A Learned Behaviour

So when Baby Singh was born, he was born as a blank slate, with genes that supported a lot of his physical characteristics that made him similar to his parents, other species of our kind (people) and to Orangutans (as per the research explained in the previous articles). Baby Singh had no knowledge and no skills at this point, however, Baby Singh had genes that would support his learning and develop his interest to learn. Learn what, you may ask and from whom or what? Do you remember the 1% genes that underlie differences in people’s personalities, our characteristics, our traits, our experiences, our practices (from the previous article)? Yes, that is the gene that I am referring to. Now let us shift our focus from my theory to scientifically proven theories

A paper is written by Dr Kevin M. Beaver from Florida State University and Dr Brian B. Boutwell at Sam Houston State University on Criminology, focussed on whether genes could likely cause a person to become a life-course-persistent offender which is characterised by anti-social behaviour during childhood that could later progress to violent or serious criminal acts later in life. Brian said there is no gene for criminal behaviour. He said crime is a learned behaviour.

“But there are likely to be hundreds, if not thousands, of genes that will incrementally increase your likelihood of being involved in a crime even if it only intensifies that probability by 1 percent,” he said. “It still is a genetic effect. And it’s still important.” The link between genes and crime is a divisive issue in the criminology discipline, which has primarily focused on environmental and social factors that cause or influence deviant behaviour. So, Baby Gabbar Singh learned deviant behavior from his environment through observation!

THE NEXT EDITION REVEALS MORE

PROSPECTIVE PERSONALITY

Last week we read there is no gene for criminal behaviour. Crime is learned, just like every other learned and observed behavior. And since baby Gabbar Singh learned from observation, what if he were put in an environment filled with love, compassion, trust, and kindness, what would have been the result of his upbringing?

Let us dwell deeper, by first understanding what are these environmental factors that impact the development of a child. It usually fits into many categories, but we will focus on 3 categories:

• Physical environment, the child’s home, the family, the bonding, the affection, neighborhood, the state.
• Emotional environment, which is how well families meet the child’s relational needs at home, the conversations, the emotional moments they share with their family and/or friends.
• Social environment, which is the child’s relationships, friendships with other children and people

Let us go step by step

One of the most important influencing factors on a child’s development is Us, ‘the child’s Family’. Irrespective of who is a child’s primary caregiver, the bonding ‘We’ provide at home helps nurture and protect our children both physically and emotionally.

BUILDING ENVIRONMENT

THE NEXT EDITION REVEALS MORE

99% SAME AND 1% DIFFERENT

Well, last week, I initiated the Nature-Nurture angle to understanding who we are, shall we drill a little further to see where it leads us? John Watson, the founder of Behaviourism, said that if we gave him a dozen healthy babies, he could take any one of them at random and train him or her to become any type of person—that he could mould people’s interests, motivations, emotions, abilities, and traits into whatever he chose. The idea that people are born more or less as a blank slate, and gain their personalities through experience and learning, from the environment dominated the early studies, but fizzled out soon…Wondering why?

far, more than 99% of every person’s genes are identical to those of every other person and us also share about 97% of our genes with Orangutans, but that 1% of our genes are the genes that make each of us look and act differently from other people. Those genes underlie differences in people’s personalities, our characteristics, our traits, our experiences, our practices and that is where the story of Character Development begins!

THE NEXT EDITION REVEALS MORE

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21st Century

Let us first understand the meaning of Character. For the sake of convenience, I will take each definition separately and then link it later. So, according to Dictionary.com, a Character is defined as “a person in a novel, play, or film.

There is a saying “A high IQ can get you a job, but a high EQ will
keep you on the Job.” Coursera presented the Top 10 in-focus
skills in the World Economic Forum in 2020, they also presented
the Top 10 in-focus skills in the year 2019. Of the top 10, four of
the 10 in-focus skills in 2020 are Kindness, Gratitude, Meditation,
Mindfulness and this has changed in a span of year, which brings
us to a very important question, “Do we need to re-look at the
skills we are teaching our children?”

characteristics we are looking for in our children, our students or even our staff?

A Thought to Ponder On!

‘Character’ is also defined as “the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.” It’s funny how both things go hand in hand when we socialize with people. At most times, we wear an actor’s mask, and yet hope to come across as distinct and unique, at other times, we choose to be someone else because we feel, that is more accepted than “being me”.

THE NEXT EDITION REVEALS MORE