Righty or Lefty?
Have you ever wondered why some people are so good at math, or English? This idea can be explained in simple enough sounding words, brain hemispheres. It has been studied in people why they are better at a group of things, while another is better at a different group of things. This phenomena at hand is being more dominant with either ones left or right side of the brain.
If a person tends to be more dominant with one side of their brain, there are multiple characteristics that show this. Some characteristics of people whom are more left sided are: logical, sequential, rational, analytical, objective, and look at things as parts. This dominance affects ones personality, abilities, and way of learning. More girls tend to be left side dominant than boys. An interesting fact is that most schools actually favor left hemisphere dominant students. Many are likely to have a promising career in fields such as a lab scientist, banker, mathematician, librarian etc. This is because they are more logical and analytical thinking.
When a person is more right side dominant there are also characteristics that emphasize this. Many tend to think random, be intuitive, more holistic views, are synthesizing, subjective, and look at things as wholes. More boys tend to be right side dominant than girls. Right brained people relate more to a visual world. These dreamers would make for good politicians, athletes, and artists. Not saying that these occupations are what they WILL be, but with right hemisphere dominant people these careers would work well with their ways of thinking.
Even though there are a lot of people that fit these descriptions, there are also quite a few that are “whole brained”. This is because “..mental operations that start in one hemisphere link to specialized sections of the other hemisphere” (Lesley S J Farmer). After reading this if you’re curious to find out if you are more one hemisphere dominant, check this out.
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http://www.funderstanding.com/right_left_brain.cfm
What Is It?
While the question
, what is the essence of psychology, can be debated, the main thing that stands out above the rest, is that the so-called “essence” of psychology is to identify and question empirical assumptions. In other words to identify different behaviors of people and question why they act that way based on data collected from experiences or observations. That is what psychology is, the “The science that deals with mental processes and behavior.” Without questioning why, or how, psychology would not be what it is. This intriguing subject will never cease to amaze a person who wants to learn. The way the human mind works is so complex and has many of its own quirks that give us the information to feed off of.
Take addictions for example, finding out why it’s caused has been really popular recently through various things a couple being: technology and psychology, through the question “Why?”. If it weren’t for that very question, one would not learn anything from experience or data. These assumptions made must be tested to try and pin-point every possible answer. Addictions are one of the most tragic, chaotic, and scary things that can happen to a person, or moreover, a family. Luckily this disease can be treated thanks to the people who want to know “Why?” and “How can we fix this?” They study people’s addictions such as, alcohol or drugs even, and gather data that proves why this problem occurs and develop programs to help counter attack the rather disturbing problems. While many will say that addiction is a choice, or that it’s because a person doesn’t have the will power or even want to quit, addiction is actually a chronic, relapsing disorder in someones brain. This disease is caused by multiple factors such as genetic, psychological, social, and environmental factors, that changes the normal way the nervous system works. 
Addictions are more than a will problem, they are a desire, a craving so insanely uncontrollable it’s harder than difficult for people to get rid of their problem. It’s like the one thing that a person wants more than anything, this is a noteable reason why people sometimes lose their lifes because they can’t control this yearning for a temporary high.
If it wasn’t for the people who cared to take the time to ask why, society would be worse off than it is. For treatment of these problems we now have rehabilitation centers for the addicts to help them overcome their troubling times.
An overwhelmingly important factor of psychology: question, studying, and answering questions through data collected and experience, time, and the caring people who do this. Psychologists.
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Gears In Your Head
The mind works in mysterious ways. It is influenced by many things and works like nothing else you have seen. The gears in the photo below represent that the mind works like there’s gears in your head. What is a car without its gears and leavers? What is the mind without its own type of gears? Psychology is dealing with the way ones mind works, the gears work in ones head to produce a way of thinking. They are not really “gears”, but nonetheless they represent the mind at work, putting things together to make sense of them. As in cars, not every gear in every car is the same. If two different “cars” are put together for a comparison, there are going to be different ways of working. Just like in ones brain, the things that make people think are going to be different also, giving different points of view, or even why some people are better at English while some are better at math. It’s all in a person’s psychology.
