PREDESTINATION THEORY

Biography

Angel Mark Z. Esto was born in Daet, Camarines Norte on October 15, 1999. He is

youngest son of Josefa and Dario Magno Esto among the three children they have. His father,

Dario, was a strict and well-organized person, who prioritizes his family before himself. Josefa

was a caring and loving mother who spoiled their children to her utmost capabilities because she

wanted them to have an easy life. Both of his parents wanted the best for their children although

they have different views in life. Esto’s oldest brother, Daryl, taught him ways of enjoying his

life despite being rebellious and self-centered while his sister, Michellin, served as his guardian

who always looks after him with restrictions that taught him ethics in life. His father was the

religious one in the family and took control of the decisions in the household. Esto’s father had

to work abroad to provide for his family because he was a nurse and the Philippines’ nurses had

low salary. Dario can only spend a month with Esto every two years. Although they only spend a

short period of time together, they manage to maintain communication. Dario maximize the time

he has with Esto to share the knowledge and principle he has. Esto was left with relatives while

his mother had to find other ways to earn money. And when his father could not give enough

money for the family, Josefa found Gualberto that helped her to sustain for her self and give

extra money for the family to use. Eventually, Josefa fell in love with Gualberto because he is a

generous and caring man. This decision of Esto’s mother led to a fight between his parents that

ended up to their separation. Esto does not have an idea what was the family's issue and grew up

thinking his family was still fixed.

 Esto’s childhood was mostly spent without his family. They were all busy from their own

businesses. He had to live from family to family who could take care of him. Esto had to stay

with his grandparents because no one could shelter him. He had no opportunity to study pre-

school because no one could watch over him so he spent most of his time enjoying and spending

it with his cousins and learning from his grandfather on how to follow and accomplish every

command with enthusiasm, and other adults that was with him.

At age of 6, Esto started studying at Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP) with

only the basic knowledge of reading and writing his own name. He was lucky to have Tanamal

as his first grade adviser who exerted effort on greatly enhancing his writing and reading ability.

Esto was bullied for his physique and name. Because of that, he had a hard time adjusting to his

environment but eventually he found a way to become the bully to defend his self while

gradually turning them as his friends to help him learn more about socializing. Esto was in his

fifth grade when he met his mother’s friend Kimo, a music enthusiast but a Psychology degree

holder. He was a good influence to Esto’s life, from the way he talks to the clarity of delivering

his thoughts. Kimo is Esto’s role model and he played a big part to Esto’s goal in life.

Esto remained in AUP for his secondary education. He indulged in computer games

because he could not easily socialize and interact with his classmates. He met his classmate,

Terrel, from playing computer games and taught him the sport of skateboard, which enhanced his

social skill. Esto enjoyed the competition of sports that computer games lack of. He transferred

to Daet, Camarines Norte to continue his last two years of junior high school, because his mother

had to work abroad to earn more money for the family to use for sustainment and for enjoyment

such as things that are not essential for living, therefore he had no guardian to look out for him to

stay in AUP.
 Esto was 16 years old when his father returned to Philippines to tell him the status of the

family. Dario explained to Esto that he and Josefa separated the moment Josefa met Gualberto,

because Josefa wanted a best life for their children and could not leave Gualberto anymore. His

mother also lacks the faith to Dario's ability to provide for the family. Esto was introduced to a

new environment that he has to live with. This change in his environment had a huge impact to

his personality. Esto became pessimistic to everything in his life.

During his stay in Daet to finish junior high school, he was introduced to the world of

vices because he had no family to spend his free time with. Esto met Marienel who helped him

with his study and made him happy. Marienel is a loving and understanding person. After Esto

finish his junior high school, he was forced to move back to AUP because his mother wanted him

to graduate in an Adventist school, which made Esto and Marienel to be distant from each other.

Esto, not wanting to end up like his parents, continued to stay in a relationship with Marienel.

Esto was relieved when he returned to AUP that his friends still remembered and that he had no

need to socialize to a new environment.

With the help of Kimo’s introduction of Psychology to Esto, in addition to the fact that he

has a corrupted mind and is confused with people’s thoughts and behaviour, he knew what he

wanted to take for college. The first year of Esto’s college was tough for him. His family did not

really guide his education, gave no inspiration for him to study nor encourage him to achieve

rewards, because his family just wanted him to finish his studies and let him have a life of his

own. Esto never focus on his education, he would always procrastinate to pass the subjects. The

new environment he is in gave him his first anxiety and stress. Esto is dedicated to finish

Psychology to help his self and understand the workings of a person’s personality.
Overview of Predestination Theory

Esto emphasized the effect of the environment to the personality of an individual. For this

reason, Esto objected that people are mostly creatures of biology and that personal characteristics

are more the result of heredity and genetics. He insisted that environment provides the building

material of personality.

