Issues in Personality Theory (an opinion essay)
Uploaded by GothicPhilos05 on Dec 14, 2003
Free will means that one has control of themselves and their own destiny; determinism would argue that everything that happens is dictated by what happened in the past, and that one does not have the freedom to choose and control their fate due to other controlling factors. I believe that determinism is the deciding factor in fate and destiny. An individual may be able to sontrol their destiny to some extent by consciously working toward a specific life goal or desired result, however it is impossible for someone to control every antagonistic factor around them. As sometime or another, everything will be altered by a disruptive uncontrollable force. However, one could also argue that those disruptive forces are not antagonists but are actually a major part of our destiny, and that they are redirecting and guiding us toward our predestined life events and ends. Hence, because of the many uncontrollable factors in life, free will is ultimately useless. As for the idea of everything being dictated by what happened in the past, this is questionable. It has been said that everything and individual does, whether it is good or bad, will eventually be returned to them. There is no proof of this actually occurring; it is merely an assumption made based on something that may be nothing more than pure coinsidence.
In the Nature v. Nurture issue, the nature side states that character and intelligence are largely inherited and that certain ideas are inborn, whereas the nurture side of the debate argues that our human traits develop through experience. In my opinion, both nature and nurture contribute to our overall personality and intelligence. It is true that certain traits are inherited from out parents; this has been proven in the twin and adoption studies. An adopted child, even after never meeting their biological parents, will eventually manifest certain traits of their natural parents. Likewise, twins that have been separated at birth who are reunited in adulthood will often have many astonishing similarities. However, while some of our personality traits and intelligence are inherited from our parents, the nurture we experience from conception and our personal life experiences play key roles in what make our individual personalities. Experience is perhaps the greatest teacher, and it can completely make or change...