The Influence of Genetics and Experience on Our Life Essay Example

The problem of whether our genetics influences our life more than any experience can do is surely one of the most debated questions in the field of human psychology and sociology: to date, the modern society we live in is providing us with some clear examples of how complex this matter is.

An important aspect to highlight is that various situations and experiences can force the human being into adopting different behaviors to fully adapt to its surroundings. These behaviors will not always reflect one's genetic characteristics. 

As support to this statement, many studies have been conducted in order to evaluate the way in which two people with the same genetic set responded when facing different scenarios. The research was done on twins who were separated since the moment of their birth and who happened to grow up in completely different realities. 

The results were significantly impressive, even though both of them were born with the same genies, the twins developed completely different personalities throughout their lives. This happened according to the experiences they had and the environment in which they found themselves into. In particular, the one that grew up in a more developed country were generally found to be more open-minded and experienced, this based on the fact that they could discover their interests and attitudes by themself, whereas the one that lived in the poorest country was found to be more introvert and less experienced, feeling insecure about their emotions, and having a blurred view on their future.

However, an important counterargument to this theory has been demonstrated by some research that focused on evaluating the behavior of different people in the same situation and environment.

What had been found is that, each person, acts differently based on their genies. For instance, genetically sociable people would tend to respond differently from people born with genes associated with shyness.

On the whole, I personally find the first research more valid and therefore believe that experiences shape our personality more than what any genetic set can do. In fact, I believe that some extraordinarily strong and shocking experiences can deeply change one's behavior over many things, even if this behavior goes against what one's genetics is programmed to do.