Correct Answer - Option 3 : interaction between heredity and environment
Today, there is ample evidence that the form a child's personality pattern will take, depends not solely on the training methods used or the kind of environment in which the person grows, but also on the hereditary potentials a person brings into the world with him.
Relative Importance of Heredity and Environment in personality development of child
- The relative importance of heredity and environment in the molding of personality pattern depends on at least three variables - the trait that is affected, the feature of the environment that is brought to bear on the developing trait, and the scope and intensity of environmental forces.
- Some traits are relatively stable. They vary little, regardless of environmental influences. Others are unstable and easily influenced by environmental conditions. Even the same trait may in some people, be primarily the result of hereditary conditions, while in others, it is the product,ct of environmental conditions.
- One person may be retiring and reclusive because of inborn qualities, while another may become so because of conflict with the environment.
- Thus, it is apparent that, in some traits, training outweighs the influence of heredity, while in others, the reverse is true. In general, however, the more directly a trait is bound to structural inheritance, the less it can be modified and changed by environmental influences.
- The kind and intensity of environmental influences likewise affect the degree to which different traits will change. Whether the environmental influences are physiological, intellectual, or emotional will determine how much they can change different traits.
- Structural characteristics are usually more stable than traits that are more functional in nature.
Hence, we can conclude that Personality is the interaction between heredity and environment.
