In the Genius in All
of Us, Ellen Winner calls the drive and persistent attitude of some child “prodigies”
the “rage to master” (292). They say that it is because Yo-Yo Ma had this “rage
to master” and the right conditions with no social and emotional interference
that he became so successful. However, what causes “the rage to master” is
still unknown, but it’s determined that a person’s level of persistence can be
altered. What social and emotional interferences could disrupt this process of
becoming a prodigy and how? Also, how can a person’s level of persistence be
altered in relation to the GxE theory? Please provide specific evidence from the book.
Yiran Xu, yxu135@gmail.com
Yiran Xu, yxu135@gmail.com
Ellen Winner describes the “rage to master”, and shows how certain gifted children are able to pursue their “deep intrinsic motivation to master the domain in which they have high ability” (Shenk 292). Winner’s description gives insight into the seemingly innate ability for these children to achieve highly, unless social and emotional interferences are involved. While Winner assumes the “rage to master” is innate, the social and emotional interferences being described are environmental interferences. Usually, prodigies are born to “families where parents are semi-obsessed themselves with their kids’ skills” (Shenk 292). While the “rage to master” may be innate, environmental stimuli affect gene expression, which limits how far a gifted child will “maintain that intrinsic motivation” (Shenk 292). Social and emotional, or environmental factors, affect how far gifted children will get because genes are “[turned]…on and off in response to signals from their external and internal environments” (Campbell 356). If the “rage to master” and the ability to focus on mastery are innate, it still cannot function without proper environmental factors, because “a typical human cell probably expresses about 20% of its genes at any given time” (Campbell 356). Since such a small amount of genes are actually expressed in a cell, there is much room for environmental factors. The environmental interferences that could disrupt the process of becoming a prodigy are endless; however, one in particular could be parental influence. Parental influence is crucial in the development of a human child, and as a stimulus, parental influence can change the behavior in an individual, as “behavior is an action carried out by muscles or glands under control of the nervous system in response to a stimulus” (Campbell 1120). If a parent is overly aggressive in solving problems, then a child will be more likely to be aggressive towards their peers in solving problems because “family relationships affect children’s competency with peers” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2649668/). If, for example, a parent was unsupportive of the child in the “domain in which they have high ability”, the child will be less likely to pursue his or her interest because of the parents’ lack of interest. According to the GxE model proposed by David Shenk, the environment has a powerful effect on genes. Parental influence on potential geniuses can either stimulate or deteriorate growth of the talent because of environment because “individual genes and their environments interact to initiate a complex developmental process that determines adult personality” (Shenk 191).
ReplyDeleteRia Singh (riasingsing@gmail.com)
A person’s level of persistence can also be influenced by environmental factors. The most important environmental factor for persistence in children to increase is the proper encouragement from the parents. Shenk describes the importance of praising hard work (as oppose to praising inborn talent) through Carol Dweck’s experiment. In the experiment, two groups of students were given puzzles and one group was praised for their inborn talent while the other was praised for their hard work. The results concluded that being praised for hard work motivated the children to move on to a more challenging puzzle because “more than half of the kids praised for their inborn intelligence chose the east follow-up puzzle…[and] a staggering 90% of the kids praised for their hard work chose the more difficult puzzles” (Shenk 98). Persistence can be increased by the proper encouragement. If children are constantly praised for their inborn talent, they will not challenge themselves to enhance their abilities due to “habituation [which is] a loss of responsiveness to stimuli that convey little or no new information” (Campbell 1125). If children are praised because they are talented in a certain area, they would never increase their spectrum of challenges because they already know they are good at something. By challenging themselves, children are subject to “operant conditioning, also called trial-and error learning” (Campbell 1127). By trial-and-error learning, children are able to determine their comfort zone in a certain area, and would then be able to challenge themselves in order to grow.
ReplyDeleteThe body physically adapts to new challenges, and homeostasis must be preserved. For example, in sports, “whenever individuals engage in physical sport activities, the metabolism of their muscle fibers increases, and the supply of oxygen and energy within the muscle cells rapidly reduce” (Shenk 254). Homeostasis is always preserved in the body, and “the body activates various counter measures (negative feedback loops” (Shenk 254). Negative feedback is a type of regulation “in which accumulation of an end product of a process slows that process” (Campbell 11). When there is increased physical exertion, the body adapts by increasing breathing rate in order to get more oxygen to the tissues. Heart rate also increases in order to circulate more oxygen and nutrients to the body. In terms of challenging themselves to achieve highly, “when individuals deliberately push themselves beyond the zone of relative comfort and engage in sustained strenuous physical activity, they will challenge the available protection of homeostasis” (Shenk 254).
Ria Singh (riasingsing@gmail.com)