What Makes Us Who We Are?

What Makes Us Who We Are?

Abstract

One of the most remarkable research on human behavior, health, and development is the Dunedin Study. It is also referred to as the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Its focus has transformed as compared to its root, in the 1960s, whereby the study was chiefly on perinatal histories with the founder being Dr. Bucfield, a specialist in neonatology and senior pediatrician. At the onset of April 1972, the research has been following the lives of more than 1000 individuals since their birth at Queen Mary Maternity Hospital, Dunedin, in the country New Zealand. Currently, the study is in the fifth decade and has created over 1300 reports which have assisted policymakers in making informed decisions globally. The discoveries depict multiple findings in human development that are linked with health, temperament, and environment. In 2016, the New Zealand Medical school released a documentary titled “Predict My Future – The Science of Us.” The current paper will, therefore, analyze the factors that influenced two individuals in their early life as elaborated in the second episode of the documentary. Additionally, it will highlight the significance of the influences.

Troubled Teens

The documentary, based on the Dunedin Study, attempts to explain one of the controversial and fundamental questions of human life, which is; “What Makes Us Who We Are?” For better comprehension of the matter, the paper will review the second episode of the documentary titled “When Teens Run Off The Rails. ” However, the episode is known commonly by its central theme, which is “Troubled teens; why some go bad and others come right.” It will individually review the two main subjects- Paul Woods and Gary Caples- in that particular video. The two individuals are currently around the age of 40, with their biography very similar. During their childhood, they were engaged in criminal activities like abuse of marijuana, and robbery. Also, they were imprisoned for a minimum of 10 years. Nonetheless, one has “come right” and the other “still going bad.” The reasons underlying this phenomenon are the different influences they received in terms of biological, social, and psychological aspects.

From the video or rather, the Dunedin Study, Woods was well-behaved and social before his adolescent life. Nevertheless, since the outset of teenage, his life took a different path. From his statements, he started to steal and abuse alcohol, drug dealing, and burglary. He was brought before the judge numerous times, but it was until he reached 19 years old that he was imprisoned. It was due to that he had mercilessly murdered a drug dealer with a baseball bat. The hypothesis bought forward by Professor Laurence Steinberg, to explain the drastic transition for Wood in his commencement of adolescence, is a biological influence of the brain. According to the specialist, during this period, the brain – the portions responsible for self-control and judgment- undergoes rewiring and restructuring processes. At this juncture, individuals are mostly overwhelmed by enjoyments and excitements, thus hindering their free will of thinking, and consequently, their perception of severe actions reduces substantially. The social influence of sale is shown to affect the life of Woods as he declares it exacerbates the excitements feelings and achieves this by his dealing with marijuana.

The significant difference between the two subjects is that Caples was antisocial as early as he started walking as portrayed by his felonious activities like picking on people, clown, and disruptive nature. Features like these are categorized under psychological influences. His character worsened with time with no improvement to date due to social impacts. Bestowing to Professor Terrie Moffitt, gangs, drugs, and jail deeply embed the criminal lifestyle of a person. Therefore the company he used to hang out with at a tender age and that in the prisons – he had spent 16.4 years of his life in jail- reinforced his criminal nature.

The episode concludes that there exist two types of offenders; Adolescent limited offenders and life-course-persistent offenders. Paul Woods and Gary Caples belong to the former and latter, correspondingly. This significant difference results from temperament at an early age. Negative temperament transpires individuals like Caples, whereas a positive one will lead to the likes of Woods. However, their brain system in the teenage period makes them be temporary delinquents, and on reaching adulthood, they cease with their disruptive nature. It is vital for the policymakers, to be aware of these influences because adolescent limited offenders form 90 percent of the combined lot, and imprisoning them will make them be life-course-persistent offenders. To the society, children – mostly the ones depicting delinquent actions from the ages of 3 -ought to be psychologically helped to prevent them from being life course criminals.