Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

wdegue's picture

Early Experience or Societal Pressure?

I agree with you Steph. It is a risky business trying to justify how behaviors in future relationships can be measured as such. Although there are some truths in Freud and later Erickson who believed that experiences at an early stage can affect one’s behavior, I find that they are leaving out an important factor; society’s influence on behavior. Right now as I sit in guild typing, my ipod is on and I would like to get up and dance. But I know the social code, doing so would cause my peers to think I’m loosing it somehow. I refrain myself from this action not because an early "insecure" experience, but because somehow it was communicated to me through society that doing so would be unacceptable. Therefore, I would say that early experiences may affect future relationships, but it is definitely not the only factor, the inputs giving by society I believe are stronger on the output.

This raises another question; is what we choose to be the ‘output’ in relationships and everyday life really reflects the input (i.e. early experiences and/or social pressures)?

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
5 + 3 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.