A gene is a hereditary unit transferred from a parent to an offspring, while an environment refers to the surroundings of living things. Numerous developmental studies have demonstrated that the psychological traits of an individual can be distinctively developed under the influence of both environmental and genetic factors. From these studies, it has been found that genetic factors do not influence the trait in a deterministic way. Moreover, several neural pathways may be affected by a different genetic factor, which results in a wide range of behaviors. The environment also plays a role in how complex behavioral traits are molded and achieved. Different behaviors can be exhibited by individuals of the same species when place under identical variations ( Grabe & Van der Auwera, 2020). Early ethologists and biologists who quantified and observed the behavior of animals in their natural habitat. They concluded that; a variation of their behavior as a result of their genes. The research paper will focus on analyzing the differences between genes and the environment, by looking at how their interactions affect each other differently. Behavioral differences will be used to distinguish them.
Literature Review
According to Anreiter and Sokolowski, instinctive behavior was the focus of phycology of leading phycologists of this period, Conwy Lloyd Morgan, James mark Baldwin and William James, were in support of this theory. In North America, a strong idea against this narrative was developed in 1920, hence downplaying the initial ideas. They believe that John Broadus had accepted more than enough of this model by accepting that; genes caused minor relations between responses and stimuli. They were of the view that scientist should not be satisfied that the behavior of a person is instinctive or inherited. Eventually, it led to the acritical question of how instincts were acquired? The founder of ethology rejuvenated the study of instinct in the second world war. He was of the view that; the behavior of an organism was to be treated as an evolution. Just like the digestive system and its skeleton. Deprivation experiment used by ethologists to test if an animal can be raised without learning a particular behavior. A test would later be done to find out if, with relevant stimuli, if it can perform the behavior. Distinctions of genes and environments were not solemnly identified using this experiment. Several North American phycologists such as Daniel Lehrman criticized the idea of classical ethology in a critique of Konrad Lorenzo's theory of instinctive behavior. The study documented the role of the environment in the development of the behavior of an organism.
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Lorenzo's attempt to distinguish between learned and instinctive behavior was untenable based on the existing knowledge of behavioral development (Lehrman, 1953). He was very critical of the usage of deprivation experiments to show that a particular trait was in an organism gene.
Grabe and Van der Auwera, in Gene-environment interaction in psychiatry established that suggestions put forward by Lehrman were used in the modern etiological theories. Tinbergen and his student later shifted research to behavior as an adaptation rather than a taxonomic character, which is molded by environmental factors. Tinbergen students later shifted the focus like Dawkins Richard to the testing of game-theoretic and population genetics models of behavioral evolution. Lorenzo later argued that a trait is genetic if its guidance is from inherited information and not environmental information. The research on the distinction between genes and the environment. Language acquisition device has helped understand whether phycological traits are transmitted through genes, the environment, or an interplay of the two. Genetic traits are to help in understanding the pattern of development in the development of an organism . From the previous research, it can be seen that no vast research has been conducted in distinguishing genes and the environment in psychology. The research will fill this gap by discussing the key distinctive features of genes and the environment in psychology.
According to Picardi and Antonella in their article genes and environment attachment they identified that both the environment and genes have a contribution to the individual differences of person. In their research they found out shared environment decreases over time while in childhood while in adulthood genetic factors have more influence. There was much influence between genes and the environment on each other’s finding from these studies were rather inconclusive as it did not outline the extent of both the genetic and environment factors on individual differences.
Discussion
In most part, in the history of research, it has been seen that the focus was more on genetics. There was no clear guideline about the environmental influences despite it not being manipulated. It is crucial to understand how the two in their capacity affect the behavioral traits in a person. Based on previous studies, it was established that there is an interplay between genes and the environment that result in behavioral variation. It is commonly believed that a trait is developed by genes base on the common phrase "it is in the genes. " Yes, they do play an essential role in acquiring traits, but also the environment does so. Research has shown that the special mental abilities of an individual are, to a significant extent, influenced by their genes. The study further showed that heritability of this factor increases from childhood onwards and only decreases at old age ( Anreiter, Sokolowski, and Sokolowski, 2017). The distinction between the two is rather complicated, based on their constant interaction with each other. Through their relationship, key differences can be drawn. There are two types of interaction that help in distinguishing between gene and environment based on their impact.
