The human spirit is complex. Different individuals have different traits that could make interactions with others complex. In their book, Twenge and Campbell encourage their readers to understand who they are before attempting to engage others. Understanding one’s personality places them in a position from where they can establish genuine and solid relationships. Twenge and Campbell further urge individuals to leverage their personalities to establish friendships, pursue happiness and promote their health (Twenge & Campbell, 2017). These authors are not alone in their exploration of human personality. Adelstein and his colleagues have also examined human personality. They have established that there is an interesting relationship between an individual’s personality and the structure of their brain. This finding sheds further light on the nature vs. nurture debate on the forces that shape human personality.
As noted above, Adelstein and his team investigated the link between personality traits and the structure of the brain. The main purpose of the study was to establish if there is a link between how individuals behave and how their brains are structured. They found that there is indeed a link. They note that “personality traits were mostly associated with functional connections that were inconsistently present across the participants” (Adelstein et al., 2011). Adelstein and his team conclude that “distinct personality domains are encoded by dissociable patterns of functional connectivity among specific brain regions.” This conclusion somewhat ends the debate regarding the dominant force between nature and nurture that dictates one’s personality traits. It makes it clear that personality is the subject of genetics. This is because the structure of the brain is not the result of the environment. Genetics is the main force that shapes the structure of an individual’s brain. Therefore, it can be concluded that it is genetics and not the environment that defines personality.
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One of the key observations that Adelstein and his colleagues made is that the prefrontal cortex and the lateral paralimbic regions are some of the brain structures that have an association with personality (Adelstein et al., 2011). These regions have also been linked to reward and emotion. This finding is indeed interesting and not very surprising. It has been observed that highly neurotic individuals tend to respond strongly to emotional stimuli (Kehoe et al., 2011. It has also been established that there is a link between neuroticism and reward processing. In their study, Elizabeth Kehoe and her team found that “high levels of neuroticism are associated with attenuated reward processing (Kehoe et al., 2011). They also established that there is an inverse relationship between extraversion and “arousal processing in the right cerebellum” (Kehoe et al., 2011). The relationship between these two is positive in the right insula. Essentially, Kehoe and her team determined that extraversion and neuroticism are linked to the brain structures that are responsible for reward processing and emotional regulation. This finding is in line with the conclusion that Adelstein and his team make in their article. This is why it is not surprising that Adelstein and his colleagues established the link between extraversion and neuroticism, and reward and emotion.
Twin studies are among the methods that researchers use to investigate the role of genetics in defining various aspects of human experiences. These studies can be used to establish how brain structures are linked to personality traits. In their study, Adelstein and his colleagues monitored the performance of the brains of the participants (Adelstein et al., 2017). This same technique could be applied in a twin study. A researcher would recruit twins and examine the behavior of their brains when exposed to certain stimuli. The researcher would then compare the performance of the brains of the twins. If it is observed that the performance is similar, the researcher has reason to believe that genetics is responsible for personality traits. Twin studies are indeed important. The main use of twin studies is that they allow researchers to understand issues that are the result of genetics and those that the environment is responsible for (Winerman, 2004). While twin studies are generally useful, they also possess some limitations. That scholars often have to make many assumptions and the fact that it has been difficult to pinpoint the particular genes that are responsible for certain traits are among these limitations (Winerman, 2004). Despite the limitations, twin studies remain an indispensable tool for research.
References
Adelstein, J. S., Shehzad, Z., Mennes, M., DeYoung, C. G., Zuo, X.-N., Kelly, C., … Milham,
M. P. (2011). Personality Is Reflected in the Brain’s Intrinsic Functional Architecture. PLoS ONE, 6(11). https://doi.org/10.1371
Kehoe, E. G., Toomey, J. M., Balsters, J. H. & Bokde, A. L. W. (2011). Personality
Modulates the Effects of Emotional Arousal and Valence on Brain Activation. Social
Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7 (7), 858-870.
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, K. (2017). Personality Psychology: Understand Yourself and
Others (1st Edition). London: Pearson Education.
Winerman, L. (2004). A Second Look at Twin Studies. Monitor, 35 (4), 46.
