Education versus hormones?

[Javier]

The behavior of people is the ending result of a mixture between genes/hormones/instincs for one side,and education in the other side.

Somtimes you hear that criminals, sex offenders, drug addicts, etc, cont do anything about their condition, since they are born like that, it's thir very neture.

But do you think education could change this? If a person reads poetry, philosophy,politics, learn arts, science, travels around the world, meets interesting people, etc, all this educational process could affect his/her very core personality, an transform him/her into another person? (in a better way, of course)

[SWM]

anything that we experience will change is in some way. what prompts your questioning?

[precious_fate]

I believe that they could become a change person. Those people were usually born with bad parent, hang out with bad people, or lives in a bad neighborhood that causes them to be like that (MOST, not all). But I think that if they could ever break those habits by not being with bad people or with bad surroundings, they are able to turn out to be a better person.
Usually the people who I know (my parent friends' kids) a few of them were really bad people; they steal, they drink, they even hijack cars. But after they were educated (after getting out of jail) since at jail they have to clean and work and etc. many years later they got interested in those philosophies and prayers thing since they met a lot of nice and well-educated people that told them that they could become a better person if you make yourself as one and to do good things and etc.
In the end, they became okay ppl now, from bad to good. There are a few people who are able to be good, but some can't change either. They'll be bad and want to stay as bad forever.

[gone]

I think your question if very similar to the 'Nature versus Nurture' debate and it's largely unanswerable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture

[Outsider]

No, it isn't unanswerable. We already know that the heritability of criminality is somewhere near 60%, and that people at the greatest risk for developing criminal tendencies are those who themselves have a genetic predisposition towards crime and are raised by criminals.

An interesting point about genes and environment can be illustrated by turning to a different trait: IQ. Psychometricians studying the heritability of IQ were initially surprised to find that the effects of the environment declined with age. The explanation I've seen for rising heritability is that, while young, people passively accept the environment that surrounds them, and this environment affects their IQ scores. But as people age, they increasingly seek out environments which resonate with their inner nature, choosing friends who are like themselves and hobbies and occupations which fit their character. These new environments also affect their IQ scores, but in a way that brings these scores closer to a theoretically "essential" score which would be assigned purely on the basis of genetics.

What this suggests is that the environment clearly can effect outcomes, but that people will seek environments which reinforce outcomes their genes "want." Hypothetically, if a government were to prevent delinquents from congregating together, using one another as role models, and learning how to lead a criminal lifestyle, this might drastically reduce crime. Unfortunately since criminality is known to be hereditary, this might entail breaking up families.

A better way might be to enforce solitude in prison, and give offenders a choice of three people to interact with. These "prison buddies" could be drawn from a list of dozens in the area chosen on the basis of, say, low scores on Hare's psychopathy checklist. Interacting only with these people via letters, telephone, and visitation, would theoretically help to instill prosocial norms rather than reinforcing antisociality through interaction with other convicted criminals, as occurs right now.

[NataEames]

I read somewhere that if a serial killer's child (even if he doesnt know the father) is very likely to become a murderer.

[Enigma]

James Fallon (a relative of Lizzie Borden with a family history of violence) found that the murderers he studied all had damage to the orbital prefrontal cortex.  The MAOA gene has been implicated in violent behavior with gene expression increasing following a severe adverse environment during childhood and early adolescence. 

[NataEames]

I never knew my father but my mother says that when i get very angry, i sound exactly like him and even have the same "devilish" look on my face. I wonder how i got that

[Enigma]

genetics

[NataEames]

Have they studies exactly which behaviors are most likely to be passed down by parents to their children genetically?

[Outsider]

Abundant heritability studies have been carried out on a wide varity of traits - religiosity, extraversion, intelligence, racial prejudice, delinquency, appreciation for jazz music - every time the results give an answer somewhere near point five. Some traits are more heritable, like IQ, with heritability as high as 80%; others are less heritable, like sexual orientation, with heritability as low as 20%. But to my knowledge there has never been any trait with an established heritability of zero.