Human beings show great variations in terms of their personality traits mainly because of the differences in genes. Traits could be defined as the consistent prototypes of behavior, idea, and feeling, which differ from one individual to the other. Based on this definition, personality traits are often stable and vary from one individual to the other.
For instance, psychologists have proved through research that some individuals are outgoing while others might be shy. Traits are very powerful in the sense that they influence human behavior. A number of psychologists have engaged in research to establish the way traits influence human behavior.
Gordon Allport was one of the first theorists to engage in these types of studies (Saul, 2003). In his theory, Allport noted that traits could as well be referred to as dispositions since they are basic to any individual meaning that an individual cannot do without them. At least two types of traits exist, one of them being central traits while the other is secondary traits, which are more peripheral.
Modern evolutionary psychologists apply the theory of natural selection and sexual selection to understand how human traits vary among individuals. Such psychologists are of the view that the human mind has a modular structure that is comparable to the functioning of the body, which affects the behavior of an individual.
Based on this, the actions of an individual are greatly influenced by psychological adaptations, which evolve to deal with the current issues affecting individuals in the environment. Human beings show variations in their actions because of the frequency-dependent selection or facultative adaptations. Therefore, traits in people may vary since the genetic make-up is different.
The variations among human beings are too many. People would vary in terms of their openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, self-esteem, novelty, perfection, and even rigidity. However, this paper discusses one variation among individuals, which is impulsivity. Impulsivity refers to taking risks.
Those considered impulsive are often poor planners and they would tend to rush into conclusions without a careful evaluation of an event. Impulsivity is directly related to genetics since the lesions in the right inferior frontal gyrus in the brain cause it. This situation is passed from one generation to the other through genetics meaning that parents would automatically transfer to it to their children.
People with this condition have serious problems when it comes to making decisions in life. It would be difficult for an individual with this problem to postpone his or her plans since they would always wish to accomplish their objectives as soon as possible. Impulsivity is a kind of trait that drives an individual to act based on whim, leading to undesirable behavior that might be characterized by little or no aforethought, evidence, or thoughtfulness.
An individual with this type of trait would most probably behavior in a premature manner, with many risks involved. Psychologists have proved through research that impulsive actions impeded both short and long-term goals of an individual (Buss, 2012).
In this regard, such individuals are never successful in life because they lack time to plan their programs in a desirable manner. It is concluded that impulsivity results to actions that are undesirable since an individual acts without following an established structure. Moreover, an individual tends to choose short-term goals over long-term goals. This behavior cannot be corrected since it is genetically related.
References
Buss, D. (2012). Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind. New York: Pearson Education.
Saul K. (2003). Psychology. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc.