Sunday, February 21, 2010

Moms' Depression in Pregnancy Tied to Antisocial Behavior in Teens

I thought this article was very relative to the topic of 'influences on one's personality.' The general argument made by this article is that depression during pregnancy in a woman raises the probability that the child will experience antisocial behaviors. I personally don't think this article makes enough supporting arguments to convince me to believe this is true. I see it as a possibility, but, as mentioned in the text book, there are a number of things that influence a person's behavioral patterns. However, this raises an interesting questions about the categorization of influences on personality. In accordance with the modern study of personality, factors that affect one's personality could be genetic, environmental, cultural or internal, as in the inner experience with the ego. In this case, the mother's depression during pregnancy could be said to be biological but not genetic, since the experience of depression of the mother does not encode itself in the genes. Then again, could it be said to be environmental or cultural? The fact that I am having difficulties trying to determine how to categorize this 'depression during pregnancy' phenomenon, further raises my doubts about the validity of this research. Otherwise, it could also mean that we cannot analyze an individual's personality with such clear cut classifications.

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