Sandra Scarr’s Heredity-Environment Interactions

Student Name

Institutional Affiliation

Sandra Wood Scarr is an American psychologist born in 1936 in Maryland, America. According to LiquiSearch (2016) she was the daughter of a US Army physician, John Ruxton Wood and a school teacher called Jane Powell Wood. She dedicated herself to examining genetic influences on development and the importance of quality child care. Scarr’s findings, that sociability and activity level were genetically linked, challenged the mainstream belief at the time that environmental influences predominantly affected development.

1. Passive: What kind of environmental experiences did your parents provide for you because of who you were?

My father was a social man.  He loved being outdoors and got involved in lots of social activities. As a food safety inspector, he interacted with many people. He would take me to parks and got me involved in outside games such as basketball. My father was completely given to outdoor activities where he would spend most of his time hunting, canyoning and hill walking. He modeled the same behavior in me as I grew up. I loved playing basketball more and joined the school team. Sports made me mingle with many people and nurtured me into a sociable man too. I love being around friends and I also frequently visit social places.  

2.  Evocative: What environmental experiences did you have due to your genetic make-up?

  I am a talkative person and loves being around people. Associating with many different people has helped me to understand myself. I have attained an emotional stability by forming a network of similarly helpful people with whom I have made deep connections through the many outdoor activities that I got involved in school, church and camps. Activities such as backpacking, canoeing, and watersports have greatly helped me know the characters of other people around me. My being an extrovert was encouraged at home, school, and in church too. My mother would allow me to hold house parties and invite my friends for sleepovers. Being around others that would also enjoy outdoor activities further enhanced this extroverted trait in me. 

3.    Active: What environmental experiences did you seek out due to aspects of your genetic make-up?

In my late teens and early adulthood, I began choosing the environments that I felt most compatible with for socializing. I chose the extracurricular activities that I loved most in high school and college. My closest friends became those that we chose the same activities with since we would hang out together most of the times. Due to the much time I spent with my father, I ended up loving what he did. His influence in my life led me to choose a health care profession. The groups of people that I associated with were friendly and outgoing too. This active genotype for socializing has developed through the years owing to the environment where I was brought up and live.

References

LiquiSearch.,. (2016). Sandra Scarr – Biography. Liquisearch.com. Retrieved 20 November 2016, from http://www.liquisearch.com/sandra_scarr/biography

Scarr, S. & McCartney, K. (2016). How People Make Their Own Environments: A Theory of Genotype → Environment Effects (6th ed., pp. pp. 424-435). Wiley on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development.