Like father, like son? The complex factors that shape a parent ’s influence on their child

Scientific studies cannot agree on the relative importance of genes and environment on how we turn out as adultsThe eternal mystery of how much we are shaped by our parents – or how much we shape our children – was stirred again last week with the publication of a study that suggests that we are less like our parents than we had previously thought.Led by Ren é Mõttus of Edinburgh University’s department of psychology, the study looked at more than 1,000 pairs of relatives to establish how likely children are to inherit what psychologists call the “big five” or “Ocean” personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeablene ss and neuroticism.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Parents and parenting Genetics Family Life and style Science University of Edinburgh King's College London Psychology Source Type: news