A question was posed the other day to me by a family member. She asked, "how can some people from a terrible background still end out so well off...?" It was something to that effect. I will get to my thoughts on that towards the end of this article. First, I feel it important to address determination vs. free will. A good definition of determinism is as follows: "Determinism is the theory that all human action is caused entirely by preceding events, and not by the exercise of the will." (http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/determin.htm). In other words, cause and effect or stimulus and response. Things happen as they will due to their preceding events. Free will is more or less being able to act in a way that one wants or chooses. It doesn't entirely negate determinism, but certainly appears to be contradictory to it. Rather than delve into a philosophical discussion of the two, which could be quite lengthy, let's just assume that both exist. One non-behavioral (human) example of determinism is what happens when a tennis ball hits a wall. What does it do? It bounces back. The extent to which it bounces back involves other variables such as the density of the wall, how much air is in the tennis ball, how hard it was thrown, etc. However, the response will be for it to bounce back. It is a natural response. The same thing would happen if you threw a tennis ball at somebody's head. The tennis ball would bounce back. It has no choice. There are physical laws that "make" it respond in such a manner. Let's assume that the person who was hit retaliates and socks the thrower in the face while saying, "you made me mad...you hurt me...you deserved it...you made me do it...it's your fault, etc." Were his actions a result of physical laws (determinism) or an exercise of will? He said "you made me," but did the alleged assailant truly physically "make" him retaliate? It doesn't seem so. Between the time of getting hit and retaliating, the individual made a decision to attack. At lightning fast speed he made the decision. It took less time for him to make the decision than to double his fist, pull his arm and shoulder back, and launch it at the other guy's face. It certainly seems that WILL was a factor. Let's take it a step further. Some might say, "well, the guy who was hit by the ball might have been having a bad day...might have been abused or neglected as a child and not know how to cope with difficult situations...might have the wrong friends who have influenced him in a bad way...might have a chemical imbalance due to heredity that makes him unstable...might have been bullied a lot at school, therefore, only knows how to fight back with his fists...or has a bad attitude about everything...wasn't breast fed long enough...might have been high or under the influence of something...might be posessed with an evil spirit...might have cognitive distortions that affect rational thinking..." Well, which one is it? If you notice, not one of these is placing the responsibility of the action back on the person. To me, it seems that the "reasons" are giving license for the negative behavior. Sure, it might be fascinating (and I find it to be) to understand what brought the individual to make such decisions, but does it change anything? Maybe not. The truth is, he made the choice to retaliate. Nothing more. We could go even further with this when it comes to "why we do what we do?" It is possible that an individual is raised in a situation that is abusive, neglectful, and violent. It happens a lot and I see it frequently in my job. Just because a person is abused or exposed to violence does not necessarily mean that they will carry on the tradition as they grow older. If it were like that, then all of us would be carbon copies of our parents. We would act and be just like they are. But, we're not. We make choices and change as we live. We exercise our WILL to change and make choices. Why is it that some people from abusive/violent situations end out being abusive and violent? CHOICE! There are choices that they make that continue the negative behaviors.
I recently attended a conference on domestic violence. One of the speakers spoke of a study that he did on domestic violence perpetrators. They interviewed known perpetrators, their families, and friends to discover if there was a correlation between their environment and their violent behaviors. The results were somewhat staggering. They found sibling groups, all raised in the same environments--exposed to the same stimuli (abuse, neglect, violence) that did not end out carrying on the negative behaviors. Some of the perpetrators have siblings that were strong and non-violent citizens. What was the difference between the perpetrators and their non-violent siblings? CHOICE! Over time, the people made poor choices that resulted in perpetration. I am not saying that it was just one choice at one time. It makes sense that it was many choices over a long period of time. Can their environment be influential on their ability to make choice? Sure it can. But, it does not determine the end result. If that were the case, then none of us could make our own choices. I do feel that there are aspects about our physical human existence over which determinism maintains control. But, one universal truth (I believe) is that there are both determinism and WILL. There are things in this world that can be "acted upon" (determinism) and others that can "act" (will). I am sure that I will go more on this in the future. Until next time...
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