The Answer to the Question Who Am I - Essay Example

It is an old saying in India that the answer to the question ‘who am I?’, is “I am the witness. Everything that is happening inside me and around me is nothing but a drama and I am the witness of the drama.” However, this is the answer on the spiritual domain and involves the soul. Psychology involves the mind. And therefore it is yet to come up with one definite answer to the question, “Who am I?”.
Psychologists are concerned with the fact that the study of psychology, even though had reached great heights as far as the theories are concerned, has failed to create a revolution in society and has proved quite helpless to transform human nature. (Gross Richard, 2003, Pg.3). But even then, psychologists have done their best to understand the complex creation called the man and tried their best to answer the question, “Who am I?”.
Psychology identifies the life with mind. It has taken great efforts in understanding how the mind works and what makes people behave in the way
they behave. All the questions that psychology tries to answer are with the aid of
the mind. Mind and the training of the mind is everything for psychology. So having one answer for the question “Who am I” is not possible as the mind is not a stagnant or a physical thing. It is a volatile and ever-changing aspect of human beings and so the question can be answered in different ways. Following are some of the answers that we can come up with.
Who Am I?
I am the one who tries to study and perceive people, events, relationships, society, and the system that I live in. I try to increase my understanding of everything around me using all the sensory abilities that I have so that I can have control over my life. That is my motivation in life, to control it and feel powerful and happy about it(Gross Richard, 2003, Pg.13).
Who Am I?
I am a product of my culture. The culture that I am born into influences me in every way. My thoughts, my behavior pattern, my beliefs, my religion, the food that I eat, and the clothes that I wear are nothing but the influences of the
culture that I live in. My culture defines me and I follow the rules set by the culture. So I am the culture that I live in (Gross Richard, 2003, Pg.6).
Who Am I?
I am the most superior of all the species. No other species can beat me when it comes to the ability to communicate. I can interpret symbols and make references out of them. I can understand and communicate things that are not in space and time. I can mix different parts of the language and form a sentence that makes a sensible meaning. And my most powerful ability is creativity which makes me the most interesting and intelligent species on the earth ( Gross Richard, 2003, Pg.81). Even after extensive training, some of the intelligent animals are not able to achieve or learn the language skills that I have. (Gross Richard, 2003, Pg.95)
Who Am I?
I am the contradictions that human behavior has to offer. I am good as well as bad. I can be evil and also a good Samaritan. I do not hesitate to shed off the good behavior when I play the role of authority and when I know that I have some special powers.
The nature of human beings to bring out the evil in them in helpless circumstances is evident from the experiment on prison experiment, carried out by Zombardi in the year 1971. The mock prison was created and the subjects were divided in the role of the prisoners and the guards (Gross Richard, 2003, Pg.130). Even though the roles were not defined and the behavior instructions were not given, it was found that the subjects were so dominated by the environment that 90% of their interactions with other inmates involved discussing the conditions and the situations of the prison (Gross Richard, 2003, Pg.136).
The guards also did not let go of any chances to harass the prisoners when they found that they were out of view of the watching devices. They were completely dominated by the influence of power and asserted it in their behavior. Read More