Biological Basis for Personality Analytical Essay by Top Papers

The paper posits that the argument that personality traits have a biological and genetic basis is much older than one might assume. The paper notes that though there isn't much love for the notion that biology plays a determining role in human personality development, the idea can be traced back at least as far as Darwin's era when 19th century naturalists began to propose a genetic basis for intelligence. The paper explains that such an argument is generally held in unfavorable light, and this is primarily the result of the misguided assumption that biology is synonymous with fixity. In other words, many psychologists, scientists, and laymen are disturbed by the possibility that human personality is a function of genes--which are largely immutable--rather than the environment--which can be more easily controlled.