Unit 2:
Listening A
Listening is personality determined at birth. Exercise B, main ideas and exercise
D, details, page 27
Good afternoon, everybody. Today, I want to continue our discussion of DNA
and how it affects us all. Let's start with a quick review of last week's lecture. As
I hope you remember, DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is the material that carries
genetic information in living things. It is divided into units called genes. You
have about 20,000 to 25,000 of them, by the way, half from your father and half
from your mother. And these genes determine your hair color, eye color, height
and other physical features. Genes are passed from one generation to the next.
So if everyone in your family is tall, there's a good chance that you're tall too. If
your mum and dad both wear glasses, you probably do too. We can say that it's
in our genes. But what I really want to talk about in this lecture is personality.
Everyone has different personalities. Adriana might be shy. She hates speaking
in front of a group, Divya is a risk taker, while Jose is more cautious, Trang is
caring and wants to help others. But where do these personality traits come
from? Do they come from your DNA, like your shoe size or hair color, or are
you more influenced by the environment you grew up in? Researchers have
spent decades investigating this question, and I'll tell you right now, there is no
easy answer to this. We can start by looking at three key questions. First, do
children who share DNA have the same personalities? A lot of interesting
research has been done with identical twins, twins who share the same DNA,
would you expect identical twins to have the same personality features? Well,
this is a question that has interested scientists for a long time. A 20 year research
project from 1979 to 1999 showed that identical twins who grew up in different
homes have about 50% of the same personality features and 50% different this
really gives us no definite answer. So while there may be a link between
genetics and personality, it isn't a very clear one. The second question we can
ask is, Does personality change as we get older. If we believe that personality is
the result of DNA, we assume that it is determined at birth and doesn't change.
On the other hand, if we recognize the importance of environment, we can
assume that our personality is the result of our experiences. Scientists used to
assume that personality did not change. If you're shy as a child, you stay shy as
an adult, scientists now generally accept that personality can change. Let's take
the example of a child who grows up in a family where there is no praise, only
criticism. She never hears well done. She only hears you must do better next
time that child grows up thinking she is not good enough and will never succeed
in anything. As a teenager, she is uncomfortable speaking in front of others, in
case she says something stupid. As she grows up, goes to college and does well
in her courses, she becomes more confident and much more comfortable with
group situations. Her personality has changed. You might wonder whether this
is really a change in personality, or whether she has just learned to adapt to new
situations. Scientists don't always agree, and we don't know for sure if it was a
personality change or an adaptation. Okay, now let's ask our third question, if
personality is largely environmental, How do children from loving families
become criminals? Do they have some hidden gene that makes them do bad
things? Most people argue that if a person ends up as a criminal, it's most likely
because they've met the wrong people, or because their circumstances are so
terrible that they end up doing something illegal. So in addition to family life,
circumstances are important in personality.
Do our genetics limit what we can do? Some people might say yes. They argue
that since some aspects of personality are genetic, you might not have the
genetic material to become a lawyer or a professional athlete, for example, but
this belief could lead to a dangerous situation if schools use DNA tests to
evaluate students. We need to be very cautious when we're talking about DNA
and personality. Fortunately, schools do not give DNA tests to kids and then tell
them to become lawyers or car mechanics or whatever. I think we can end by
saying that everyone has a unique combination of personality features. It's
probably accurate to say that our personality is somewhat influenced by our
DNA, but it also has a lot to do with other factors. We know that people change
as they get older. Some of you have seen that in your own personalities. We also
know that people are influenced by their environment, the circumstances they're
exposed to their parents, the neighborhood they grow up in, their education, the
friends they make. And perhaps the biggest lesson here is that our personalities
are not limited by our genes. In.