Blog 2

As a parent, I really enjoyed reading the article "Sense of Self." It's quiet intriguing how your little one's personalities develop in becoming who they are and who they can become later on in life. During my second pregnancy, I found out I was having another boy. Immediately, I knew he was going to be the exact opposite of my first son Dylan. My second son Dominic, never stopped bouncing around and kicking me, compared to my first son who barely moved around at all. Dominic is only 9 months now but even so, my prediction was right! After having two children I strongly agree that personality is present at birth. Dylan has always been shy, as where Dominic appears more outgoing already even at such an early age. After reading about Kagen's research, it has become more clear that Dylan has inherited to be more "inhibited" and Dominic to be more "low reactive." I was surprised to learn that shyness has a strong genetic component but even more so, that a significant genetic influence has been found for traits such as novelty seeking, a violent temper, and a a predisposition toward addiction. I have always been shy and introverted. My kid's dad is the exact opposite, very outgoing and extroverted. Learning about personality genes and personality traits, is it safe to say Dylan received more of my genes and Dominic more of his dad's? That brings me to the next topic I found interesting more related to nature vs nurture. I have always strongly believed that a child's environment, (especially starting at infancy) and the kind of parenting they receive reflects on the person they become. As genes do influence personality, they do not set a child fate for their personality. We tend to enter the world with our personality "volumes" set to different pitches, but where we end up along the spectrum from grumpy to cheerful or shy to aggressive depends at least in part on our early environment. "Very few traits seem to be pure gene or pure environment, but there are oodles and oodles of gene-environment interactions." According to the new NAS report, early gene-en-viroment interactions can set the tone for how a child adapts to challenges throughout life, but, "this early trajectory is by no means chiseled in stone." In the past couple years I've noticed my son Dylan has slowly but surely become less shy, and more outgoing. With that being said, I'm starting to wonder, are kids "locked" into a genetic personality destiny right from birth? How much does the environmental factor come into play, and isn't every child a different situation? A specific line that stood out to me was, "that if parents provide extra nurturing and a gentle but firm guiding hand in new or upsetting situations, by the age of 4 most previously inhibited children overcome their "innate" shyness." This statement does seem to correlate with my parenting and appears to apply with my oldest son. In conclusion, I am anxious and excited to watch as my boy's unique personalities as they continue to grow and change in the upcoming years.