The first one is the fan-shaped interaction. The genotype has a more significant influence in a certain environment than the other. This kind of interaction can be shown by a stress-diathesis framework where the influence of genes is more apparent (Papst & Binder, 2020). The outcome is strongly related to genes despite the adverse environmental condition. The life and depression scenario will be a perfect example to exhibit a fan-shaped interaction hypothesis when stress is faced by a person those prone to depression or genetically vulnerable. In the absence of stress, they will not face depression. It is only in an adverse environment that the genes come to play, causing stress.
Twin analyses have shown that genetic influence is less or more crucial based on the environment. Heritability change suggests that a good number of involved genes are operating in a way to detect heritability in the environment. The Stress-diathesis model has been essential in psychiatry. Genetics has focused on the establishment of vulnerable genes, and various environments have been used. Using this parameter, genes can be distinguished from the environment by establishing which of them can interact and those that are incompatible. It provided room for the elimination of genes that are incompatible with the environment. Through this interaction, a gene can be categorized based on the environment where they succeed more or where they do not. The gene is dependent on the environment in which they thrive more.
Another way to distinguishes the two is by differential susceptibility hypothesis proposed by Belsky and colleagues. Here individuals affected adversely by a particular negative environment can also be the same people benefiting more from favorable environmental conditions. This framework focuses on plasticity genes responsible for being responsive to changes in the environment. The hypothesis of this model has a close relation to biological sensitivity. The adaptability of genotypes to a particular phenotype to support response to different environmental conditions was proposed. It has been explained through reactivity of stress to show differences resulting from genes and the environment. A highly reactive child will show unbalance morbidity when brought up in an adverse environment, and they will be less reactive when brought up in a calm environment. It shows that genes are constant and cannot be varied. Variation of the environment is possible to allow more natural adaptation of the genes.
In other words, genes are fixed while the environment is flexible. Therefore, the gene must adapt to the environment and not the other way around. Another point of discussion is whether the relation between the two that helps in distinction should be looked into when genes are affected. It is one of the ways fronted by many statistical geneticists. Genetics are affected by the environment, meaning that particular effects may be shown in one environment and absent in another. While for the case of the environment, even if the gene is changed.it has minimal to zero influence on the environment. It is worth knowing that there has been too much skepticism on the distinction between genes and the environment. The two are seen as indistinguishable. As in many instances, one affects the other, and through this leads to adaption to suit in with the other. In the long run, Lehrman's idea was confirmed by Peter Marlers that it was not proper to classify traits from genetics or the environment as it was not productive. A clear distinction between the two is vital for phycologist to relate well with genetics. Through such a relationship, a greater understanding of the clear distinction between the two will be beneficial in the field of science. Lack of previous distinctive research on this area made it challenging to come up with conclusive evidence on the critical difference between the two.
Conclusion
Recent discussions on the distinction of genes and the environment have been fueled by the desire to make sense of what affects the traits of an individual. From the research, it can be seen that despite the differences between the two, they still interact, and through this, we can see a slight difference. Genetics is dependent on the environment, while the latter is independent. It is worth knowing that se critics argue that genetics and the environment are indistinguishable from each other. There is a need for extensive collaboration between psychology and neuroscience to identify critical differences that will strengthen the understanding of these two fields. This research will provide an insight on from interaction between genes and environment crucial differences can the identified.
References
Anreiter I, Sokolowski M H and Sokolowski B M. (2017). Gene and environment interplay and individual differences in behavior . Mind brain and education.
Grabe, H. J., & Van der Auwera, S. (2020). Gene-environment interaction in psychiatry. In Personalized Psychiatry (pp. 363-373). Academic Press.
Papst, L., & Binder, E. B. (2020). How genes and environment interact to shape risk and resilience to stress-related psychiatric disorders . In Stress Resilience (pp. 197-207). Academic Press. Retrieved 26 April 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128139837000148
Picardi, A., Giuliani, E., & Gigantesco, A. (2020). Genes and environment in attachment. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. Retrieved 26 April 2020 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763419308942
