NATURE OR NURTURE?

As scary as it might sound people don't choose their own developmental path. How we turn out depends on where we've been.

It all starts at conception. Who we are begins with our molecular blueprints. As much as we believe that we are the drivers of our behaviour, unfortunately we are not the ones. The driver is our brain which is beyond our control and consciousness.

People's brains can be vastly different - influenced not only by genetics but by environments in which they grew up. Many factors can influence how we turn out, starting with substances used by a mother during pregnancy, maternal stress, and low birth weight, ending with child neglect, abuse and head injury which can cause problems in mental development.
As I mentioned earlier this week also a slight change in the balance of brain chemicals can cause large changes in behaviour.

Presumably the one important question raises here - 'Do we have a free will?'. The answer is - no good evidence exits to support that.

So, we are each constructed from a genetic blueprint and born into a world of circumstances about which we have no choice in our most formative years... Is it clear how much the conscious you gets to do any decision at all?