Who Was Phineas Gage?

Phineas Gage was a handyman who suffered a terrible accident in his brain; due to this he promoted a huge advance in the study of the brain. His accident was a very rare one, he was a railroad handyman who in a job was working in a mine, they wanted to make a railroad and his job was to put dynamite in the mine and pressure it with sand with a metal tube, one day he forgot to put first the sand and he pushed the dynamite without sand with the tube, this caused a spark and this caused the dynamite to explode, and the metal tube went up in his face and went through his face and to his brain and the tube just went through his head, this made him a hole in his brain and face, he lost his eye and part of his brain, all of this happened to him, but surprisingly he survived the accident. They say that at the moment Gage was talking, he was conscious every moment of the accident. Because of the accident he was not the same person anymore, he was mad all the time and was not a person which people liked to be with. He lost his old job and couldn’t maintain one for a long time. He was not the same person anymore he changed his mood since the accident. This accident benefit science in proving that if the front lobe was damaged it could make personality changes, social skills, and emotions, before this accident happened front lobes were considered non functional part of the brain, and with no relation with the human personalities. Brain localization is a term that states that the brain controls everything in your body, such as your vision, movements, and processing information.  Brain lateralization is used when people try to separate the brain in two parts. Because both parts of the brain, the right and left side do not look alike.

-Rodrigo Estevez

Works Cited:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage

http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~bbrown/psyc1501/brain/loclat.htm

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/brain.html 

Nature vs. Nurture- Athletic Ability

In psychology one of the biggest topics and debates is the term called “Nature vs. Nurture” this term has lots of topics, and it has to do how our environment and how our genetics affect us in our developing in life, scientists are trying to know what has more to do, if our environment or our genetics. One of these topics is Athletic Ability. This is a very interesting topic because for playing sports you need skill, attitude, and the correct body to play certain sport. For example, to play basketball you at least have to be tall, so you can play good, but you need skill and strength, because there is very tall people who are really thin and can’t play basketball, and there is tall people that are good playing basketball, but they don’t like to play it, because there environment has not promoted them basketball, they don’t have the attitude. So that’s why this term has so many variants, because everything is connected, without one thing, the other does not work, and it’s a very delicate topic. To have athletic ability, you need to have some genetic structure that helps you play sports, and have a good environment that promotes sports, and help play sports since being a toddler. Scientists, sports fans, coaches, even the same athletes, practically everyone, ask themselves since sports have been around, (always) are athletes born or prepared? Scientists and psychologists have made research about this dilemma.

There has been cases were athletes are not born but made, for Example Reggie Miller, he was born with a problem in his legs, he had to wear leg braces for years, but his legs were repaired, and he got into the NBA and played for Indiana Pacers, he made history, the most 3-point shots in history ever made. So, Reggie Miller, he was not born as an athlete, neither could play sports, when he was a toddler, he did not have an athletic environment, he worked hard to become an NBA player, so he is a made player, he had an environment of basketball, until he was an adult. “On the other hand, many people believe that genetics make up good athletes. People believe that Reggie Miller was born with athletic genes, even though he had a problem in his leg, he is 6’6 and NBA states that every great player of basketball passes the 6’4 so scientists and fans think that Reggie was born with athletic genes.

Scientists also state that some athletes are born with special genes, which make them better than the others and with more attributes to play the sport they are playing, for example muscles, respiration, their size, if they are tall or undersized, fast or slow, etc. Scientists use Lance Armstrong, the greatest cyclist of all times, they say he had a special gene, that his blood carried more oxygen, so that way he could become a cyclist, so he was a born athlete.

So in Nature vs. Nurture there is no definite answer of which affects us more, environment or genetics, or which one affects us the stronger, or the better, because there are infinite examples of historical athletes, who were born and built athletes, this is an interesting, non resolved, and never ending topic. So that's what this topic is about, one proving wrong the other, and one being right, and the other being right also.


-Rodrigo Estevez
 
Works Cited:
 
http://expertfootball.com/training/naturevsnurture.php  

Nature vs. Nurture - The Debate

Nature vs. Nurture is a term used by psychologists and scientists that explain how people are affected by their environment and their genetics. When they mean how they are affected is how much their intellectual can change, grow or not grow or be mentally insufficient, scientists and psychologists think that their environment and their genetics have a lot to do, but both of them do a huge part for people. Francis Galton was the first to use the term “Nature vs. Nurture” in the 13th century in 1874. Topics of this term are, homosexuality and obesity are a huge topic in this term, and besides this two topics there are many more, like a serial killer or every personality every person has, because everyone is different, even a topic can be a football player, to study their environment and their genetics how can they vary. The overall belief of Nature vs., Nurture is that your environment and your genetics have a lot to do in your intelligence, and many other things, and that everyone is different because everyone has a different environment and different genetics, that’s why many all scientists study twins. In my opinion Nature vs. Nurture is a very interesting topic, it makes you think about everyone and how everything affects everyone, and how everyone is different because of everything.

Works Cited:

Info gathered from:

http://www.nurture-or-nature.com/articles/nature-versus-nurture/index.php


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture  

Pictures gathered from:

http://www.doodlebuckets.com/images/photos/Twins_Baby_Gifts.jpg


http://portal.sochipe.cl/subidos/noticias/fotos/genetics2.jpg


http://eltamiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/sir-francis-galton.jpg

Charles Darwin and his theory of Evolution

Charles Darwin was an English environmentalist. Charles Darwin made a long trip of 5 years to the Galapagos Islands in 1831, and he found different type of species of birds and other turtles in different islands of the Galapagos. Some birds had a rounded beak and the other one had a straight and pointy beak, he found the differences of the islands, the rounded beak bird ate food like vegetables and the other bird had to get his food from the ground in holes. So he came up with a theory, that everything evolutions, depending on their environment. He called this theory, the theory of Natural Selection, this theory state that every species changes depending on their environment so they can live long enough to reproduce and that their species keeps on going. For Darwin’s bad luck in his time everyone thought that God made everything like it is, that science is not involved, everyone told Darwin that by publishing his theory, he was going to “kill God”. Everyone thought that God made the 13 species, and that no change of evolution and beak has ever occurred. But now, that out technology is more advanced since the 1970’s his theory has been proven. He was afraid of publishing his book because on those times the Catholic Church said what was true and what was not, so he was afraid that no one would believe in his theory.

Works Cited:

Pictures:

http://www.google.hn/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ebookchm.com/screen/miscelleanous/darwi52ljq5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ebookchm.com/ebook___literary-theory-for-dummies_.html&usg=__b4fwnXC_feEEpjW_VTCjnQMju3w=&h=464&w=323&sz=40&hl=es&start=3&zoom=1&tbnid=B3bxYEKehOwxZM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcharles%2Bdarwin%2Bbook%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26biw%3D1007%26bih%3D671%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1

http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_2.htm

Info from:

http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin#Journey_of_the_Beagle

Why should we study Psychology?

They say that Psychology is really interesting, you get to know people and/or animals, and their behavior, you get to know why people behave the way people behave and that helps people understand themselves and others better. That is a reason to study Psychology, so we can understand ourselves and others, so we can coexist in the same community or society, so that our social bonds become stronger. Another interesting thing about psychology is that we are to study the human brain, which is the human body's most interesting and fascinating part of the human body.

What is pyschology?

Psychology is the study and science that treats the mental processes and its behaviors, psychology is also the study of other animal behaviors and mental functions.

Info gathered from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology