Genetic effects
The honor of discovering the effects of genetics being the determinant factor in the characteristics of an organism was awarded posthumously to the monk Gregor Mendel. Legend had it that he cross bred tall and short peas with white or yellow flowers to figure out the proportion of these traits appearing in the next generation. To make life easier, his well intentioned gardener had actually planted the anticipated ratio of plant types unbeknownst to his master; but Mendel's guesses were correct anyway.
The eugenics movement of the last century was greatly worried that human 'quality' would decline because, on average, duller people tend to have more children. Many very bright persons nowadays have few children or none at all, forsaking reproduction for a career. Lee Kuan Yew, when prime minister of Singapore, was concerned about average intelligence level dropping in his nation. Apparently female university graduates there were having trouble finding husbands because many Chinese men prefer non-intellectual wives. All that breeding potential was going to waste. Lee's solution was to arrange free holidays, dances, and moonlight cruises for male and female graduates to promote romance, marriage, and lots of bright children.
Despite the possibility that genetic endowment may convey advantages or disadvantages to the psychological and physical capabilities of individuals, inherited influences on people's achievements are not direct, not irreversible or immutable, not inevitable and not inescapable. There is solid evidence that most young children, if given enough opportunities and sufficient encouragement, are able to learn far more and capable of reaching EXTREMELY high levels of competence in any of a large variety of areas of achievement (such as for concert pianists).
Genes do not function as blueprints, and, genetic influence does not imply hard-wired circuits that determine a specific response. Genetic influence is embedded in the complexity of interactions among genes, physiology, and environment. It is probabilistic, not deterministic; it puts no constraints on what could be. Contrary to common belief, with a few exceptions (such as blood group, for instance) human traits are NEVER fixed by a person's genes. Even body shape and rate of metabolism are partly determined by the environment. The apparently reasonable view that although the environment has important effects, genes do place firm limits on capacities, is also INCORRECT. There are many situations in which a particular inherited characteristic may lead to a person doing better than someone else in certain environmental circumstances, but worse than that person in other circumstances. It is also important to realize that inborn differences between individuals, even when their environments seem to be identical, are not necessarily genetic in origin. These differences are caused by random phenomena known as `developmental noise'. Our genetic blueprints simply do not specify that some of us must have, say, an even number of hair follicles. Human characteristics too may well contain inborn individual differences that have nothing at all to do with genetics. In humans, moreover, difference in individuals' prenatal environments affect postnatal development. Genetic difference are not always inherited either as genetic mutations do occur readily.
There is absolutely no doubt that physiological differences are important factors affecting skills and talent, but the evidence that these differences are stable genetic characteristics is remarkably weak. Some of the earlier research studies appeared to provide conclusive proof of this, but recent investigations have FAILED to replicate the previous findings, and indicate that, for example, the extent to which sports performance (and the various factors that underlie it, including proportions of muscle fibre types, aerobic capacity and maximum aerobic power) is determined by genetic factors is much smaller than was once believed. Such a challenge may have wide implications, because it raises the possibility that any of a variety of other apparently innate differences between people may in fact be caused by alternative factors, such as ones deriving from the differing experiences of individuals' lives. It is possible that many additional physiological processes (and hence the qualitative and quantitative aspects of talents and abilities) are modifiable by practice, including ones that directly affect the functioning of the brain.
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