Step 1:
Look at a picture of an iceberg. Just like how we see only a small part of the iceberg, because the rest is under water, observable behaviour is only one tenth of what is going on in a person. There is a lot happening beneath the surface that drives or shapes our observable behaviour.
Brainstorming: ‘What influences our attitudes and how we behave?’
Write down all that comes to mind.

Step 2:
Now record your responses under the following groupings.
• Our Physical Biology (our nature)
• The World Around Us (our nurture):
• Our parents and family
• Past experiences
• Our beliefs (religious / cultural)
• Friends and peers
• Media
• Our Choices

Step 3:
Activity 1 – What do you Think?

Take a look at the set of ‘What Do You Think?’ cards (Resource 1 a-c). Read each card, think about your answer and write it down if you wish.
Now, imagine you are one of your parents or guardians. Re-read the cards and repeat the process, but now you have to think as an adult who is in charge of a young person.
It is very important to reflect on the ‘why’ – and compare the replies of when you were yourself and then when you were the adult. This will highlight different actions that you would take, and why you would do so, in reaction to the same situation
– Did you react differently in each situation?
– What do you think were the underlying influences/causes for your decisions?

A lot of our influences are subconscious or not apparent to us at any one time. Invariably our behaviour is influenced by a multitude of experiences resulting in a certain way of behaving.
Our behaviour is continuously subject to change after each experience that we have, even when we are not consciously aware of this.

Concluding activity
None of us chooses to be who we are, our self, our sex, colour or ethnicity, the family/community we are born with, etc., any more than we choose how tall we are, our colour of eyes, etc., but that while the self is largely inherited how it experiences the world is necessarily unique to itself.

The self is capable of change, it has a will and the power to reflect on its condition. Without these it would have no freedom to act and could not even, therefore, be held morally/ethically responsible for its actions. Indeed these, the power to reflect and to act are the elements of moral responsibility, without them there is no moral responsibility. We do not hold animals and humans who (for some reason or other) lack them, morally responsible for their actions nor judge them as good or bad. We regard their behaviour instead as amoral (a word to be distinguished from immoral) – as having no moral significance or meaning.

In short, the human self is inherited but also necessarily made, and making oneself is a moral task and a responsibility that grows with age as one grows older and more independent of one’s parents and needs to make one’s life choices. Adulthood is a process of growing into freedom and growing into responsibility. We are not free to make bad or irresponsible choices; true freedom is freedom used responsibly.
Give three examples of responsible and irresponsible choices, giving your reasons for deciding why these are responsible/irresponsible.