Nature-Nurture Debate

Nature-nurture is a debate that has been going on for centuries, it is the discussion of whether or not our beliefs and our actions are influenced by our genes or simply the environment around us. While research has found that a lot of our actions are a result of our environment that we are raised in, they can also be effected by genetics. For example,  violent outbursts are sometimes attributed to the way a person reacts to certain situations, but genetic research has found that they may have already been previously programed to do so.

"Caspi et al. (2002) showed that among maltreated children, those who carried a particular allele of the MAOA gene showed a predisposition to violence and antisocial behavior, while those with other alleles did not."



Examples of both sides of the Theory at work would be:

• That of a basketball player, just because they are born with certain genetic traits which predisposed them to excelling at athletics, does not mean that they do not have to put in the work and follow diets to insure that they are at the top of their game. You can be born with all the physical gifts in the world but if you do not practice your craft, and make sure your body is in tip top shape, those gifts do not do any good for you.
• While people seem to believe that if a child is adopted at birth that they start to display the traits of their adoptive parents rather than their biological parents, this is not the case. While the children can pick up certain traits from their adoptive parents, they never lose most of their inherited traits, and can sometimes display aggressive or risky behavior that can not be explained by the adoptive parents.
• Researchers have found that if you take a litter of puppies that have been born to a certain set of parents, and put them with another. The puppies will most likely take on the traits of the parents that you put them with. The reason for this is because they emulate the behavior of their parents that they see. So unlike humans, dogs tend to go off more of what they see than what is genetically there.
• While most people believe that our political beliefs about certain issues are formed over time, research has also found that our political beliefs can sometimes be already ingrained in us because of certain genetic traits that our parents have given us. This is interesting because you would think that as we become older we would form those beliefs on our own but sometimes it appears that we are already meant to have those beliefs.
• It has been proven that children who have grown up with their parents reading to them, can sometimes do better in school. This is not always the case, often times it falls on the child to want to learn and to take the help that is given to them. While our parents can sometimes influence our education by the things that they do, it is often times up to us. We have to have the Nature within us to want to learn.

My Personal Take on it....

While I believe that certain people are born with certain traits that make them better at some things than others that often times the environments that we are born into can have a bigger factor on our lives than genetics. I believe that if you are raised in an environment where you are taught to do things a certain way, that you will pick up those traits and they will carry you throughout your life.

Some people say that people should rise above their raising, but it can be hard when you are genetic predisposed to feel a certain way or act a certain manner. Like the MAOA gene, it is hard not to act a certain way when you have to genetics to do so.

Source:

http://nobaproject.com/modules/the-nature-nurture-question

Sensation and Perception

I learned that our brains can get used to doing a certain task, and if you throw a curve ball to your brain it takes it a while to adjust. An example of this was whenever the group would tell us to place our hand on our head, we could not remove it until they said their name says to do this.

With our part of the project (Perception), I learned that just because our brain perceives something in a certain way, this is not always the case. We should take a closer look at what is around us. Example like this square, it appears to be a dark grey on top, and white on the bottom, but if you place your finger in the middle they appear to be the same color.

  For the sensation portion of the project, Jason placed two paper clips on Stormey's arm to see if she could feel them. Stormey said she could not, and Jason explained it was because the arm is a lot less sensitive then other parts of our bodies. He gave us an example that if we were to place the paper clip on our face that we would be able to easily feel it.


In closing, I believe that there are multiple ways to expand our brains and to teach the brain to perceive new things that appear around us.

Teen Brain vs Adult Brain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PhJOpIZxyE 

I chose to research the teenage brain because I have often wondered myself why teenagers do what they do. I found it to be a convenient topic to discuss since my stepdad, Jim has a teenage daughter, Taylor. It was interesting to pick his brain and also be able to teach him different things about why teenagers behave in certain ways. By doing this I hope to help him have a better understanding and maybe in the future he will use the information I have given him when the situation arises. I was able to learn things that I have never considered.

• I always just thought that being selfish as a teenager was a stage they went through. I did not realize the brain had something to do with this. It was unclear to me that it was a biological issue. 
• Another thing that stood out to me about the videos was the issue about teenagers sleeping all day. I did not understand at first that the reason that they sleep all day is because they are trying to recharge their brains. The time that they are asleep is one of the only times that they can take a step back and re calibrate. 
• I was also able to delve into why teenagers do risky behaviors and take so many chances, it is because the part of their brain that effects decision making is not fully developed. This may explain why parents struggle to get their teens onto the right path and to have them make the right decisions.

BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR

 

I have learned more about the way the human brain works in his chapter than any other point. I was struck by what our brains are capable of. One of the videos that stood out the most for me was TED Talks video by Miguel Nicolelis about Brain-to-brain Communication.

•   https://www.ted.com/talks/miguel_nicolelis_brain_to_brain_communication_has_arrived_how_we_did_it (Links to an external site.)

 It was crazy to see that all Juliano Pinto had to do was simply think of kicking the ball and the exoskeleton carried out the motion for him to do so. It showed me that we have come a very long way in understanding how to help those with significant brain injuries. I had never seen anything quite like that before, and I was very shocked by it. 

 

Another thing that caught my attention on that video was the ability of Miguel Nicolelis to link the brains of two monkey's essentially to control one an others thoughts. I was not aware that something like that was possible. It just goes to show that there are so many possibilities out there and that we just have to explore.

Another video that I found interesting was about "Extraordinary People" - Living With Half A Brain: Six year old Cameron Mott had half her brain removed.

•  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJuqughKmw&feature=youtu.be

  Cameron suffered from rasmussen's encephalitis which caused her to have debilitating seizures up to every three minutes. I was not aware of how rare rasmussen's encephalitis is. It only effects one in a thousand children worldwide. It short circuits the brain and also eats away the brain. Cameron's parents opted to have the high risk operation to remove the damaged part of her brain in order to insure Cameron's quality of life. Though doctors said she will never fully regain full function of her left arm, she is now able to walk without a wheelchair and not stumbling and falling as she did before.

In closing, I am glad that I was able to watch some of these videos, because it opened my eyes to so many possibilities. 

-TED Talks guest speaker Miguel Nicolelis: Brain-to-Brain Communication has arrived. How we did it?Oct. 2014. https://www.ted.com/talks/miguel_nicolelis_brain_to_brain_communication_has_arrived_how_we_did_it

- Extraordinary People - Living With Half A Brain Sept. 3, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJuqughKmw&feature=youtu.be

About My Interest In Psychology

I am currently looking into the field of Sports Psychology as a career path because of my love for sports and my desire to help athletes and or coaches anyway that I can to reach their full potential.

• There are many different sub-fields which make up the requirements for a degree in Sports Psychology. According to http://www.psychology.org/careers/sports-psychologist/#what-does among these fields are kinesiology, physiology, and biomechanics. 
• Some University's do not offer a Sport Psychology degree, some students have double majored in both psychology and exercise science. Probably part of the reason that schools do not offer degrees in sports psychology yet is because it is still a relatively new field.
• Though it may still be in its development stages, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, sports psychologists are expected to grow in number by 11% nationwide from 2012 to 2022.
• http://www.psychology.org/careers/sports-psychologist/#what-does also says the salary in Illinois for a sports psychologist makes about $125,230 annual mean wage.
• I found this article on https://www.psychologyschoolguide.net/blog/famous-sports-psychologists/ about Coleman Griffith. He is regarded as one of the first sports psychologist. He began his career as a professor of educational psychology at University of Illinois. He eventually became the sports psychologist for the Chicago Cubs in 1938. Though his research was not highly regarded in his time, eventually in the 1960s, people began to take notice.

I have been involved in and around sports my entire life. Though I probably will not be able to become a coach, I still have a desire to help athletes because I still want to see them succeed and thrive in whatever sport they are playing. Another reason I have a desire to do this is because I myself was never able to play so I want those that have the opportunity to take full advantage of it.  I also have a friend who coaches at McMurry University, and being around his players has made me want to help athletes reach their full potential.

A Little About Me

Hey everybody I am Jordan Bullock! I am a part time college student at Hardin Simmons University. I am originally from Abilene, Texas but currently live in Hawley, Texas. Some of my hobbies include watching sports on T.V, swimming, reading, and going to sporting events. However, I also enjoy outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, and shooting guns. 

I love having animals and right now I have a two year old tabby cat named Milo. We inherited after he wandered up onto our porch last spring. When we had our Christmas tree up, he would constantly bat at the ornaments and break them, which would cause my mom to get very upset. For the most part he has been a very good cat. We also have two horses named Red, and Spunky. Though they have not been ridden in a while they are still good pets to have. 

This will be my first time to officially blog. My blog will be about my experiences that I have in my Psychology class, and what I learn from them. I hope to be entertaining as I write in my bi-weekly experiences. I am taking Psychology because I have an interest in learning about why people behave the way they do. I want to be able to better understand those around me. I am also taking it, because I am thinking of majoring in Criminal Justice.