Personality of John F Nash - Term Paper Example

?Running Head: JOHN F NASH Topic: John F Nash Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction There has been a continuousdebate as to what shapes a person’s life; is it nature or nature? Some people argue that a person’s life is influenced by genetic or hereditary factors hence the reason why identical twins reared in different environments still exhibit similar traits such as color of eyes and hair, level of intelligence, and personality among others. It also explains why some individuals exhibit certain behaviors later in life; for example, some people inherit criminal tendencies hence become criminals. For those who support the nurture side of the debate, a person’s life is influenced by the environment hence genetics do not matter. Theorists like John Watson and B F Skinner believe that human behavior can be conditioned thus the reason why identical twins reared apart exhibit some differences. However, recent research suggests that a person’s life is determined by the interaction of genes and the environment hence none act in isolation (Moore, 2003). Genes just increase the likelihood of behaving in a certain way but the environment shapes the person, hence one has the ability to decide what to be in future and not necessarily what his parents are. The nature debate will be used to explain the life of an American mathematical genius namely John F. Nash. He was born in 1928 in West Virginia to an electrical engineer John F Nash senior and a school teacher Virginia (Nasar, 2001). The two parents played a great role in influencing his life but his experiences also played a great role in making him who he is now. The paper will also analyze the role of cognitive, physical and social-emotional development in his life. The major milestones and turning points in Nash’s life will be discussed as well as the impact of diversity on his life. Sylvia Nasar in A Beautiful Mind narrates chronologically the life of John F Nash Jr (2001). It is a life of struggles of a brilliant but troubled man who won the Nobel Prize in 1994. As stated earlier, Nash was born in 1928 in West Virginia. His father was an electrical engineer a career he engaged in after suffering an unhappy childhood. His mother was a university graduate and a school teacher named Virginia. According to nurture vs. nature debate, a person’s life is a result of either genes or a product of the environment but researchers note that a whole person is a product of the interaction between genes and the environment. According to personality trait theories, people have innate qualities that they acquire during birth or are inborn due to hereditary genes. For example, a person may acquire same skin, hair or eye color as the parent. One may also acquire innate qualities such as aggression, disabilities, or diseases such as schizophrenia, asthma, diabetes, and sickle cell anemia. Some children also are presumed to acquire criminal genes from parents or sexual orientation hence this is sometimes used as a defense mechanism in courts with much criticism. Children can also inherit a high or low IQ from their parents. Being born by parents who are intelligent, John Nash was therefore bound to acquire those genes and with the encouragement of parents and a normal development, he became a genius. He was able to progress through school and got a scholarship to Carnegie Institute of Technology where he acquired his master’s degree and later became an instructor in Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a senior research mathematician in Princeton University. He also worked for RAND, a non-profit global policy think tank offering research analysis to United States armed forces. In his work as a mathematician, he was able to develop many theories such as the game theory due to high IQ and rational skills. This had a lot of influence in his life, and can be said to be as a result of nature. In his adulthood, his career was cut short when he developed paranoid schizophrenia (Nasar, 2001). In most cases, schizophrenia is assumed to run through the family hence is caused by hereditary genes. This was proved when his son Charles also acquired the same disease later in life. Though patients suffering from the disease are highly unlikely to recover, Nash recovered thanks to his loving and caring wife. Nurture theorists dispute the influence of genes on a person’s life but instead argue for environmental factors as the real determinants of a person’s behavior. James Watson in his behavioral theory argues that individuals can learn and acquire traits through classical conditioning just like animals. In Corey (2011, p. 84) Watson says, Give me a dozen healthy infants, well informed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I will guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select, regardless of his talents, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors. This is to prove that any individual can choose to become whatever he wants in life regardless of his genes. If genes, were to play a part Nash would have been an engineer or teacher but he opted to become a researcher, a mathematician and economist. His parents encouraged him to take advanced mathematics while he was still in high school hence he got accustomed to solving mathematical problems. He was also acting in competition with other scholars in the environment, thus the motivation to solve problems in his own way. The occurrence of Schizophrenia in his adulthood also represents the nature vs. nurture controversy. The disease is hereditary in nature hence children of a parent