How genetics influence our lives and why it is controversial.

Link: https://pocketcasts.com/podcast/the-good-fight/46d67240-c6d4-0134-10da-25324e2a541d/kathryn-paige-harden-on-how-genetics-shapes-human-behavior/7df3150a-824d-4af6-88ce-011d2603a7ef

#science #genetics #behaviour

We should be making flexible choices in line with what really matters to us, persisting with pursuing possibilities and choosing away from what limits us.
Rigid rules can get in the way:
- They can stop us seeing all aspects of a person or situation;
- They can stop us seeing change, and new possibilities.
Rigid rules may be "old stories" about how to be liked, or stay safe.
- If I worry, I will be prepared when the worst happens;
- If I don't try, I won't fail;
- If I don't expect too much of myself, neither will anyone else.
Healthy rules for living allow us to adapt to changing circumstances in line with what matters to us.
No one can be absolutely certain about everything in life, nor have control over everything.
In changing or challenging circumstances, flexible rules can help a person make the best possible choices to support their well being and growth over the long-term.
Rules that have no "give" in them can:
- be impossible to follow, e.g. we can't change the past;
- focus our response on the short term, blurring long term costs;
- loop our focus on things we can't control e.g. stop our thoughts, always feel positive, other people's behaviour;
- get us stuck in behaviour that's no longer working for us.
Most of us don't intentionally choose to do things that don't work for us, we simply don't notice when we are stuck in loops.

-- Alison Stapleton (behavioural scientist), on #rule governed #behaviour

#RelationalFrameTheory #behavioraltheory #Psychology

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