Effects of Heredity and Environment on Human Development

HCB 2063 GENERAL GENER AL PSHYCOLOGY JANUARY 2015 SEMESTER TERM ASSIGNMENT PAPER

Effects of Heredity and Environment on human development. (Specific Examples on my own development).

Student Name: Aban ohn !obert

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#epartment: 'etroleum Enineerin ('E).

"nstructor: #r. Ahmad Ahmad Shahrul Niam "sha.

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Introdut!on H"r"d!t# is the passae of bioloical traits or characteristics from parents to offsprin

throuh the inheritance of enes. "t reatly influences the different aspects of human rowth and development. *ioloically spea+in heredity is the sum total of  potentia l traits that describes a child,s resemblance to his-her parents i.e. in terms of heih t weiht shape  colour of hair and eye intellience and other characteristics. .

En$!ron%"nt e/ually plays an important role in human development. " can define

environment broadly as all the psycholoical settins that impact who we are includin our early childhood experiences how we were raised our social relationships and our surroundin culture. 0r shortly all aspects of human interaction with their surroundin that impacts individual behavior and development. 1here are different types of environment such as physical learnin social and cultural settins psycholoical environment etc.

 Accordin to 2alat (34$4) Heredity and environment interact and within this interaction human development is possible. 1oether these two factors affect human development in physical behavioral learnin and personality aspects. "n this paper " will share how these two factors (heredity and environment) have affected my development from childhood to who " am today.

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1& H"r"d!t# Po!nt o' (!")&

R"*"%+,-n"& " am the first born in our family. " have five (5) siblins born by a different

person after the death of my father. Althouh " have never seen my father since childhood " have always heard three /uarter (6-7) of the people in my community compare me as resemblin my father. 8ost often some mista+enly call me in my father,s names. " found it difficult to accept or disaree because " was born while he was away in the front line wor+in as a military officer and died before " could see him. 9nfortunately " did not even see any of his pictures to compare the claimed resemblance and my mother too separated from me for a lon time. However after reunion with my mother she also said that " too+ the shape of my father. or example she has always ;oed that " have red lips ears mirrored eyes and scarce hair which loo+s exactly li+e my father had. " came to understand this claims after " studied bioloy and now psycholoy to +now how enetic influences human physical appearance.

1his particularly means that my father transmitted the enes for physical characteristics to me. Althouh this miht be true " still re;ect some similarity descriptions. Example people say my #ad was tall and had weiht than me. 0r could be my mother transferred to me the enes for weiht and heiht because she is as small and short as " am.  Another reason " believe could be because my father rew under full care of his parents. He had full parental support and feedin and they lived in town where there are many priorities. 9nli+e my father my childhood rowth was mostly in the villae with my randmother who had little support to ive. At the same time there is no ood explanation to this because my peers have the same body sie and heiht li+e me. 0r it could be because " spent most of the time schoolin outside my country where there are differences in food and reional climatic chanes. " studied my primary and hih school in 9anda which is outside my country and now for my 9niversity in 8alaysia. " believe that this continuous life in school with academic loads-stress chanes in food and exposure to different environments has also affected my development.

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At!$!t!"*. "n separate aruments my randmother has always described the most

favorite activities that my #ad li+ed durin his childhood and adult aes. or example his creativity in arts and crafts. He could ma+e local stools and tables out of wood when he was about 5 years old. ? rade while in hih school. So " will arue that this particular trait of li+in or bein ood at somethin is not necessarily a hereditary characteristic. However " share some features with my #ad li+e bein ood in school and social interaction with people. ust li+e he had excellent academic performance " have too been producin ood results in school. 1his common may mean that " inherited the ene for intellience from my #ad.

P"r*on-,!t#. 8y #ad was also an army man which means he was a brave if not an

aressive man which does not represent any of my personality and ;oinin the army is actually the last thin " could do. "n another case may be because he ;oined army due to the death of his father or ot influenced by friends. " love soccer music and athletics which none of my parents does and the element influencin me to li+e this activities is mainly friends and availability of these activities. " can play music from my phone my computer and other portable devices which my parents didn,t have durin their time.

S/-r"d C/-r-t"r!*t!*. 1here are few shared characteristics between me and my

mother. 1he most notable one is the heiht and weiht. Another reconiable trait is bein /uiet and emotional. @i+e my mum " am a humble and /uiet person with hih prevalence of emotions. rom my five (5) siblins only the boys (3) resemble their father but my three (6) sisters have shared characteristics most of which are from my mother and none of them resemble me.

