There are two main factors which affect
personal development and they are environment and genetics or heredity. Over
the years researchers have tried to prove whether it is our genes or our
environment. The only answer that has been gotten so far is that both of them
contribute greatly in shaping us. This is when we tend to weigh nature with
nurture. In the real sense, it is a fact that there are forty-eight
chromosomes, male has got twenty four chromosomes whereas the female are made
up of twenty four also. When these chromosomes combine they make up a human
being and that is why you will find that some of us will have our fathers’ nose
or our maters nose.
These chromosomes however are the ones
which carry our mothers and our fathers’ genetics and therefore passed onto us.
But there are also those genetic traits which are not passed on to the children
directly but go to the grandchildren or the next generation. This is what we
call genetic gap. This is the reason why we tend to look more like our
grandparents but not our parents. This is what we call hereditary factor. The
other key factor that is very important and contributes greatly on
self-improvement and personality development is capability and capacity.
There is a difference between aptitude
and ability. Aptitude is basically a series of qualities that are important in
discovering a task. Ability on the other hand is implementing whatever you have
discovered or learned. Aptitude is passed on but not your skills in something
like for example swimming. Moreover, it can be inherited to learn the skill.
The ability however cannot be inherited but rather practiced.
When it comes to environment factor, we
have an example of the behavior of a child. A child will tend to learn from
whatever is around him or her, be it the things around or the people around
him. Other social activities that he has to learn are the likes of eating,
walking and talking just like the other people. However, the people he will be
spending time with are the ones who will determine his personality in due time
whether positively or negatively.
At our tender age, our parents and any
other close relative are the ones who will make us who we will be by the time
we reach five years. When we reach that age of going to school then our
personality development will come about from our classmates and the people we
spend most our time with, The group that we hang around.