The brain in this picture makes it seem as if this person were particularly good at math or physics, because of the E=mc^2 and all of the numbers and bar-codes in this head. As stated by Paul Valery ”The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.” (http://www.kgv.net/psychology/) Meaning that with psychology you learn about why people think the way they do. Some people could be amazing at mathematical arithmetic and some could be extremely good at English/composition. Some of the best poets in the world did poorly in school because of math.
”The mind is a system of organs of computation, designed by natural selection to solve the kinds of problems our ancestors faced in their foraging way of life, in particular, understanding and outmaneuvering objects, animals, plants, and other people” (How the Mind Works by Steven Pickner). Without psychology we cannot understand why people’s minds think the way they does, the way we react to things, the way that we have instincts and believe in certain things. Basic logic is specified by our genetic programing, the way they operate was shaped by life lessons from the person, or people around them that mean something to them. A person’s way of thinking can be influenced by many incidents, people, or even the media. However mostly from past experiences.
Like the picture shows the mind is like a machine that runs thoughts through a person’s head, it shows that some people are better at things than others, and the mind gathers and uses information from past experiences to shape future ways of thinking for itself and possibly even ones children.
Helping
Psychology has many different fields designed because there are many people with different problems that need help. First there are Clinical Psychologists, this is the largest area of this practice. When working at medical facilities psychologists in this area may be helping patients deal with injuries or weakness’s while others deal with the emotions caused by changes in life, like losing a loved one. A lot even work at physical rehabilitation centers where they help people who have suffered from chronic problems and help deal with trauma. A majority of time is spent by the psychologists in personal sessions with patients administering tests to try and figure out what may be wrong with a patient to help them recover. Another possibility is involving a patient in some sort of group therapy, including people with a similar problem to help push each other through a certain problem, and learn how to support one another.
Next there are counselors, whose methods include examinations providing help for people to overcome everyday pressures and show patients how they can live normal, happy, productive lives. Generally counselors work at group practices. In school many realize there are counselors also. These counselors are specifically called School Psychologists. These psychologist are placed in schools to help students maximize there education and minimize behavioral issues that appear commonly at various ages in school. These psychologists work with many different people in schools aside from students, such as teachers, administrators, and parents to keep students away from the sinful temptation of drug abuse, and violence.
Yet another field involves Social Psychologists. Social Psychologists are helpful in areas including organizational management, marketing, and designing programs and systems because they examine how individuals interact with society and trends in society. A part of society is disabilities, a specific psychologist that is likely to work with these disabilities are Developmental Psychologists. They go as far as coming up with ways to help elderly people remain autonomous and alert. The study of these psychologist mainly include changes in physiology, cognitive ability, and social interaction occurring throughout different stages in life. They also tend to choose a specific area to study in some being early childhood, adolescence, or geriatrics.
One could go on and on about the many different branches involving psychology, however the basic message here is that psychologist are here to help, whether it is with physical problems, emotional problems, or any other problems. They are here in many specific areas of work trying to keep up with everyone’s problems and trying to improve them. Psychology is a huge field of work with huge goals to help as many people as possible.
Introduction [Psychology]
Psychology is a science that deals with mental processes and behaviors. It can show how and why people do the things they do, rational or irrational, how and why we lie to ourselves, and many other things. I am excited to write about this topic, for I am extremely interested in learning about the way people think, and why they think that way as opposed to another. I want to see how this field can help people live a life that they are happy to have instead of have some psychological problems. My blog will be different because it is written from the prospective of someone who has never really studied this subject, let alone a teenage girl. I am going off of information that I find, and think is interesting. Psychology can be a huge part in making someone happy. Depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Insomnia and many other psychological disorders can take away the life people want to live. Many people live with these disorders everyday and go without being diagnosed, and unfortunate things happen. Psychology has affected me personally because my best friend was diagnosed as being bipolar. It was a scary experience for her family especially, but me also. I was not used to seeing someone act in those ways and I was really worried about her. So researching about why people act this way could be really interesting; if no one knew why then there would be no helping this and her story could have ended way different. Like I said before I am really excited to be reading and writting about psychology, the disorders, and why they happen.