with Schizophrenia have a risk of developing the same. On the other hand, Keefe and Harvey (1994) argue that the disease may be caused by environmental factors such as living environment, prenatal problems, family dysfunction, and social isolation. Most researchers like Nash are known to lead a solitary life hence likely to develop the disease. Furthermore, his quest for rationality may have led him to lose rationality and start hallucinating and this is not related to genetics. The environment affects cognitive development hence making someone to have delusional beliefs and psychotic experiences which are a symptom of schizophrenia (Beck, 2004). Nutrition and upbringing also play a part in the development of the disease. Another issue associated with the nature Vs nurture debate is sexual orientation. It is believed that sexual orientation is a result of genetic factors especially gay and lesbianism. However, proponents of nurture theory dispute this fact and attribute sexual orientation to environmental factors. For example, one is socialized to believing that heterosexuality is the norm and other sexual orientations are abnormal hence most people opt to have relationships with the opposite sex. Sigmund Freud and Erickson would attribute it to underdevelopment or unresolved conflicts since normally developed children undergo all the stages smoothly by resolving any conflicts at each stage (Corey, 2011). Nash had portrayed homosexual behavior and was arrested for indecent exposure but was able to overcome it by falling in love with Alicia and marrying her (Nasar, 2001). The nature Vs nurture debate continues to disturb people’s minds as it is not clear as what influences a person’s life; genes or environment. Theorists have come to accept the idea that none of them can make up a person’s life without the other; a whole being is made up of genes and the environment. Genes exist in a person but are put into action by the environment thus influencing a person’s life. For example, though schizophrenia is very rare to cure, the interaction with a loving wife made Nash to come out of it and lead a normal life. He was also able to get married and have children despite his homosexual tendencies. It is therefore clear that a person can be able to shape his destiny despite his genes as stipulated by Watson. Human development is very crucial as it determines a person’s life. It comprises of cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development and starts when a child is born to adolescence and adulthood. Physical development entails the growth of the body and the brain. For example, a child grows in height and weight. It also involves the development of motor skills as well as behavioral patterns; when a child is born, she /he is not able to hold anything but as time goes by, the child is able to grasp items, sit, crawl, walk, and feed himself. These skills are very important in life as they enable us to make a living by using our motor skills. It also enables one to do exercises and avoid some sicknesses associated with lack of exercise such as heart problems. It also enables one to learn new skills from peers, family, and community members and perfect them and also play with other children hence develop normally. By use of physical skills, Nash was able to perform his work properly. He was able to do computations with accuracy due to brain development. He was able to make choices in life like marriage. Physically, disabled people are not able to utilize their full potential due limitation in their motor skills. Those whose brain does not develop normally have a problem coping with environmental demands and relate well with others of the same age. The person also becomes dependent on others throughout his life as he cannot perform even simple tasks; although, some people manage to take care of themselves by inventing coping methods such as use of the legs if one does not have hands. To Nash, lack of physical ability due to schizophrenia had a great impact on his career. Schizophrenia according to Keefe and Harvey (1994) affects the brain development of a person such that one is not able to learn new information and solve problems; brain activity is disorganized. Nash’s career depends on the use of brain especially proper coordination and without this skill, it is impossible to continue working hence loss of job. It also made him dependent on his wife thus exerting a lot of pressure on her making her to have a divorce. Cognitive development involves the ability to reason and think logically or what is mostly referred as rational thinking. By cognitive development, a child is able to learn, speak, write, and understand theory (Gordon & Browne, 2011). The person learns to act independently though trial and error and is able to remember details or experiences. Cognitive development also allows individuals to seek new experience through curiosity and think beyond boundaries of time and space. Through role playing, children learn how to manage different tasks hence take responsibilities seriously. It also gives people ability to develop new ideas and plans which they can put into action for further development. Cognitive development is therefore very crucial in a person’s life as it enables one to view the world in a different way and solve life’s problems without difficulty. In Nash’s life, cognitive development was crucial since he was a researcher and analyst. These roles require a lot of reasoning and logic so as to come up with new ideas and solve problems. Nash was a great mathematician and this could not have been possible without cognitive