Rebelling is in Our Psychology in The Rebel County

By Alice O'Brien

Churchview Therapies, Millstreet

We have a reputation down in these parts as always fighting for a cause; we are known as the rebel county, after all. We love nothing more than an underdog to fight for, an agenda to defend, or a protest to support. When we were in school, we rebelled against the teachers, in the workplace, we may rebel against the higher voice, we even rebel against the law- who hasn’t broken a speed limit or jaywalked?

It is true to say that we don’t really like being told what to do so we excerpt our own opinion, often in a bid to regain power, to take back some control. This does not always have to a grand gesture, we do not always have to chain ourselves to the barricades. We just do enough to satisfy our own need for independence. But why do we need to do this? Why not accept the rules unconditionally? Well, it’s all down to psychology really.

Resistance is ingrained in our culture from a young age- look at the mother fighting with the toddler to wear a coat- that toddler will fight like a French revolutionary.

Similarly, have you ever seen a teenage eye-roll at being told what to do? The stuff of legends. This is called reactance- it is your brains reaction when it feels your freedom is being threatened, or your choices are being limited. You get annoyed and might even panic. Some of us respond more logically to reactance than others, we can take a breath, measure the situation and make an informed decision on what to do. But, others have a lower tolerance and can react disproportionately, leading to higher risk behaviours- speeding, not wearing a seat belt and other such behaviours can show this.

So, we can take pride in our reputation as the rebel county, knowing that rebellion is part of our psychology. Maybe that part of our psychology is just a bit more plentiful in Cork.