Theories Of Human Drives

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One aspect of human personhood addressed in both the Bible and developmental psychology is drives. In this paper I will succinctly state three claims the Bible makes about drives and then evaluate three developmental theories on the basis of these criteria. The three developmental theories that will be evaluated are the psychoanalytic, learning, and the epigenetic systems theory. A Biblical View on Human Drives Humans’ strongest drive is to have dominion from a biblical perspective. When God first created Adam, of the first tasks given to Adam was to take care of God’s creation. (Gen. 1:28) He was given great responsibility over organisms, as God instructed him to name every one. Adam was given the duty to till the earth and its soil, and thus he did. His drive was to have dominion over his environment, as God gave him the right to do so. After God primarily spoke to Adam about having dominion over the creatures, God realized that Adam did not feel fulfilled by this sole task. So Eve was created to make Adam less lonely. Genesis 2:18 states that Eve was created to be Adam’s helper and partner. Human’s second strongest drive is to have close companionships with other humans. The drive to be in companionship with others is so strong, in fact, that humans will strive after them even though the relationship could possibly be dysfunctional, as stated in Genesis 3:16. Humans thrive when they can share life’s joys with others. When together, humans can further praise God for what he has done, as it is healthy to have Christian fellowship. Humans were created in God’s image. Because God is perfect and without error (infallible), we are a reflection of that. However, when Adam and Eve sinned against god, that infallibility was tainted.... ... middle of paper ... ...from generation to generation, which would possibly also include original sin. Because humans are created in the image of God, however, humans also inherit and overall goodness, as God is a perfect being. The theory that is least compatible with the biblical criteria is the learning theory. It is only compatible with only one criterion, because the learning theorists dwell too much on nurture and not enough on inward drives. The psychoanalytic theory would be more compatible with the biblical criteria if it did not view humankind as inherently evil. The theory that is compatible with the most biblical criteria is the epigenetic systems theory. It is compatible with two of the three criterions. It is most suitable because it emphasizes the influence of original sin and the creation of humans in the image of God, which can be seen from the macro genetic perspective.

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