I am afraid that my response does not even accurately answer the question. I suppose that I had some difficulty understanding precisely what the question was asking. I was unsure as to whether it was asking about conscious vs unconscious motivations, instinct vs free will, etc. I understood it as a nature vs nurture question and answered it as such. I suppose I am not so much interested in whether or not my response was good enough, but whether or not I answered the prompt correctly. (But if you do feel like commenting on the quality of my response, please do!!)
Prompt:
People's behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.
My Response (in 30 minutes):
The study of human behavior has been constant and continuous since the first psychologists began to study patterns of behavior and fervently attempt to explain it. The ultimate debate of human behavior has always been whether nature or nurture has the most influence over how people think and act, and despite the hundreds of various studies that have been conducted over the years, the debate still remains current, with people standing firmly on both sides.
The reason for the continued presence of this unresolved debate is that both nature and nurture contribute equally in the motivation of human behavior, and attempting to prove one’s influence over the other is an impossible task. Human beings are born into this world with a very specific wiring—personality characteristics and predispositions to various outcomes that are likely to manifest regardless of environmental influence. In addition, the conditions of one’s environment will likely dictate how those personality characteristics will manifest. In conclusion, it is the mutual influence of biology and environment that determine individual behavior patterns.
Twin studies have demonstrated that in more cases than not, if two identical twins are separated at birth and raised in entirely different conditions, surrounded by different people and given different opportunities, their attitudes and beliefs, successes and failures, internal thought processes and outward behaviors range from generally similar to exactly the same. Studies such as these would prove that nature is the dominant influence in human behavior. Similarly, though we would expect functional families to raise functional children and dysfunctional families to raise dysfunctional children, thus highlighting the dominant influence of nurture, studies often prove otherwise. These studies have shown that two “normal” people, void of any known mental illness, cognitive disabilities, or socioeconomic misfortune, can raise a child that ends up having severe emotional disturbance; this is also true conversely. Although these specific cases are, indeed, extreme, it proves that there is no guarantee in any situation that nature or nurture in itself will dictate human behavior patterns. The only answer, it seems, is that behavior is a combination of the circumstances made for you, and the biological way you came into the world.
