Same Genes? Different People

Sibling are are so alike but are also very different

(blog.zisboombah.com)

 
Same genes, different personalities?  In the a study by Robert Plomin, he researched why siblings are so different even though they have the same genes, raised in the same environment and intelligence. He discovered that “children in the same family are more similar than children taken at random from the population but not by much”.  He found three theories of why this happened; divergence, exaggeration and environment.

Frank Sulloway is a made the theory of divergence.  Sulloway believed “The role of divergence is basically to minimize competition so it's not direct. And that leads to specialization in different niches”.  For example if a child in a family seems to excel at academics, to avoid direct competition, the other child — consciously or unconsciously — will specialize in a different area, like socializing.

The second theory is called the environment theory, and it essentially argues that though from the outside it appears that we are “growing up in the same family as our siblings, in very important ways we really aren't. We are not experiencing the same thing”.  Siblings are for the most part different ages so when things occur that affect their family it may affect them because they are different people and ages.

The third theory is the exaggeration theory, also known as the “comparison theory, which holds that families are essentially comparison machines that greatly exaggerate even minor differences between siblings”. For example, if there is two kids in a family and are for the most part friendly, only one kid can be the extrovert and the other one is labeled as the introvert.  The child will think he or she is an introvert and build off of that.  

I think this is very interesting.  In my family, I am very close with my siblings.  We are all very similar in what we like to do but at the same time are different.  We also have traits that are in all of us but at the same time are the opposite.  

Does parenting have to with different personalities?

Does birth order matter?