Unit 02

Today, I called my parents and talked about 20 minutes over the phone, took vitamin pills, came to the library to study with my friends, and saved some money by having lunch at home. All these activities I pursued are related to the value list I ordered. By calling my parents, I check on them and have conversation with them to spend time with my family. I care about my health by taking vitamin pills daily. I come to library to study with my friends for my personal accomplishment in school and for friendship. I have lunch at home to save my wealth.

“Do your best in a given circumstance” is my family motto. With this, my belief pattern goes that I would accomplish if I do my best no matter what situation I am in. One time, I was struggling with passing a Biology class. Even though I put my best efforts onto the class, I was not able to earn a higher grade. In this specific case, my belief pattern was not valid. I would like to have my own business and make it successful for my own personal accomplishment and also in a way of wealth. I would need to not only do my best but also find my own way of doing things to make it successful.

I agree with the point that we are not driven by immutable instincts. I believe that every human makes different decisions among their underlying personalities, or peer pressure.

I am, for example, mostly driven by peer pressure. A term ago, I met a classmate who studies a lot and prepare classes all the time. I have hung out with him throughout last summer term. Before meeting him, I was more like a “bad” student: I skipped classes often when I did not want to, and I was a last minute person when the deadline came really close to the end. He taught me how to prepare for classes and motivated me to study by practicing what a “good” student is supposed to do. Before meeting him or becoming a “good” student, my instinct was more like towards having fun rather than being a student, and I was driven by my immutable instincts that follows easy way. Being influenced by peer pressure from my classmate, I made a different decision from my immutable instinct.

I also make a decision based on my underlying personality rather than my instinct. My personality is mostly cultured. To be specific, I am from South Korea where Confucianism is based or dominated. I have been taught that being humble is always good to be. Thus, I always try to be humble at all time. Whenever I have conversation with my parents, they sometimes tell me what I already know such as “clean your room”. If I follow my instinct in this situation which is to talk back to them, argument would begin. Thus, I rather become humble to them and say nothing to them. Being driven by my underlying personality, I could step away from arguing with my parents.

In conclusion, I am totally favor of the point that we are not driven by immutable instincts but rather we are driven by underlying personalities, or peer pressure. Humans are thinking animals which means that human can control themselves and regulate their instincts. If humans are driven by immutable instincts, there would be no difference between humans and animals.