Der innere Kompass:

"Menschen - so Asendorpf - suchen sich eher diejenigen Umwelten und Lebensbedingungen, die zu ihnen passen, anstatt sich der Umwelt aktiv anzupassen."

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Linda Gottfredson:

"Our inner genetic compass is the core of our individuality ... it quietly but incessantly inclines us to take some paths rather than others, be attracted to or repelled by certain activities, seize different opportunities, respond differently to the same environments, and create different social niches for ourselves when given a choice."

"Individuals are self-activating, self-directed experience instigators, selectors, and evaluators. The genetic propensities with which we are born, including temperament, are the precursors of the general personality and ability traits that will soon take form (Funder, 2001; Lykken, Bouchard, McGue, & Tellegen, 1993). These propensities act like an internal compass, inclining us toward or away from possible forms of experience that we might encounter or create (for example, risky versus safe, people-related versus things-related). We tend toward those we resonate with and away from those that discomfit us. Emitting a constant stream of mostly preconscious feedback, this compass colours our past experiences and influences our future choices. Our genotypes thus help shape both the perceived and actual environments in which we develop. In other words, nature activates and shapes nurture."

"...behavior geneticists have proposed a genes-drives-experience theory (Bouchard, Lykken, Tellegen, & McGue, 1996). As children mature they take an increasingly active and independent role in selecting, shaping, and interpreting their environments. Moreover, when given the opportunity, they select experiences more in line with their genetic proclivities. Each comes into the world with a different internal genetic compass, which causes them to be attracted to or repelled by different kinds of people, activities, and settings. The anxiety-prone will more often avoid anxiety-provoking situations; the emotionally stable will perceive the world as more benign than will the neurotic; and the musically gifted will more often seek opportunities to develop their talent (called active gene-environment correlation). People also create different environments for themselves by evoking different reactions from the people around them. The obnoxious will evoke more hostile social environments for themselves than will the amiable, and parents will appropriately provide different kinds of toys, support, and developmental opportunities to their children when they differ in needs, interests, and talents (called evocative or reactive gene-environment correlation). In addition, people differ genetically in their sensitivity to given external influences, such as particular pathogens or kinds of instruction (gene-environment interaction)."