SPMs affirm the importance of genetic influences for facilitating trait stability, but posit environmental forces as having true, causal influences on personality development. For example, the sociogenomic model of personality specifies that the environment has a causal effect on the function of genes. Instead of the biological bases of personality being completely shielded from the environment, the genome “is intrinsically dependent on the environment for activation and maintenance” (Roberts & Jackson, 2008, p. 1528). Beginning in the early 2000’s, Roberts and colleagues (Caspi & Roberts, 2001; Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005; Roberts & Wood, 2006; Roberts, Wood, & Caspi, 2008) have laid out a growing number of postulated principles and mechanisms for social maturation (there are currently 262) to explain the complex relations between genes, the environment, and personality development. Although other versions of SPMs of this sort do not directly deal with genetic effects to the same extent as the sociogenomic model, each perspective emphases the causal nature of socialization.
