Essay on the Role of Environment in Individual Differences

Role of Environment:

According to the studies most of us, except identical twins, get fifty percent of our genes from our parent. We are likely to develop hereditary characteristics quite different from that parent. Foster homes provide different environment to study its effect on Identical twins under controlled conditions.

By doing careful analysis of the results it can be easily found out how much difference the environment makes in shaping personality. Newman, Freeman and Hal zinger (1937) found that the pairs reared apart, show mere differences in I.Q. But Woodworth (1941) pointed out a factor called error of measurement that is always involved in intelligence testing.

Woodworth concluded that environmental differences do operate to produce I.Q. differences in persons with exactly the same hereditary potentialities.

Wood Worth’s Opinion:

The special component of environment influences intellectual development of an individual. Woodworth showed that educational influences can produce I.Q. differences in persons having the same heredity but it is the large rather than the minor environmental discrepancies that are important.

Newman, Freeman and Hollinger (1937) tried to identify the factors present in the environment which produce personality differences in separated identical twins. Two main conclusions drawn from the studies of identical twins are as follow:

(1) Marked educational differences are able to produce substantial differences in measured intelligence.

(2) Intellectual differences in the population as a whole are so large that they cannot be accounted for in terms of environmental differences alone.

A teacher should know about the impact of a good educational system on the individual. It means it is quite possible that the intelligence level of the population as a whole can be moderately increased. But it cannot be accepted that individuals with low intelligence can be brought to the level of the bright ones through a good system of education.

Children in Foster Homes and Institutions a number of research studies have been carried on children adopted by others and brought up in good homes. However, the shortcoming is that the studies are not carried out in two situations i.e. before and after adoption and in this situation it becomes difficult to pinpoint the effect of environment on the development of the child.

Again, while selecting a foster home for a child, the concerned agencies try to locate homes where the child with his intellectual abilities and personality could be adjusted. This factor is called selective placement.

In one of the earlier studies, attempts were made to find out how successful adopted children were in their life. 77 percent of the subjects were found to be capable, only 10 percent were delinquents or vicious. Burks (1928) found that a superior home can result in a moderate increase in a child’s tested intelligence, but cannot bring him to the level of individuals who have both superior heredity and superior environment.

Leahy’s (1935) study was also much closer to Burks study in terms of its findings. All these studies agreed in their findings and led us to believe that the average intelligence of adopted children was somewhat higher than that of children in homes of the educational level from which they come. Some Other Research Findings

The studies conducted at the University of Iowa showed that the environment exerts a large influence. In one of the studies it was found that the older the children were, when they entered the orphanage, the lower their I.Qs were. It compares the results on the increasing retardation with age of isolated groups.

Another study of the University of Iowa showed that children placed in the superior adoptive homes turned out higher on the average than those placed in the less superior environments.

Some of environment inputs that appear to affect an individual’s personality and intelligence are as under:

(1) Nutrition:

One of the environment factors is nutrition. Gross deficiency of diet can adversely affect I.Q. and even produce mental retardation.

(2) Kwashiorkor:

An illness resulting from a protein-deficient diet has been found to be extremely damaging the intellectual development.

(3) Khusaro pulse’s effect:

A specific variety of pulse (thesauri) available in certain area of Madhya Pradesh in India results in crippled individuals.

Recent Studies

Recent studies have led to some speculation that inadequate protein intake prevents full development of the brain especially those areas which are involved in memory storage.

Bloom (1964) has emphasised that an abundant early environment is the key to the full development of intelligence. David Kerch has shown that without stimulus heterogeneity animals are less able to learn and their brains develop fully.

Variables

The three crucial environment variables listed by Bloom (1964) are as under:

1. The stimulation that the children receive for verbal development.

2. The affection and reward that the children receive from verbal reasoning accomplishments, and

3. The encouragement which the children receive for active interaction with problems, exploration of the environment for learning of new skills. Murlidharan and Srivastava (1995) examined the impact of temple ecology on cognitive development of children. Children associated with temples emerged to be more cognitively competent than children from no temple areas.

DESH AND KAAL (PLACE AND TIME) Exert influence on the total personality of the individual. The place and its environment influences attitudes, interests and over all development of the individual. Same individual placed in different environments at various time is likely to exhibit different behavioural pattern.

Again, a child shows different behaviour in different subject periods or at different places viz. play ground, home and school.

So far as kajal or time is concerned, as age increases intellectual development increases less. Initially the speed is faster but it becomes slower and slower with age.

Bloom feels that the differences between a beneficial and a stuffing environment during these early childhood years can produce I.Q. differences of 20 points.