The following section gives background information that will help you understand the research and development of the Emergenetics Profile. Emergenetics is based on research that indicates:

• Individuals have inborn traits to act and think in certain ways
• These traits are modified and shaped as people interact with their surroundings.

The combination of experiences and genetics intertwine to form some commonly recognizable patterns of personality traits. Emergenetics Defined There are seven basic sets of attributes described by Emergenetics: four ways of thinking and three ways of behaving. The four Thinking Attributes are Analytical preferences (Blue), Structural preferences (Green), Social preferences (Red) and Conceptual preferences (Yellow). The three Behavioral Attributes (Purple) are Expressiveness behavior, Assertiveness behavior and Flexibility behavior. Test Development

• Test developers are expected to follow the technical test - development guidelines published in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing.
• Each test factor measured should be comprised of 5 to 7 individual test items to maximize reliability.
• Test results represent “patterns” and should never be considered “cast in stone”.
• As a general rule, the traits and behaviors measured by a robust test should remain consistent over time.

Development of the Emergenetics Profile Several important factors were considered when the Emergenetics profile was developed. The underlying theory, reliability, validity, and test norms are discussed in greater depth in the following sections. Underlying Emergenetics Theory For centuries, psychologists and philosophers have been trying to understand why people behave the way they do. The arguments have drifted back and forth between theories that we are completely shaped by our environment and theories that we are completely shaped by our genetic structure. During the early part of this century, most psychologists were convinced behaviors developed purely due to the surrounding environment. Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner and John Watson were a few of the behavioral psychologists who shared this belief. For decades, their theories provided the basis for most behavioral research. In the late 1950s and 1960s, however, the “nature/nurture” argument began to shift back to “nature” in light of truly innovative work done with identical twins. To understand the importance of this research, we have to travel back in time to WWII. Parents in war-torn cities often sent their children to live with different families in the countryside. Many of these children happened to be identical twins. About 20 years later, psychologists contacted many of these twin-pairs asking them to participate in a study of nature-versus-nurture effects. Their findings showed that behavior was equally influenced by both genetics and environment. Today, researchers know that Pavlov, Skinner and Watson were only half right…both nature and nurture play substantial roles in determining behaviors and thinking styles. Because it is impossible to clearly separate internal factors from behaviors, the theory of Emergenetics combines much of the early work in psychology with the most recent findings from twin research. It proposes that we have a combination of genetic tendencies to think and act in certain ways (nature), and behaviors that have been modified through socialization (nurture). The Emergenetics instrument lays the groundwork for understanding this combination by measuring four common Thinking Attributes (Analytical, Structural, Social, Conceptual) and three Behavioral Attributes (Expressiveness, Assertiveness, Flexibility). Emergenetics is not a comprehensive or clinical picture of a person’s total psyche, but it captures important everyday patterns that most people recognize and adopt.