1.2.3 Personality and Genetics

Because I am interested in the subject, I pay attention to personality and genetics. I notice when an old friend who is future oriented like her mother, achievement oriented like her father, keeps a neat and orderly desk like her brother, and cares more about people than material things like her grandfather. We know that part of our personality comes from genetics. We are not sure how this works exactly, but cognitive psychologists are getting closer to the explanation--most likely it has to do with the physical (especially, chemical) make-up of each individual. Like eye and hair color, sometimes we are very much like our parents, and sometimes, we are like others in our family who lived before we were born. Seeing as how most families have secrets somewhere in their pasts, we may not know for sure who all of our ancestors (and the genes) even are.

Fortunately, genetics are not the whole story behind our personalities.