Science Behind Society

The Science Behind Growing Up In Society
“ We’re not ever going to believe it, but we’re going to have to act as if we do,” are the words of David Reiss. This M.D. is referring to what recent studies on child development have revealed. The shocking conclusion is that parents appear to have little effect on how their children turn out. Genetic influences are largely responsible and even predict things such as how well a kid will do in school, get along with friends, and whether a kid will become involved in dangerous activities. Although, genes have a great impact on a person’s personality and how a child turns out as well.
Behavioral geneticists believe that heredity reveals itself through complex interactions with the environment. How a person acts, due to their integrated DNA, tends to affect how others will treat or respond to them. If more parents were aware of this, then they would try and act to benefit the child and have the child’s best interest at heart.
Next, there is the concept of “goodness of fit”. That phrase refers to the convenient fact that traits are passed on from parents to their children (the child is likely to share qualities or abilities with their parents) and can be brought out by providing the necessary environment. Unfortunately problems arise when the child’s tendencies clash with that of the parents or do not live up to the parent’s expectations. Also, if the child is not provided with an environment that promotes their inborn traits, then there is a poor person-to-environment match. This could lead to many roadblocks later in life.
Moving on, siblings share a remarkable fifty percent or more of their genes. Still, their genotypes lead them to ask different questions and receive different answers even from the same environment. Parents of more than one child treat their children differently because of this. Siblings each require a unique response due to differences already present between them. Robert Plomin, a professor of... [continues]

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