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2& En$!ron%"nt-, Po!nt o' $!")&

 As explained in the examples below:

2&1& P-r"nt-, -r". " am certain that the experiences received durin the earliest

childhood years have impacted my development. At about 6 years old " separated from my parents due to war in the country for a period of $5 years. or all this lon until 3445 when peace returned " was nursed and raised by my randmother. " truly missed the companion of my parents and received teasin and abuses from my peers. 1hey most of the time moc+ed me with names such as >@ost 2id? which was emotionally disturbin. Somehow until to date " have developed to be very sensitive and emotional when someone tries to tal+ about my personality. However as a rown up person to day " have forotten some of these tempers. 1his is because " met friends who had similar situations and others even had worse livin conditions than mine. However my randmother is really very stron and responsible. She nursed and sent me to school until " reunited with my mother in 3445. 1his was a reat moment for me to smile and feel secure within my peers althouh it was also still sad since my #ad died while fihtin as an army. Since that moment " totally chaned " could et the necessary treatment from my mother she sent me to a very ood school outside my country which truly inspired and chaned my rowth. "n fact " should say rowin without both parents left me with neative temperaments and emotions althouh these are slowly fadin today as " develop to be more matured adult. 1his is an influence of environment.

2&2& Edu-t!on. " must admit that school has made up an enormous part of my life

development. "t would be fair to say that " have spent more time in school environments than any other place includin my country or my family. 8ost of the experience " ained from school have helped to shape my +nowlede on problem solvin and reconiin the diversity of the world.
teachin environment has helped to enhance these abilities. 1he exposure includes s+ills to operate complex experimental e/uipment machines and wor+in with different computeried technoloies to analye and provide solutions to difficult problems. " ained this s+ill mostly in 91' than " was in my country. iures $ C 3 in Appendix shows my school experience in hih and school and now in the 9niversity. 1hrouh hih /uality education my thin+in capabilities improved towards providin reasonable ;udments that is sound and which depicts maturity. or example in my primary throuh hih school spea+in in public was the most disastrous thin " could do. " was too shy and sha+y to stand before people to ive a speech or comment on anythin or even attend public meetins. However this behavior slowly faded as " proressed and ot exposed to various atherins presentations and meetins. 8y lanuae and communication s+ills improved and fear for public spea+in is no more which is a positive developmental chane in mind and body. 1his chane has helped me in overcomin panic especially in 9niversiti 1e+noloi 'etronas (91') where we need to do presentations ather for meetins and write pro;ects in a concise manner. 1herefore althouh heredity determines a person,s abilities " stronly accept that education as an element of environment has placed an impact on my learnin +nowlede lanuae thin+in-problem solvin and development in communication s+ills.

2&3& ""r*.
members this lately expanded to the neihborhood and at school. *ecause " spent much time at school interactin with fellow students of diverse cultural and ethnic bac+rounds my earlier perceptions as a +id have totally chaned. 1he emotions and tempers that " had at childhood are interated into positive feelins and social interactions. " have met both ood and bad friends and throuh their behaviors and attitudes " learnt to ad;ust to situations accordinly. or example when " was ten ($4) years old in primary school my friends influenced me to drin+ alcohol and move to niht clubs.
 Since then " realied that ae was a ma;or factor for acceptin any friendship without assessin the +ind of person to move with. 1oday " have rown to be independent and careful about the type of people to befriend and share social interactions with. After evaluatin the past behavior durin my middle ae " chaned positively and left drin+in Alcohol. Althouh some of my friends drin+ and smo+e " have resisted this behavior especially after comin to 8alaysia. 1he only activities we do here is either academic related or sports which usually brins us toether. "n fact my comin to 8alaysia has chaned most of my behaviors and way of handlin issues of different settins. *ac+ in my hih school for example we could ather and sleep in roups noisy all times which affected my academic performance to some extent. Here in 91' there is no such association and sleepin in roups thus ives me enouh time to plan and do my academic ;ob and this has wor+ed in improvin my performance.

2&& Cu,tur" adds yet another element that stronly influences development. "t is a way

of life that impose limits on behaviors across societies (ates et al $FFG). 8y personal experience in different cultural environments is part and partial of the behavioral pattern that " poses. " can brea+ this experience into few sections as follows:

2&&1& S#%+o,* -nd "*tur"*.  1hese two elements are common across cultures in

the world. Especially for me who studied outside my country or hometown for a very lon time symbols and estures have really impacted my understandin of nonverbal communication. or example when " was studyin in 9anda blin+in an eye to someone especially ladies was a sin of moc+in or flirtin yet in my country it is a sin we use to alert someone. Also handlin hands when wal+in toether as boys was perceived as ay behavior which is a normal expression in my community. So in 9anda " had to learn many symbols and estures to be able to fit in their society comfortably. 1he same is true with various estures li+e thumbups whistlin etc. " learnt that these symbols portray different meanins in different countries althouh others have common meanins.
meanin. 1his is all because of diversity in cultural environments and people. "n fact " am always very careful when ma+in a esture and in most cases " prefer verbal communication.