development. As a result of schizophrenia, his work was much affected as his thinking capacity was affected (Nasar, 2001). This disease causes the breakdown of thought processes which is the core of cognitive development. His scientific rationality therefore turned into delusional thinking leading to occupational dysfunction. He no longer lived in reality as he hallucinated about various events and could see things which are non-existence. He went to an extent of wanting to renounce his US citizenship. In the long time he was in that state, he was not able to develop any more theories but when he was out of the state, he regained his cognition and was able to acquire the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 1994 (Nasar, 2001). The lost years could have made a great difference in his life and the life of others assuming he could have developed more theories and problem solving strategies or techniques. Physical and cognitive developments in human beings are essential but so is social-emotional development. This helps individuals to interact with others in the environment hence lead a healthy life. This is reflected in what people consider as moral or immoral or right and wrong as well as their beliefs and opinions. In involves feelings, emotions, morals, beliefs, and ethics. Social-emotional development enables one to understand himself as well as others hence is able to deal with emotional developments better (Ganly, 2010). By emotional development, an individual gains self-esteem and the ability to express his feelings. For example, children are able to express their feelings by crying or smiling. They are also able to develop attachment with caregivers especially parents and this has a strong impact on the person’s life later in life. Failure to develop emotionally may make one to lose self confidence in life and therefore not able to cope or accomplish much. For Nash to accomplish so much in life: a successful career, a wife and family, he needed to have developed emotionally. At one time, he had to deal with two ladies; Alicia and Eleanor but was able to choose a wife between the two. He also had to deal with the problem of homosexuality which is a social disorder and lead the right path. He had high confidence in himself hence was able to develop a lot of theories and reach the highest point of his career (Nash, 2001). Throughout ones life, emotional problems occur and being able to cope with them and make the right choices is very important. Due to schizophrenia, he was emotionally unstable leading to a subsequent divorce. The disease also made him to lose self-esteem due to frequent hospitalization and he wished much to regain his emotional ability. However, his attachment to his wife led a turn to his immediate recovery and was able to resume a normal life whereby he remarried Alicia. It is thus clear that contrary to popular belief that social interactions patterns cause schizophrenia, social interactions in the environment can actually have an effect on course of illness (Keefe & Harvey, 1994). Proper growth and development is achieved through the influence of cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development. According to Gordon and Browne (2012), the three developments influence each other in different ways thus affecting someone’s whole life. For example, poor development of the brain or motor skills can affect cognitive development since one is unable to think logically or develop new skills and experiment them. It can also affect emotional development as one is unable to develop self-confidence thus lack self-esteem. This can have an effect on one’s marriage or other areas in life or lead to diseases such as schizophrenia. Cognitive development also affects emotional development in that it inhibits the ability to think and reason hence understanding of emotions. All these played a part in the life of Nash at the time he was sick thus destroying his life, marriage, and career though he was lucky to recover thereafter and resume normal development and normal life. Nash’s life underwent a lot of milestones and turning points. One’s life can be explained in terms of Sigmund Freud’s stages of development and Erikson’s psychosocial theory (Corey, 2011). A normal person has to undergo through the various stages whereby each stage is characterized by specific crisis to be resolved. Each crisis represents a turning point in a person’s life and success depends on how well the person is able to resolve the crisis and move forward. Failure to resolve the crisis leads to regression. According to these theories therefore, the trials and tribulations that Nash went through are turning points and result of normal development. Sometimes in his life while working for Rand Corporation, Nash was arrested for indecent exposure and intimate relations with men (Nash, 2001). The theory would attribute this to unresolved crisis in the phallic stage. This is where individuals relate with parents of opposite sex and failure to resolve this conflict and move to next stage affects one in future. If the conflict had been resolved, Nash would not have exhibited such signs. However, he was able to resolve the conflict and get married in 1957 (Nash, 2001). One milestone in Nash’s life was development of the game theory and the concept of equilibrium point during his PhD thesis in 1949. He wrote about non-cooperative games and developed the equilibrium point concept which is today referred as Nash equilibrium which is used in almost all disciplines (Nasar, 2001). This could be attributed to personality trait theory which stresses the existence of