One of the most important issues in psychology is the nature/nurture one. Am I who I am because of my unique combination of genes and chromosomes, or is it more because of my environment? Is it DNA, or is it life in the USA as compared to life in Cambodia? While pondering this question for the umpteenth time, I came across two cute examples in Pierce Howard’s The Owner’s Manual to the Brain:
- Two monozygotic twin girls were separated at birth and placed in homes far apart. About four years later, researchers interviewed the adoptive parents of each girl. Shauna’s parents said, “She is a terrible eater—won’t cooperate, stubborn, strong-willed. I can’t get her to eat anything unless I put cinnamon on it.” The parents of Ellen said, “Ellen is a lovely child—cooperative and outgoing.” When the researcher asked about her eating habits, they said, “Fantastic—she eats anything I put before her, as long as I put cinnamon on it!”
- Two monozygotic twin boys were separated at birth and placed in homes far apart. They were interviewed 27 years later. Both had turned out to be obsessive-compulsive neatniks, scrubbing their separate homes frequently and constantly picking up and making things neat and clean. When they were asked to explain their compulsion for neatness, on attributed it to his reaction to an adoptive parent who was a slob, while the other attributed it to his upbringing by an adoptive parents who was a neatnik!
What do you think about this issue? For starters, look at yourself and share some of your behaviors or predispositions that you might have inherited. Then again, you might have picked them up from a parent, a peer, or a television show.
Shrink Rapping 