Differences: what distinguishes you from 7 million people?
What makes us unique among the 7 million people that inhabit the planet? Our physical features, our intellectual quotient, our emotional intelligence and our personality form a unique cocktail that defines and distinguishes us.
It is estimated that the genes are responsible for up to 60 percent of the personality. However, there is a strong environmental component that defines what hereditary traits are expressed and which are not. The personality is, therefore, a cocktail between biology, the environment and the interaction between them.
While genetics and experiences play a role in the development of personality disorders, a strong relationship with a figure of affection in life can prevent the development of personality disorders.
The genetic structure, the education it receives and the social reality in which an individual develops determine their thoughts, their feelings and their typical behaviors. However, there is a portion of freedom that allows you to modify your own life. And is that the term personality refers to the integrated and organized set of characteristics of an individual that make up their peculiar adjustment to the environment. It is the exclusive psychological seal of each one that persists over time and that distinguishes one individual from another.
The probability that you exist as you are
Genetically, the probability that you physically exist as you are is 1 in 400 trillion. In fact, the probability that an egg of a woman (X) is fertilized by a specific sperm of a man (Y) is of 1 in 1.015. Only the probability that your father and mother knew each other and they will beget you is 1 in 40 million.
These numbers only represent your body, you still have to add many other factors that make you be you: your experiences, your memories, your emotional processing, your temperament, attitudes and habits; making impossible and unquantifiable the probability that there is someone exactly like you. While you are physically different from the 7.3 trillion people who currently live on Earth (exclusive twins), who you are and how you are makes you unique among the 108 billion people who are estimated to have lived on this planet. It is understood that genes dictate almost all of our physical appearance, but what dictates our personality?
Our personality is unique
The personality is composed of various elements, some fixed and some transitory. This cocktail of feelings and thoughts linked to behavior leads to a congruent behavior over time, regardless of the situation. This characteristic is defined as persistence. You only need to see a baby to realize that, despite being so small, he already has a specific temperament and lets see, with his behavior, his personality. With only a few months of life it is easy to see if a child has a strong character, if he is calm, smiling or restless. This aspect of the personality is defined as distinction. Both persistence and distinction are the reason why we usually behave in a timely manner in different situations and similarly throughout our lives.
Although social circumstances play a large role in our personality, these factors can be divided into two. One would be the shared environment, which is everything that is printed in us as a result of a coexistence with others, being part of our families in a specific culture and traditions. This component is shared between siblings and has an affinity and a strong family bond. On the other hand, it is the environment not shared. As expected, it is composed of all the individual experiences that we live with their respective how, where and when.
The cocktail between biology and environment makes you unique
It is also estimated that genes are responsible for up to 60 percent of the personality. However, there is a strong environmental component that defines what hereditary traits are expressed and which are not. The personality is, therefore, a cocktail between biology, the environment and the interaction between them.
This interaction of environment and genetics leads to:
a) Our physique and appearance helps us to define our personality.
For example, there are studies that indicate that our bone structure influences our personality. It has been found that people with wider faces and strong cheekbones usually have higher testosterone levels and more aggressive personalities.
b) Our intellect affects our personality.
While intelligence in turn is defined by an interaction between genetics and environment, it plays, at the same time, an indisputable role in our personality. What we think, what we say and how we say it is part of who we are. Our intellectual capacity helps us to build our self-esteem, our self-confidence and how others perceive us.How others interpret our intellect largely makes up how we show ourselves.
Although we can have unlimited potential, if we are perceived in a way we usually please that vision. It has also been shown that people with personalities open to new experiences tend to score significantly more in intelligence tests.
c) The degree of social integration influences the personality.
Adjust to the rules, act according to the situation and circumstance in which we are define how we are. How we adapt to the social environment itself is usually quite normative, however, plays a large role as to whether our expression of personality in our behavior is adapted or not. Here is one of the characteristic features of personality pathologies. Different genetic traits have been discovered that are behind personality pathologies that dictate that a person be considerably nonconformist, aggressive, fearful, anxious or dramatic. Having a tendency to these traits has a great influence at the time of suffering a maladjusted personality.
d) Emotions have a leading role in our personality. Our tastes, temperament, and emotional control (or lack of it) help to forge our personality. There is a genetic predisposition to certain emotional states that are fed back by the environment and personal experiences. Within the qualification of emotions comes the temperament factor. Although the temperament is genetic, it is the basic structure that dominates our mood and motivational tendency. The temperament is related to the endocrine influence.
Dr. Maite J. Balda. Psychologist and Master in Cognitive Neurosciences
