Context sensitivity and heredity
Context sensitivity has a clear hereditary component.
Research shows that differences in information processing and social cognition are partly genetically determined.
Complex heredity
Heredity is not a simple 1-to-1 transmission.
- It usually involves many small genetic variants that together make a difference in context processing.
- That is why you often see variation within the same family: one more low-contextual, the other more high-contextual.
Attraction
Low-contextual people often attract other layer-contextuals.
- They recognize each other's direct way of thinking.
- This can lead to couples in which rigidity or context blindness is reinforced.
Casus
A mother with borderline traits and a father with narcissistic traits have a child who withdraws and develops social phobia. The first reflex of the caregiver is to see this as a result of childhood trauma. But it can also be explained by a hereditary layer-contextual style in the child itself.
Importance for therapy
For assistance, it is crucial to make this distinction:
- If everything is reduced to trauma, the child's thinking style is misunderstood.
- If heredity and context blindness are included, therapy can be better attuned to the reality of the patient/client.
High-contextuals as helpers
Contextualizers (high-contextual people) are often attracted to help low-contextuals.
- This can come from recognition (e.g. a brother or sister in the family).
- They experience satisfaction by explicitly providing structure and context