Stranger in the Nest: Do Parents Really Shape Their Child’s Personality, Intelligence, or Character?
Pool depth is analogous to environmental stress so the greater the overall depth—the more stressful the environment—the higher the overall rate of drowning. A swimmer’s height is analogous to (genetic) vulnerability: the shorter the swimmers—the less able they are to stand at greater depths…the greater their risk of drowning. Because height is highly heritable with differences mostly genetic the potential for drowning must likewise be heritable. This is true even if at any given time no one drowns. If there were little water in the pool, differences in height would account for nothing. It is only when water levels are high that individual differences, in this case genetic differences, can be significant.Just as swimmers’ height is analogous to (genetic) vulnerability, pool depth is analogous to stress from parents and siblings (family life), peers and politics (community life).
The truth of the matter is that, if sufficiently strong, inborn potentials can trump parental influence, no matter how positive or negative. Some traits manifest themselves in such unexpected and uncontrollable ways that, for better or for worse, one’s child may indeed seem like a perfect stranger.
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