2&&2& L-nu-" forms another environmental factor that influences human

development. or example " am able to communicate in my @anuae because " was born and rew from my home town where everyone spea+ the same lanuae. 1his would be different if " was born and rew in an environment where no one spea+s my lanuae. Althouh it is obvious that " should spea+ the same lanuae as my parents this is never a ood explanation. @anuae is related to interactions and where one rows from. And this is true because " entered school with one lanuae in mind but today " can spea+ many lanuaes Enlish 2iswahili Arabic Acholi and now bit of 8alay. 1his is all because of interactin with people from different cultural entities which have nothin to do with heredity. " also learnt that some names and words have different meanins which are perceptions of somethin else in other lanuaes. Example in 8alay Aban means brother but means >circumstance? in my lanuae.

2&&3& 4ood  is another potential factor that has influenced my development. ust li+e

" have repeatedly mentioned " have spent 6-7 of my life schoolin outside my country. 1his possibly have a hand in shapin the +ind of person " am today. or example the main stable food eaten in my community is corn cassava and beans which is common to all homes. 8ore so we don,t eat spices and sea food and only limited to certain veetables and fruits. 1his in one way or the other really chanes my diestion habits and body response to various foods. "n fact my comin to 8alaysia has left me with serious diestive disorder which " blame mostly on the spicy food. ust after a year here in 91' " started to develop a rare diestive behavior sometimes " rarely o to the toilet and sometimes cannot pass bowel normally. "n fact the doctor told me to eat more veetables because " lac+ed fibers in my body. 8ore so " am not comfortable with eatin rice as this diests very fast and ma+es me very hunry in few hours. " have always ;oed to my mother that the only reason " call her most often is to tell her that " miss her food. iure 6 in Appendix section shows food in my country and 8alaysia. " 8

believe when " o bac+ to my country adaptin to the taste of the food will ta+e sometimes.

2&&& Cu,tur-, +",!"'* nor%* $-,u"* -nd tr-d!t!on*. " do ac+nowlede some few

areas in which beliefs and traditions have formed part of my development especially in social interaction. Bood example is !eliion and other typical cultural norms li+e rituals and ceremonies which are the most sensitive elements in many cultures lobally. 8y moral values mostly follows my belief in =hristianity and those bein displayed at the level of my community. 1hese beliefs and values are a result of exposure to teachins and practices in school prayers etc. which " personally accept as experiences received from the environment and have nothin to do with heredity. 8y parents bein =hristians could be the main reason for my moral values and practices in =hristianity but not that they transmitted the enes for these values in me. " also believe that traditional practices and rituals are factors in my development. or example " cannot marry unless " o to my community and perform a traditional ritual for reconition as an adult. Even if " nelect this strict norms and cultural laws my marriae will not be respected and valued by the elders.

"n a related development " have learnt to respect and reconie the variation and existence of different beliefs norms and traditions wherever " have lived or studied. " ained much of this experience in 8alaysia for example not bein in contact or reetin 8uslim ladies which is free in the case of my culture. After stayin in 8alaysia for 6 years " ot used to the culture and this had much influence when " went for my internship earlier last year. Sometimes " could still foret and ;ust wave a hand to reet a lady althouh they were ettin close to me. " realied " was already used to the attitude until a month where " normalied. Also in 8alaysia people drive on the left side of the road which is oppose to riht hand side in my =ountry. 1hese and other factors discussed in this chapter are ma;orly environmental related attributes that have in one way or the other placed a bi impact on my development throuhout the rowth cycles.  At the same time some of these elements helped me to understand why people behave as they do. 9

Con,u*!on& "t is undeniable that heredity plays an important role in dictatin many aspects of who " am today. 1his is particularly true in reard to my physical characteristics and enetic ma+eup. *ut " am of the same time environment is hihly responsible for influencin my behavior health perceptions problem solvin approaches social life and several other nonphysical attributes that " possess. " would therefore comment that both heredity and environment interact to ive expression for the development of behaviors and other physical characteristics that are built in me.

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!eference

ames.<.2alat (34$4). "ntroduction to 'sycholoy.
Be I =oner !# =adoret ! Neiderhiser 8 ates < et al. ($FFG). 1he developmental interface between nature and nurture: a mutual influence model of child antisocial behavior and parent behaviors. #evelopment 'sycholoy 63:5%75&F.

A"nd!

4!ur" 1& M# /!/ */oo, ""r!"n"

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4!ur" 2& M# Un!$"r*!t# ""r!"n" 7UTP

Figure 3. South Sudanese

Figure 4. Malaysian Food

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