Genetic determinism is a flawed theory

There are a few things on my mind of late...  and if I look at them they can all fall under the Nature vs Nurture debate (one of the oldest arguments in the history of psychology!).  Is our development predisposed in our DNA or is the majority of it influenced by this life experience?

I’m sure, as with most things, it is never black and white, but a combination of the two.  There are a number of things that have struck with me:

A recent study includes brain scans that show the real impact a mother’s love (or neglect) has on a child in its first two years of life. Basically in this time frame a healthy child would be strengthening the neuronal pathways that help him/her to learn how to get their needs met, both physically and emotionally. But if a child is not treated properly in the first two years of life, it can have a fundamental impact on development – science has shown that the genes for several aspects of brain function, including intelligence, cannot function.  When you start to see the science, this sheds so much light on why cycles get repeated - parents who, because their parents neglected them, do not have fully developed brains, neglect their own children in a similar way.  It is all they know and this is incredibly sad.

Scientists have also found that memories may be passed down through generations in our DNA – so any learned information about stressful/traumatic events (think of the world wars for instance) – showing how the experiences of a parent (before even thinking about conceiving children!) has a huge impact.  Again, this makes me see how difficult it can be to get out of stuck patterns, without evening understanding or seeing that they have come down the family line for generations.

We’ve all got stuck patterns and will all have some great blind spots that need to be unearthed!  If you resonate very strongly with the two studies mentioned above the good news is  you are not at the mercy of your genetic code.  It is possible to change your DNA.  And for those sceptics out there, according to the science of epigenetics (the study of how environmental factors outside of DNA influence changes in gene expression), stem cells and even DNA can be altered through magnetic fields, heart coherence, positive mental states and intention. Top scientists around the world agree: genetic determinism is a flawed theory.