DNA AND PERSONALITY

The purpose of this paper is to describe new genetic approaches that a re beginning to identify genes for personality and to consider how the se findings will affect personality research in the future. Genetic ap proaches to complex traits such as personality have moved from single- gene models and methods to approaches that can identify genes of small effect size in multiple-gene systems called quantitative trait loci ( QTLs). We review results for the association between dopamine D4 recep tor (DRD4) and novelty seeking, which was the first QTL association re ported for personality. The identification of QTLs will revolutionize genetic research on personality by providing measured genotypes for tr acking the developmental course of genetic effects, for investigating genetic links between traits and between personality and biological me chanisms, and for identifying interactions and correlations between ge nes and environment. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.