Helping One Another Out Is Natural

I came across this article today, and it really hit the spot. The article is entitled, "We May Be Born With an Urge to Help"by Nicholas Wade of the New York Times. This article maintains that the need to help other human beings is naturally ingrained into who we are. Being helpful and watching out for one another is just a part of human character. This article in the New York Times, or rather on their web page where I found it, cited the "innately sociable and helpful qualities exhibited by babies" as a basis for this reasoning. Furthermore, the behavior seems to innate because it appears so early in a child's development. So early, in fact, that the child is not yet at the stage of life where parents begin to correct and alter their childrens behavior to be polite and meet societal standards. It is interesting though as the article continues that at age 3 children begin to be more selective in their sharing or personal items. This implies that sharing and helping are natural tendencies, but that the "nurture" aspect which come from the surrounding environment actually curtails this to be less open and helpful.

I believe that this article is so incredibly interesting as it discusses not only psychological issues, but anthropological issues also. Anthropology is one of my favorite subjects. This article even relates back to my cultural artifacts, Ritalin and Adderal, because it purposes that qualities that were once thought to be purely attributed to personality, may actually be ingrained for a purpose. Perhaps, qualities in an individual's personality are present because they are addaptive, and biological rather than just psychological. This article suggests that these attributes that were once thought to be just "part of a person's personality" may actually be naturally wired into us. This article also questions the interplay between nature and nurture, promoting the idea that children are ingrained with the skills of being helpful and sociable, but as they grow older and become more enmeshed and experienced in the world around them, that this "nurtures", or rather alters, their natural personalities. To relate this back to my topic, this could suppose that although children with ADHD are wired differently, there is nothing to say that the proper environment and non-medication oriented treatment couldn't change their behavior for the better. This is a bit of a stretch, but it is one interesting inference that I have made.

Here is the link to the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01human.html?em