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The problem of whether individual differences can be attributed to heredity or environment and to what degree, has long been studied by workers in a wide range of fields. We may indeed wonder whether mankind's need to establish causal connections is itself an inborn propensity.
Since Freud drew attention to the importance of childhood experiences and phantasies for the development of emotional disturbance in the adult, much work has been done in studying the various experiences, from infancy onwards, which can lead to maladjustment. In the clinical field, studies of the relationships and stresses within the family and the history of the individual patient have thrown light on environmental factors of a much more subtle kind than those previously postulated, and it has been hoped by some workers that fuller understanding of these historical experiences would obviate the need to postulate hereditary factors presumed to be unmodifiable. In the field of comparative and statistical studies, attempts have been made to establish causal connections between specific events and particular personality outcomes, highlighting the importance of traumatic factors such as separation from the mother in leading to subsequent maladjustment.
But both comparative and clinical studies have posed the further problem of why apparently similar early experiences do not necessarily lead to similar outcomes. Some people exposed to early traumatic experiences become ill. Others appear to remain relatively well adjusted in spite of severe environmental difficulties. Some patients who appear to have had reasonably favourable circumstances are nevertheless extremely ill. Do we after all need to postulate some inborn or constitutional individual differences and, if so, what kind, and how do they interact with environmental factors?
This I have understood to be the question raised at this Conference, but I have purposely used the terms “environmental” and “constitutional or inborn” rather t