love

1. I have come to some confusion reconciling the Selfish Gene’s central ideas and Plomin’s description of genetics. The confusion though comes from trying to understand how the notion of self selective pressures at the individual gene level would be possible when so many traits of the phenotype are the result of the interaction of several genes within the genome. How can individual genes “compete” when each individual gene is reliant on how it “correlates(?)” with the rest of the genome.

2. Whenever I don’t orgasm during sex, I feel guilty. This may be because I fake the orgasm. I am not sure whether this is my internal audience censuring me or whether I am simply empathising for my guileless husband. Or, maybe, something else. Why can’t I be honest about my inorgasmia? I don’t always have a problem orgasming but around half the time I fake it. It’s not fun. What say you?

3. What would you recommend for a stay at home Mom who has two small children and is constrained by time and energy to pursue her individual goals?  I am experiencing low mood on a regular basis and don’t want to turn to medication.  Overall, I don’t have a strong sense of self-efficacy and feel like my best way forward is accepting my situation and letting go of personal goals for the foreseeable future.  My husband and I are not in a financial position to use money as a way to provide child care or outsource other tasks.  I wonder if I am going through a recalibration process of lowering my goals and expectations, which is the source of my low mood.  Am I constrained by time and energy to not feel good until my children are more autonomous?

4. Why of why do many of us seek entertainment over sleep even though we’re really tired? How could our minds possibly be so convinced that this is a worthwhile thing?

In today’s show, Dr. Lisle discusses:

1. I know you propose that personality is 100% genetically driven. But Dr. McDougall has shown that genes can be turned on and off by diet, and that even the DNA of twins may diverge over time if each twin is raised separately on different diets. Might the same thing be true of the genes behind our personalities? That certain genes could be switched on or off by environmental impacts. And if so, wouldn’t that mean that nurture (along with nature) does in fact affect personality?

2. Though parents don’t shape their children’s personalities, that time at home can leave all sorts of lasting outcomes including anything along the spectrum of wonderful to terrible memories, respectful relationships or bitterness and resentment toward one another, great financial inheritance or debt, and generally, the set of examples and information made available or limited for the child can heavily influence their life choices and performance. After can’t a child and emerging adult only work with the ideas they have available to them, and can’t they get set into certain ruts of ideologies and perspectives including their religious beliefs?

3. I am sold on your lucid explanations of how behavioral genetics shapes personality.    So doesn’t if naturally follow that by going back in time to study differences between the ecological/ political /religious influences in different areas of the world throughout our history,  that we can use these differences to speculate as to how these differences have shaped personality in different areas of the world.  The question is, can you identify or speculate on historical factors that may explain statistical differences in personality between different peoples.