Module 3: Experimental Task

Module 3: Experimental Task

After working on this project and reflecting on my journey, I am encouraged and proud of who I am today. I believe that I have been blessed with a great foundation of life and was raised in a environment that has prepared me for success. I am excited to see what my future holds and has in store for me.

Nature-Nurture Debate

Introduction

The development of a child begins with learned attributes, such as language, expressions, etc., and biological attributes such as height, skin color, and hair color. The debate begins with the idea that if you were to take the offspring from a family and place that offspring into a family with very different lifestyle or attributes from the original family, which features would the offspring develop while growing up. It asks the question, does a child develop psychological attributes from their genetics or how they were raised. This debate has gone on since 350 A.D. and has never been settled due to the facts that support both sides of the argument.

Nurture

The idea behind the nurture side of the debate is that children develop psychologically by the parent with which the offspring is nurtured by. For instance, there is a story of a boy in Uganda that was raised by monkey's from ages 3-6. He was cared for and nurtured by the monkeys in the near by jungle. He was found by a tribeswoman while he was scavenging in the trash with other monkeys, looking for food. He was accustomed to walking on his knee's, eating raw meat, and communicate with the monkeys. John's story explains how psychologically, it is possible to learn different than normal human characteristics in the ways of life. Furthermore, animals adopted offspring from other species all the time. The stories range from a peacock a goose to a chicken raising puppies.

Nature

Now the nature side of the debate believes that children develop psychologically from their genetics and biological attributes. Simply put, we develop based on the genes we inherit and the early these actions show, the more connected to genetics it is. For instance, the connection between a newborn and its mother is connected to evolution and that we are biological inclined to make that connection with our mother. This is also the idea behind how intelligence is passed down from generation to generation due to natural superiority.

Conclusion

I am no expert on the situation but I feel confident saying that it is easy to say both nature and nurture play a role in psychological development. However, they play crucial roles in different aspects of psychological development. I believe that the nature side develops more of the intelligence at an early stage and how we grow physically plays a role in our psychological development, while the nurture side assists in temperament and behavior. Although both sides have strong supporting facts, I think it has to be to the extreme of one side taking all the credit, both work together in harmony.

Works Cited

Ferguson, Euan. “He Was a Wild Child. Really Wild.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9                    

                Oct. 1999, www.theguardian.com/world/1999/oct/10/euanferguson.theobserver.

McLeod, Saul. “Saul McLeod.” Nature Nurture in Psychology, Creative Commons , 1 Jan. 1970,                       

                www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html.

PaytonJaneSesh. “Nature vs. Nurture: The Debate on Psychological Development.” YouTube,                 

               YouTube, 11 June 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPZsrLAkpKM.

Sensation & Perception

Introduction

Sensation and perception are two key components to how we all use our senses to relay to our brain about our surroundings. It allows for us to be aware of the objects and hazards that make up our environment which ultimately allows for the need to trigger survival instincts if necessary. Two of the most important senses that give us the greatest amount of information is our ability to hear sounds and to see our surroundings. However, these two senses are not a full proof function of relaying this message. This blog will explain how the senses hearing and seeing can be used to trick our brain into falling for tricks or illusions that seem to fool us.

Sight

I want to start of by showing you something fairly simple. Take a look at the picture above. Do you see black dots popping up within the white circles? Does it disappear whenever you look directly at it? This is because the black dots are not actually there, rather they are just simply your brain believing that it is therefore it allows you to see it. This is due to something called lateral inhibition. To simplify, lateral inhibition is what happens when more sides of a lighter area is darker, therefore you're brain perceives that the area is actually darker than what it truly is.

Hearing

Our eyes are not the only things that play tricks on us. Our ears can also fool us too. Auditory illusions exist to us in a form that our brain gets fooled yet again. For instance, whenever we hear a distorted message, we are unable to make up the message being revealed to us. However, once we learn what the message is relaying, suddenly it is a lot clearer to hear and understand than it was the first time it was played through. This is because you were able to comprehend what was going to be said and therefore were able to hear the message clearly. Feel free to try it out yourself by clicking on this link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9HSvNPVKQ


Conclusion

To conclude, our senses allow us to be able to survive in such an ever changing world that we are surrounded by but they also can be the key to how were are fooled in certain situations as well. Our brain can only use the information that it has being given and our brain is not always right in deciphering this information. This is why were our so easily fooled by certain illusions that leave us wondering how it is all possible to make something so simple that we still are unable to comprehend.

Sources

• http://psylux.psych.tu-dresden.de/i1/kaw/diverses%20Material/www.illusionworks.com/html/hermann_grid.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbzL9PxtFf0

Brain & Behavior - Concussions

What is a concussion?

Concussions, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is a jarring injury of the brain resulting in disturbance of cerebral function. According to Clifford Robbin, athletes in the United States suffer between 2.5-4 million concussions per year and between 50%-80% go untreated. Scientist today question how these concussions effect the brain after the injury has occurred and what happens to the brain itself to cause this injury.

How do you get a concussion and what are the symptoms?

A concussion is caused by jarring of the brain against the skull from either a single hit to the head or several smaller hits consistently. This jarring causes the neurons in the brain to stretch and tear the axons within itself, causing the neurons to not be able to transmit signals back and forth. Once these axons begin to deteriorate, they release toxins which in turn kills of other nearby neurons as well. Symptoms of a concussion include unconsciousness, headaches, blurry vision, balance issues, behavioral issues, memory problems, and sleep prevention. Concussions can be hard to diagnosed because the symptoms arrive slowly after the concussion has already arrived.

How do concussions effect the brain overtime?

It often takes between a few days to a couple of weeks for a concussion to fully heal. A person should rest and take caution to any activity to allow the brain to regenerate and heal completely. However, a concussion can lead to a number of later medical issues. One of which is PCS or Post-Concussion Syndrome. This can lead to constant headaches, memory problems, and behavioral issues that could effect the person for months or even years after the injury. An overload of sub-concussive hits can lead to CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. CTE is a brain deteriorating disease that can effect a persons mood and behavior that begin in the person's 30s or 40s followed by memory problems and issues thinking which in some cases lead to dementia.