The Very Essence of Our Individuality

[Keith Maitland]

One of the country’s top psychologists and behavioural geneticists, Professor Robert Plomin, of King’s College London, offers an emphatic conclusion. It is drawn from 45 years of research and hundreds of studies. He says the single most important factor in each and every one of us — the very essence of our individuality — is our genetic make-up, our DNA. The basic building blocks of life that we inherit from our parents are what determine who we are — not how much they loved us, read us books or which school they sent us to. DNA accounts for at least half the variance in people’s psychological traits, much more than any other single factor. Put simply, ‘nature’ trumps ‘nurture’ every time, and not just marginally, but by a long, long chalk. Our DNA, fixed and unchangeable, determines whether we have a predisposition not just to physical traits — from how tall we are to how much we weigh — but also to our intelligence and our psychology, from a tendency to depression to having resilience and grit. Plomin’s revolutionary conclusion — outlined in a challenging and thought-provoking new book, Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are — is a game-changer, he claims, with far-reaching implications for psychology and for society.

RTWT here

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6170137/Is-thought-knew-parenting-wrong-Geneticist-reveals-secret.html

[SusanDoris]

Welll, I wouldn't call it revolutionary, since I think this has been part of our knowledge base for some time now. It is obvious when you consider a family of siblings, all of whom have strongly different personalities and traits while being nurtured similarly.

[Nearly Sane]

Welll, I wouldn't call it revolutionary, since I think this has been part of our knowledge base for some time now. It is obvious when you consider a family of siblings, all of whom have strongly different personalities and traits while being nurtured similarly.

Not sure that it's that obvious, We're talking about something with multiple inputs and outputs. It would seem t me chaos theory would apply and that there would be a high sensitivity both to the initial conditions, the DNA, and any inputs.

[Rhiannon]

There is a feeling of ‘I’ve got a book to sell’ in the article.

Yes, there must be so many variables. Years ago I had friends who had two daughters, and then adopted a third. The adopted daughter, apparently given the same upbringing, went off the rails in a similar way to the family that she was taken from. They then raised her son, who did likewise. My friends are convinced it was a product of their genes, or DNA, or whatever. But I wonder whether their expectations were different, that they went in expecting trouble, and unwittingly and unknowingly the ‘problem’ children were treated differently.

[Nearly Sane]

There is a feeling of ‘I’ve got a book to sell’ in the article.

Yes, there must be so many variables. Years ago I had friends who had two daughters, and then adopted a third. The adopted daughter, apparently given the same upbringing, went off the rails in a similar way to the family that she was taken from. They then raised her son, who did likewise. My friends are convinced it was a product of their genes, or DNA, or whatever. But I wonder whether their expectations were different, that they went in expecting trouble, and unwittingly and unknowingly the ‘problem’ children were treated differently.

Yep, especially with the whole don't worry you can still lose poundssssssss schtick that gets thrown in.

[Udayana]

What we need to know are which genes affect which attributes or characteristics. At the moment it takes years to identify the gene that results in a condition caused by a single mutation in that gene, eg. it took s 20 years research to find the gene related to Huntington's.   

.. And practically every characteristic is affected by many genes or environmental events. A single good identification must be worth libraries worth of waffle.
 

[Rhiannon]

A much better article on the Graun.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/29/so-is-it-nature-not-nurture-after-all-genetics-robert-plomin-polygenic-testing

I was talking to a therapist who works with mentally ill sex offenders recently, and he said a lot of it can be linked to childhood trauma. But the majority of children who suffer childhood trauma don't go on to offend as adults. I'm wondering if genes explains that.

[Steve H]

I don't believe anything in the Daily Hate-mail without independent corroboration, but the Grauniad article linked further down provides that.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

Another thirteen posts and Keith finally grinds his way to five hundred.