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The Philosophical Question of Nature Versus Nurture Essay

Updated August 14, 2022
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The Philosophical Question of Nature Versus Nurture Essay essay

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9/11 will forever be scared in my memory as the most depressing, horrifying and traumatic day of my life, but not for the reasons you might assume. 9/11/2012 is the day I came home from school just like any other day, but on this day I see my father’s car is still in the garage, the basement light is still on the same as when I left for school that morning. I rush down the basement stairs. I yell his name, “Daddy, Daddy are you ok?” No answer. I proceed to turn on the basement light. From a distance it just looks like he’s lying there asleep, but as I slowly moved closer with this terrible suspicion that my father may be dead, my suspicion became reality. My father lying there on our basement couch, arms sprawled open, white as a ghost. My eyes then slowly moved up his body and then I saw it, a plastic bag over his head, lifeless look in his eyes, mouth wide open. The only thing I could do was stand there in shock and horror. As you can imagine, this horrific experience was quite devastating, especially to a 16-year-old kid. As a result of this experience, I have developed PTSD and an anxiety disorder. It is extremely important to me to overcome these illnesses because I need to be able to put things in the past, or at least learn to cope with them so I can become a successful person both in my professional and personal life.

There are several topics from the course that can possibly be applied to my personal experience. One is classical conditioning, as it has to do with various types of stimulus in one’s environment, which causes reactions. This certainly is directly related to my PTSD and anxiety disorders. Another topic from the course that applies to my experience is the Nature vs. Nurture module as my environment directly caused my disorders. Finally, the Memory modular, particularly the Forgetting and Amnesia section can be beneficial. After all, who would not want to forget what happened?

As Mark E. Bouton discussed in Condition and Learning in Module #2, there are two forms of learning, classical and conditional, or operant which have been extensively studied because they have an enormous effect on human behavior. These types of learning form human behaviors because we associate with things like stimuli and significant events in our lives. As a result, we behave or react in certain ways. Because of my experience with finding my father dead, I developed PTSD and an anxiety disorder. Both disorders are triggered by various stimuli in my environment. For example, if I am in a very loud, crowded environment, I become super vigilant on high alert. My experience has had an enormous effect on my behavior, especially in those types of situations.

I become withdrawn, my heart start racing, and I sweat profusely. According to Mark. E. Bouton, “In a general way, classical conditioning occurs whenever neutral stimuli are associated with psychologically significant events.” (Boulton, p. 1) I agree with this statement because the neutral stimuli in a loud crowded environment certainly affects me in a negative manner due to the psychologically significant event that occurred in my life. It’s the same as if someone got hurt doing something and then they will always associate that activity with getting hurt. Boulton believes that “Because classical conditioning is always occurring in our lives, its effects on behavior have important implications for understanding normal and disordered behavior in humans.” (Boulton, p. 1) I again agree because if this is not continually being researched, then a solution or program will never be discovered or developed to help me.

Nature vs. Nurture has long been debated. Obviously we are all born with certain characteristics that affect our personalities, but the environment and events in our lives certainly play a key role. According to Eric Turkheimer in The Nature-Nurture Question, “The problem is, most human characteristics aren’t usually as clear-cut as height or instrument-mastery, affirming our nature–nurture expectations strongly one way or the other. In fact, even the great violinist might have some inborn qualities—perfect pitch, or long, nimble fingers—that support and reward her hard work. And the basketball player might have eaten a diet while growing up that promoted his genetic tendency for being tall.” (Turkheimer, p. 1) I am a true believer in the fact the environment in which you are raised definitely plays a role in who you become and in your behavior. The event that caused me to develop PTSD and an anxiety disorder certainly resulted from the environment where I grew up. I wasn’t born with these disorders so they are not necessarily genetic, however my father must have been mentally ill to take his own life. This of course may have been passed onto me.

The trigger was of course finding my father causing me to develop these disorders. So I agree with Turkheimer that nature and nurture play a role in our characteristics and behavior. Many studies have been done to determine where personality traits come from and whether they are genetic or environmental, but nothing is conclusive. According to Turkheimer, “Instead, everything has turned out to have some footing in genetics. The more genetically-related people are, the more similar they are—for everything: height, weight, intelligence, personality, mental illness, etc.” (Turkheimer, p. 1) Again, I can’t agree more because the apparent mental illness my fathered suffered from may have been genetically passed to me. Couple this with my environment and discovering my father’s lifeless body caused me to develop PTSD and an anxiety disorder.

Finally, the Memory module, and particularly the Forgetting and Amnesia section certainly can apply to my situation. It would be my greatest pleasure if I could forget what I saw. According to Nicole Dudukovic and Brice Kuhl in Forgetting and Amnesia who cited Anderson & Green, “Some memories may be forgotten because we deliberately attempt to keep them out of mind. Over time, by actively trying not to remember an event, we can sometimes successfully keep the undesirable memory from being retrieved either by inhibiting the undesirable memory or generating diversionary thoughts.” (Dudokovic and Kuhl, p.1) I agree with this theory because some memories, like the one I have should be forgotten. No one should have to live with such visions and memories. They go on to conclude that, “Amnesiac patients allow us a glimpse into what life would be like if we suffered from profound forgetting and perhaps show us that our everyday lapses in memory are not so bad after all.” (Dudokovic and Kuhl, p.1) The key question for me is to how to make this happen.

Unfortunately, I truly don’t believe there is a permanent solution to my problem. Just like a soldier returning from the war, the memories and visions can never be erased. The only solution is to try to put things in the past, or at least learn to cope with them so I can be successful person both in my professional and personal life. This will be a job in itself for the rest of my life, but it’s something that I work on every day and will continue to do so. I do this by trying different approaches that my therapist suggests as well as different mediations from my psychiatrist.

These include:

  • Talk therapy
  • Keeping a journal
  • Talking positive to myself about myself
  • Taking deep cleansing breaths
  • Telling myself it will all work out
  • Asking myself what is the worst that can happen
  • Telling myself I am not going to die if ……. happens

It’s all a trial and error process as there is not a perfect solution or method to help me. I don’t think that a reward program would help me, nor would avoiding life situations as it’s just not an option to completely avoid loud, crowded places without completely isolating myself. I just have to keep trying different things until I find the right fix, or at least the right approach to make things a bit easier to deal with. It’s going to be a lifelong job but it’s something that I need to do in order to live a happy, productive life.

This course has taught me that there are no simple answers when it comes to psychology and particularly mental illness. People have life experiences, live in environments, and are born with a set of genetic factors that will forever affect their lives. The key is to seek help when needed and to work a program to help yourself. There is no clear-cut evidence or answers, which is quite frustrating at times especially when all I want to do is be happy and live a normal life.

Bibliography

  1. Anderson, M. C., & Green, C. (2001). Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control. Nature, 410, 366–369.
  2. Bouton, M. E. (2018). Conditioning and learning. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. DOI:nobaproject.com
  3. Dudukovic, N. & Kuhl, B. (2018). Forgetting and amnesia. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. DOI:nobaproject.com
  4. Turkheimer, E. (2018). The nature-nurture question. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. DOI:nobaproject.com
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