Living With Our Genes Summary

Throughout the engaging and thought-provoking scientific research publication of Living with Our Genes by Dean Hammer and Peter Copeland, the main concept explored is concerned with the idea of the environment or genetic make-up being the deciding factors in each and every individual’s personality. A concept such as genetic makeup, seems to be the definitive and decisive factor in the eight specified sub-topics explored throughout book, which are thrills, worry, anger, addiction, sex, thinking, hunger, and aging. The subtopic, labeled as thrills, uncovers the act of novelty seeking. Novelty seeking entails novel stimuli, which can be physical, mental, and social stimuli. The primary idea presented deals with the fact that people with the need …show more content…
The first and most obvious set of information introduced is the effect that one’s genetic makeup and environment can have on personality. However, it was shown that the predominant determinant of personality is the genes carried by individuals. Nevertheless, just as presented by the textbook, the topic remains a controversy in the book as well. Another topic introduced by the book and by the assigned textbook involves the implementation of twin studies in genetics. It is made clear in both outlets of information that these examinations are the best way to test genetics, since identical twins share a hundred percent of their genetic characteristics, while fraternal twins only share a fifty percent of their genetic characteristics. Anther topic, which appeared to be in both texts, was the implementation of statistics in psychology. This is seen throughout the early stages of the book, since it is clearly explained that a correlation of a 1.0 is a perfect match, and a score of a 0.0 is an indication of a non-existent relationship. Despite mentioning this aspect of correlations in psychological research, the book does not discuss the existence positive and negative correlations in similar research. The book also addresses the roles of several physiological chemicals, such as serotonin and dopamine, and their role in affecting human behavior. Like …show more content…
However, the main strength displayed was the fact that the book clearly displayed all of the aspects of psychology that have been covered thus far this year. It went over biology’s role in psychology by discussing genetics. It discussed psychology’s evolutionary aspect by mentioning its existence in pleasurable and thrill-seeking experiences, like sex. The book also mentions the social aspect of psychology by discussing its importance regarding topics like anger. On the other hand, the book seemed to display one clearly distinct flaw, which involved the lack of counterarguments in favor of the environment’s effect on human behavior and the book’s emphasis of genetics being the main decisive factor in human