STUDENTS PERSONALITY SECRETS * : ESSAY QUIRK PRECIS

BEHIND every student quirk - 1,200 possibilities. So, are you naturally anxious? Highly adventurous?  More argumentative than you'd like to admit?

Those tendencies are often measured through what psychologists call the '' Big Five '' dimensions of personality : extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience.

Each trait exists on a continuum and tends to remain fairly stable through out adult life.

But what determines where you land on these spectra? Scientists have known that personality is influenced by a host of factors, including DNA, but have not understood the pathways through which a genetic blueprint nudges the direction of a person's life.

To map this architecture, a group of experts analyzed more than one million genomes, searching for variants associated with. personality. They found 1,260 genetic markers tied to personality, nearly two-thirds of them identified for the first time.

The findings reaffirmed temperament and disposition are shaped by not a few genes, but by many variants expressed in different circumstances.

Common genetic differences identified still account for only about 5 percent to 10 percent of personality variation.

But personality drivers aren't divided into neat percentages of genes versus environment.

DNA and context actually constantly interact : experiences are the tool genetic predispositions use to mold who a student becomes.

!WOW! thanks Emily Baumgaertner Nunn.