Essay --

No two people are the same, not even identical twins. There are overachievers, and alternatively underachievers, alcoholics and abstainers, the timid and the outgoing, and every possible mixture in between. Living With Our Genes argues that genes are the most outstanding factor in the process of developing the complex variability of human nature. Hamer and Copeland lay out the idea of the nature-nurture controversy by identifying the differences between temperament and character. Temperament is the collection of primal behavioral tendencies we acquire, which are adapted to varied degrees by our character, beliefs, and the values our surroundings bestows on us. Essentially it is a game of genes versus environment, with a constant back and forth as the authors explain the behavioral characteristics that effect our lives. The nature/nurture argument originates from the fact that people are more reluctant to accept a genetic influence on behavior than they are on more simple traits such as eye color or an inherited illness. Hamer and Copeland put it as follows, "We accept that ...