In chapter 2 of our textbook it states that if a baby
moves a lot in the womb, it will more than likely be an unhappy child growing
up. Does the child stay like this forever into adulthood? Is happiness not an
option for some kids? Or is it just more difficult to come by? Can we choose to
be happy as children? Can we choose to change our personalities? Family,
friends, culture, school, and economics will all play a part in how a child
grows up, but one important factor the
material we read didn’t touch on as much as I’d like is choice. Even as children,
we have a choice to take toys or share them. I suppose it’s just a matter of
which choices and behaviors are encouraged and reinforced, but I think the
human individual is far too complex to be put into categories. Our human brains
like things to have labels; everything in its place, everything organized. What
if there are aspects of ourselves we cannot label or identify? What do we do
then? Force that aspect to change? Pretend it doesn’t exist? Will we mislabel
it as something else? This is just another choice we have to make for
ourselves, and not let society or our culture make for us.
Are
there biological and psychosocial facets of the human that are random? Or is
that randomness pre-selected as well? Can choices be random? I do not have
answers for these questions, but I do believe that they exist, somewhere. Maybe
it is merely circumstantial: that, depending on the situation, our biological
patterns can be randomly chosen, or they can be pre-determined (such as with
sperm donors). And yet again, this is a
choice.
Say
a child grows up as the mediator, the neutral force in her family atom that
keeps the protons and electrons stable. Say this behavior is reinforced by her
family with their smiles and happy attitudes whenever this happens. She’s going
to stay the mediator, right? Arguments are quickly dispersed of because she
played her part. But then she grows up, and decides that it isn’t her responsibility.
She just made a choice. She doesn’t have to do anything her
culture/society/family tells her to do. She can choose to keep her toys and not
share them.
This
is all, of course, within limits. There should always be limits. We shouldn’t
become serial killers because society says we can’t do that. That’s not my
point. I’m saying that as children, nature-nurture factors aren’t the only
things in the human equation that makes us who we are as individuals. I
believe, whether anyone agrees or not, there’s more to us than our genetic
makeup and what situations and experiences we’re born in to. Life is far too
complicated. Yes, society molds us as children to influence our choices later
in life. But does that mean I have to do what they say? No. Does that mean I should
still make good choices and think on others when I make them? Yes.
The battle of free will and determinism has been one that has plagued mankind for centuries; a debate that to this day has not been relinquished since the dawn of philosophy. The eternal struggle of why we are here and what are we doing? Are our choices that of our own, or are we subjected to a predetermined way to behave based on the constraints of our genetics and environment? At what age do you stop simply reacting to your environment and begin to manipulate the outcomes?
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it is you are genetically predisposed to behave in a certain way. It's biological genetics; and in my eyes it is indisputable. (Not to say you can not argue against it.) In the beginning years of infancy I believe you are not equipped to handle large conceptual aspects of your existence. You are “thrown into the pool” so to speak, and are forced to react to that environment via your predisposed way of approaching obstacles and assimilation of your environment.
And I'm talking on a very finite scale- developing 'theory of mind' and observing how people have thoughts, beliefs, and intentions, (119) and learning to understand the idea of what it is to develop into a 'free thinking' person. You are learning to test your environment and develop basic observational skills.
I agree that at any age you can begin to make your own choices. But it's this genetic and environmental assimilation that creates a 'model of comparison' to make these choices. Whether you flow with the ideals of your surroundings or fight against the grain within your choices, you are still building off of a predisposed model.
The best example I can think of is parents. You can choose to emulate the actions of your parents or decide you want to live your life differently. Either way you are blessed with the power of choice, but either way you are reacting to this base model of comparison. You have no choice in that regard! (In my opinion) You are a victim of your environment whether you like it or not.
I suppose you when you say “life is too complicated to put all of this on nature-nurture theory” my immediate reaction is, “Nature-nurture is just as complicated as life itself! It is life in the endlessly complex happenstance of biology, and it is environment; which supplies an infinite amount of variables that we interact with that is as complex an intricate as existence itself.”
Our entire lives we are faced with constant choices. A baby can choose to cry or not, but the response they get to that cry will help them to make that choice next time. A toddler will make a choice to throw a fit the response they get to the fit will effect whether or not to throw a fit the next time, and so on and so fourth. We as humans can change our environment, and do constantly by the choices we make every day. what we can't change is how we will adapt to the changing environment. How an individual adapts to changes seems to be in the genes we didn't get to choose.
ReplyDeleteThe chapters in week three really get into how a developing child adjusts to it's environment. As you said, they always have a choice on how to live in their environment, but it's the outcomes that they often have no control over and have to accommodate to fit the environment. A good example is "ego centrism". They give an example of a little girl talking to her grandmother on the phone, and rather than saying "yes" or "no" she nods her head. Her father tells her she has to actually say the words, but she is unable to comprehend that even though she sees herself nodding, her grandmother can not. There are thousands of ways that we have to adjust ourselves to fit in our world, acting like "little scientists" testing and re-testing to have a better understanding of our world. I believe the emotions that we are surrounded with in these early years are our first assimilation of how to behave, and for the rest of our lives we inevitably have to base the rest of our experiences after these experiences.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time I believe Brynn was trying to say that we potentially can break away from how we were raised and how we were taught to behave? I suppose I'm still curious of what else can influence us other than our biology or the universe we live in. (nature/nurture) All I can think of is maybe religion? But even religion lies in the "nurture" category, because it would be part of our environment.
Ditto, religion often influences drastic life changes or choices that otherwise nonreligious people might make. This is the ultimate choice, though some that believe in certain facets of religion would argue it is NOT a choice. It is a result of our environment, but this influence can be the motivator to make a full personality change. Thus, to be "born again".
DeleteBrynn, your points are fun to think about and I enjoy your inquisitiveness (that a word?). Did your parents tell you that you always have a choice with everything? Man, my dad did. Whenever I was in a sour mood, or woke up on the wrong side of the bed, he always said "you CHOOSE the way you are going to react, you CHOOSE your mood". You are approaching the whole "cause-effect" debate. Does the personality determine the type of choices one will make? Or does the choices one makes shape a personality? Your questions as to if there are biological and psychosocial facets to humans that are random- I believe yes, and choices are only random if the situations that presented the option for a choice are random. Generally, I think that if a person is reinforced positively, they are more likely to continue that behavior in to adulthood. A choice to act in the opposite manner could happen, but perhaps as a result of a traumatic event or experience that would deter someone from carrying on that positive action.
ReplyDelete