Genetic Environmental Factors

As research continues, scientists are realizing that the development of several mental disorders are influenced by an interaction between biological and environmental stresses. Major depression and GAD are said to be closely related genetically. They both correlate with the personality traits of neuroticism (N). Kendler et al (2007) performed a study where it was found that the genetic correlation between major depression and generalized anxiety disorder in Swedish twins was estimated at +1.00 in females and +0.74 in males. Participants also shared environmental factors with a correlation of +0.59 in males and +0.36 in females. However, genetic risk factors contributed only around 25% to the genetic correlation between major depression and generalized anxiety disorder. The study showed that the majority of genetic covariance between these disorders results from factors not shared with …show more content…
The presence of genes that influence an anxiety disorder has shown to support the importance of nurture on its development because there is research that shows participants with those genes who do not have anxiety disorders and participants with anxiety disorders who don’t show the presence of those genes. Twin studies are key evidence for this conclusion since they allow the researcher to understand nature vs nurture. Researchers can study twins who were separated at birth and grew up in different environments and compare them to twins who grew up together, to identify the genetic and environmental factors on their personalities and behavior. An example of this type of investigation, previously mentioned, was performed by Kendler et al, who found that the liability of generalized anxiety disorder is influenced by genes, but whether a person develops the disease depends on the environmental