Excuses for Our Behavior
Essay Preview: Excuses for Our Behavior
Report this essay
Excuses for our Behavior
Behavior is a response to internal or external stimuli. There are several different controversial thoughts today on how much of our behavior is caused by heredity and how much is caused by environmental influences. Other key issues are how much of our behavior is a matter of free will, choices made freely by an individual, and how much is subject to determinism, behavior largely produced by factors beyond peoples willful control. That free will and determinism contrast with one another is hardly obvious.
We are held responsible for what we do, in most cases, however sometimes we do things and have genuine excuses for our behavior. Situations or events that can excuse our behavior include societal views of certain events, such as gay marriages in which laws have not been enacted or have been repealed, thereby making it acceptable/legal in regard to the state judicial system and the current subculture of the individual, e.g. New York, even though other states and individuals do not honor the marriage. Im not clear whats being excused here. Following local marriage laws? Who wouldnt want to be held responsible for getting married? The next-day conversation would be very awkward: “Wow. Im not sure how that happened. I seem to have tripped or had a fit or something and now Ive got this ring on.” The selective change of cultural or sub cultural rules/laws can keep you from being held responsible for what you do in your culture/subculture, but not be accepted in another culture/ subculture. You seem to have confused responsibility with blame. The fact that we might blame a man for trying to get married to another man in Texas, while in New York, they would praise the two men for their commitment, doesnt tell us anything about responsibility. We and the new Yorkers both hold the men responsible.
Behavior is considered to be abnormal if it produces a sense of personal distress, anxiety, or guilt in an individual or if it is harmful to others in some way.
Insanity in some states means defendants cannot understand the difference between right and wrong at the time they commit a criminal act. Other states consider whether defendants are incapable of understanding the criminality of their behavior or are unable to control themselves. Some jurisdictions do not allow pleas of insanity.
Behaviors of individuals committing homicides, murders, rape can be evaluated by psychiatrists/psychologists/psychotherapists to determine if a psychological disorder and/or “abnormal behavior causes people