He saw people as living in the world of present experiences but they are not responsible

for who they are and what they become. In other words, predestination theory accentuate that the

choices that a person has are determined by the situation he is in. A person’s behavior is

determined by forces over which they have no control of.

Introduction

Predestination theory was built on the assumption that social, rather than biological

forces, are largely responsible for shaping personality. Esto, as a determinist, rejected the notion

of volition or free will. Human personality and life choices do not come from an act of the will,

but it comes from the circumstance that a person finds himself. People are not free but they are

controlled by environmental forces. They may seem to be motivated by inner causes, but in

reality those causes can be traced to sources outside the individual. Coming up into a conclusion

depends ultimately on environmental variables and not on some inner strength.

Personality must not be explained on the basis of physiological or constitutional

components of the organism but rather on the basis of environmental stimuli. Genetic factors are

not that relevant and have no control in shaping the personality of a person.
Concepts

Canvas

Esto believed that a child has a blank canvas at the beginning of its development. The

environment would paint the child’s canvas. The child has no control of what will be painted to

his canvas for he has no idea of what is the difference between a good and bad color and what a

good combination of strokes he must maintain. The child would only know how to paint his own

canvas once he have his own idea of art he want to accomplish after seeing others canvas or what

the environment require. The canvas is the personality of the person. A child would remember

all the colors or lessons and experiences he receive during his childhood development. Basing on

the personality the child development would determine how the person interacts with other

people’s canvas or how he will be in the environment. A person could not remove some paint on

his canvas, it is never easy to forget or remove a part of the personality, because it is a part of

him and it can only be covered by another paint or adjust the personality, but it will remain in his

unconsciousness.

Dependent Choices

Esto never believe that personality can be hereditary or be biological. For him a person

can never own the biological’s parents philosophy in life without being with them through your

child developmental stage or at least have the communication with them. He believed that the

personality a person can have or create will only be based by the environment the person have

live with. Therefore people are condemned with a personality they did not choose. No one has

the chance to choose to what family they will be born in, from that thought alone the freedom of

choice of the person will be dependent on what environment he is living.

 A person will only act to the environment standards, a person will do good by following

the laws, satisfying the society's norms , and spiritual philosophies. With these demands a person

would use use his resources to strengthen his self and to have a healthy well-being. There are

circumstances that a person will not own the physiological needs. During this circumstances the

person will be force to choose on what actions he must take to satisfy his physiological needs,

but the options will be dependent on what the environment he is in and what it can offer for him.

Unfortunate people will only be given with miserable choices that would force them to be

noxious and be a bad cause that will effectively worsen the environment.

A person will know that being good will make him happy and his emotional needs will be

satisfied. Even a person is doing good by his own, it is inevitable to be a part of the environment,

another problematic circumstances could occur to him, he will be harmed by the society, and be

force to take actions to solve his emotions. The person sometimes have options to solve the

problem, he may use a part of his personality to properly solve the problem or be a noxious

person and cause another harm to satisfy his emotional needs. Good people but denied with

options by their environment are condemned to suffer the harm that was cause by the society.

People may not be unfortunate. There are still people that serves redemption to noxious

people, and will help to satisfy the person's unsatisfied needs. Esto called them as Aide, these are

the type of person that have a clear understanding of the environment. No matter how a noxious

a person have become or how corrupted his self is he may still meet this people. With aide in a

person's life, it offers options that can help a noxious person can choose to change his self. But

sometimes the environment restrict the noxious people from meeting Aide.
Ideal Line

The ideal line is the status a person wants to stay. The person does not need to choose

from the environments dependent choices to sustain for his needs or change his personality to be

accepted by the society because in this line or situation, your physiological and emotional needs

are met. A person will move farther from the line if he become more noxious either by his choice

or by the environment condemnation to a person. To move closer to the is by following the rules

of matching up the environments standard. Unfortunate people will be hindered to move closer

to the line because of prioritising their needs, without aid from other people they will be more

likely to become noxious.

Noxious Person

Noxious Person are the type of people that the environment painted or created. They are

part of the environment that inflict harm to other people, they may do it by choice base of their

personality or their way of satisfying their physiological or emotional needs. Some noxious

people still have the want to be in the ideal line but deplored by the environment and they are

unfortunate, and they were not given a choice to help their self.
Aide

Aide are the type of people that have a clear understanding of the environment. They are

people that help improve the environment by not contributing harm to others, offering people

options people to maintain being good and redemption to a noxious person. For a person to

become and aide, he must understand the environment and situation he is in, how the

environment affect the people for him to understand a noxious person status. He will then base

the right kind of help for the noxious person and offer a legitimate option for the noxious person.