It is still important however, because those with inadequate parenting are not socialized properly. Parents influence many aspects of children"s lives (ex. Similarities in personality between biological siblings and between children and their biological parents seem to have some genetic component.