innate abilities in a person that affect his intelligence. His achievement could thus be attributed to high IQ or intelligence. Other innate abilities include self-confidence, motivational, and inspiring among others. These qualities led him to have the drive to achieve much in life. According to motivational theories, the person may have been striving to achieve the highest level need which is self-actualization. Marriage is also a turning point in one’s life. After dating Eleanor and Alicia, he married Alicia in 1957 hence the beginning of his own family with wife and children. However, 2 years later he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. This was a turning point in his life as it involved increased dependency and lack of self-control. He was under medication but in some instances, he would refuse the medication thus recurrence of the hallucinations. One day, he almost killed his son by drowning him in a tub. This is a criminal behavior in society and can be explained using various theories. The life course theories identify factors that shape criminal behavior to explain when and why offenders begin to commit crime (Cole et al. 2012). Nash started exhibiting signs of schizophrenia in childhood as he impeded interpersonal relationships and communication. By refusing to take medication, he developed psychotic behavior that led him to attempt to kill his own son. According to this theory, pathways to crime begin with minor habits and develop to more serious offenses, but Sampson and Laub turning points in life such as marriage move individuals from criminal intent (Corey, 2011). The events during this phase could also be attributed to psychological, social, and biological theories. Biological explanations attribute behavior to physical traits or inherited traits passed on to offspring. Trying to murder his child can therefore be attributed to heredity. Psychological explanations attribute deviant behavior to mental instability which is what Nash was suffering from that made him to act in the manner he did (Ganly, 2010). Another milestone in his life was overcoming schizophrenia, remarrying his wife and reviving his career leading to the award of Nobel Prize in economics. This was due to determination and support from his wife and peers. The personality of a person is therefore shaped by the environment according to behavioral theories by BF Skinner and JB Watson among others (Cole et al. 2012). A child is born as an empty slate but learns from the environment and hence can choose what to become. Though Nash had lost his mental capacity, with the help of social interactions he recovered and moved on with his life which not many people are able to accomplish. Diversity plays an important role in a person’s life in determining his/her success in life and the struggles one goes through in life. Diversity entails such aspects as religion, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and physical ability. Gender plays a vital role in enhancing success in life. Since childhood, boys are more favored than girls hence boys have high chances of success in life. Mathematics is viewed as men’s area while languages are attributed to women hence it was not difficult for Nash to be interested in mathematics and excel in it by becoming a genius. The white race is considered superior to other races such as African Americans and Asian Americans. This gives a person certain privileges in life which are not enjoyed by those not of the white race. For example, the whites have access to education in good schools and therefore have the potential of achieving high success in life. Being a white, Nash was in a better position to attend good schools such as Princeton University and develop his career. Conclusion A person’s life is a contribution of nature and nurture; both interact to produce a whole person. Some aspects of a person’s life such as level of intelligence can be attributed to genetic factors while some people gain intelligence by learning therefore there is a thin line between genes and environment as influences on a person’s life. Nash’s life was full of struggles and successes as a result of development of schizophrenia in his adulthood. He was a mathematical genius and developed the game theory before his career was cut short by the disease which much affected his cognitive, physical and social-emotional development. Without proper development, one is not able to do much in life but luckily through the help of his wife and friends, he recovered and resumed normal life thereafter winning the Nobel Prize in economics. References Beck, A.T (2004) “A Cognitive Model of Schizophrenia”, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy. Vol 18 (3), pp. 281-288 Cole, G., Smith, C., DeJong, C (2012) The American System of Criminal Justice. 13 ed. USA: Cengage Corey, G (2011) Theory and Practice of Group Counseling. USA: Cengage Ganly, S (2010) “The Relationship between Physical, Cognitive, and Social-emotional Development in Humans”. Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/1886506-the-relationship-between-physical-cognitive-and-social-emotioanl-development-in-humans. June 11, 2012. Gordon, A.M., Browne, K.W (2012) Beginning Essentials in Early Childhood Education. 2nd ed. USA: Cengage. Keefe, R., Harvey, P (1994) Understanding Schizophrenia: A Guide to New Research on Causes of Treatment. New York: Free Press Moore, D. (2003) The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of “Nature Vs Nurture”. Henry Holt. Nasar, s (2001). A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash. New York: Simon & Schuster. Read More