Blog6-Ms Ivy-Zhou Shaowen-Thoughts on the Origin of Personality

Recently, I find a sentence about the origin of personality in a supplementary material. The sentence says some people believe that babies are born with a blank slate, and that only the environment shapes their personality. However, I disagree with the idea. From my perspective, babies are not born with a blank state, and their personality is largely determined by genes.

First of all, the idea that only the environment can shape the personality is not reasonable. If the environment was the only factor that influenced the personality, the following issues would be difficult to explain. It is considered that people who live in poor areas are likely to develop negative personality traits, because they usually suffer the pain of lacking enough food. However, there are many optimistic people in these areas. Another example is that though divorce is harmful for young children, some children from divorced families are outgoing and active. Therefore, the environment does not completely determine what the person will be.

Actually, the gene can play an essential role in the personality. Genes can influence people’s behaviours by controlling their preferences. For instance, some people may like a certain colour naturally. The reason for this may be that the genes “tell” them to prefer this certain colour (This may not have been proofed yet). Therefore, people are willing to respond to some things in a certain way, because they prefer this way naturally. As how people respond to things reflects their personality, genes can impact people’s personality.

 In addition, many people are born with some talents. There is no doubt that some people are more sensitive to language, while some other people are more sensitive to computation. These differences may cause people dealing with the things differently. For the people who are sensitive to computation, they are more likely to analyse things objectively. This may stimulate these people to be objective. As a result, babies are not born with a blank state.

To conclude, babies are born with the tendency to have some certain personalities. The environment just influences this tendency, and it is not the only factor that affects the personality.