The concept of evolution and human variability is the first thing I remember learning in my first generic science course. You need the basic understanding of evolution to describe every living organism on this earth. The way that organisms evolve and make one generation different from the next is not just about physical changes but the changes we cannot see like personality.
My major is psychology which a lot of you know is the study of the mind and behavior. In the article, The 2% Difference, from this week’s readings, it explained that between us and chimpanzee’s genomes, we are 98% alike with our DNA. Even though genetically we are similar, the main difference between us are the capabilities of our brain which has brought a complexity to human behavior that we are still trying to understand. If you think about our brains and how everyone grows from a child to an adult, that is evolution in itself. Even though we are born with a specific genetic makeup from both of our parents that determine who we are, that is not the only factor. Our personalities are not set in stone until about our 30’s which a lot can happen between birth and 30 to shape that. Through someone’s genetic makeup they may be born as an extravert but if they are brought into an environment where they are constantly yelled at, abused, or neglected, that extraversion will turn into introversion. Even though the direct definition of evolution is change in characteristics of species over several generations this is the evolution of a single organism in a short amount of time to become better fit with their environment. This individual is adapting in order to live long enough to reproduce even though nothing genetically is being changed leaving their offspring most likely being an extravert.
In the video “Epigenetics: The Ghost in Your Genes”, it talked about that even though identical twins do in fact come out looking identical, their personalities are not identical which shows that a single change in a codon, a mutation, may not have a phenotypic effect but a genotypic effect which in the end affects the behavior of that individual. A mother talked about her twins who shared the same physical characteristics and growth patterns but internally showed a huge difference that was seen as Jenna and Bridget’s personalities really started to form. Jenna is this outgoing, strong willed individual that talks about her future but Bridgett is non-verbal, doesn’t have conversations that are meaningful, and does things that are out of the norm like spitting on monitors and rubbing it around. To me this is more than interesting because we are able to break up the “blueprints” of these two girls and figure out what went wrong that made their personalities so different.
The way that both our environment and genetic makeup work together to make us who we are is so interesting. Not a single one can determine our fate because the other can work against it. At the end of the day, everything that gets modified is for the fight for survival.
Hi! I enjoyed reading your blog post. As a science major, I enjoyed reading how you were able to tie your major of psychology to evolution and human variation in your post. Especially, on how you were able to connect the article of “The 2% difference” and information you learned in your classes. I did not know that our personalities are not set into stone until we reach 30. I kind of thought our personalities become set in stone at a young age, but as we get older different experiences could alter or change certain characteristics in our personalities. It is crazy to know that different factors such as the environment can affect our personalities. Overall, I enjoyed reading a post that was different than mine. You did a great job!