Culture and Gender - How Do They Affect Emotion?

For a very long time, Psychologists have tried to determine the emotion differences between Genders and cultures. A person can recognize an emotion from facial expression. The argument is that whether a person knows what emotions are as a baby or by observing it as they grow up. I believe that a person is born with these emotions for example when a baby is upset he cries because he knows that's the way to express his feelings or laugh to show that he is happy.

Women are stereotypically more emotional and men are stereotypically angrier. In two studies by Kring, women were found to be more facially expressive than men when it came to both positive and negative emotions. These researchers concluded that men and women experience the same amount of emotion, but that women are more likely to express their emotions. An American Psychological Association article says that, “boys are generally expected to suppress emotions and to express anger through violence, rather than constructively.A child development researcher at Harvard University argues that boys are taught to shut down their feelings, such as empathy, sympathy.

Another difference between gender is facial expression. Woman generally smile more when happy,or cry when sad. Whatever they feel is expressed in their face unlike men. Society somewhat restricts men from expressing their emotion so much so that they automatically shut off any expression of feelings.

Emotions are a universal thing. It is recognized in every culture but is not necessarily the same. The way a person expresses their feelings or emotions is due to how they were raised and taught to deal with them. In some countries it is ok for some men to cry or express their emotions freely while in other countries it is 'frowned upon'. For example, In Europe men greet each other by hugs and hugs whereas men in America would be offended by that or would feel awkward.

Alzheimer's Disease: What Can We Learn About Memory?

 About 100 years ago, The Alzheimer's disease was discovered. It was ,however , unfamiliar to people. Now a days , A lot of people have lost themselves our a family member or loved one because of this disease. Alzheimer's is the most common type of Dementia, it starts in the hippo campus affecting the memory first then spreads to the rest of the brain. It kills cells and eventually they die and the brain becomes much smaller in size.

From the video I watched in class, I learned that the most people that get affected are the people who take care of the patient. The person with Alzheimer's gets so ill that he can't recognize the people around him that were his/her entire life before. They  become moody and not everyone can tolerate that. I felt terrible for the families in the video for having to go through that because it's such a hard thing to do,just to watch the person you once knew and loved fade away.

 

The Gift of Fear

The study of the evolution of emotions dates back to the 19th century. The theory of evolution and natural selection has been applied to the study of human communication, mainly by Charles Darwin in his 1872 work, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. He thought that just like every human and animal trait, emotions also adapted over time.

Duing the old times, Humans survived by the most basic emotions Fear,pride and suffering. They had to go by their survival skills and instincts, naturally many of them died because of various reasons. In modern day , because of all the technology advances that made human life so much easier, humans now have access to more emotions and feelings. Love and joy ,for example, are emotions I feel are now more commonly used because of the safe enviroment humans live in. They are always assured to have access to food and shelter without having to hunt which would basically consume their entire day.

So it is quite obvious that as humans evolve,they need their emotions to evolve with them to accomodate them later in life so they could deal with the things that they have to face in life.

Studies on the Limitations of Memory

There were many experiments preformed by several psychologists revolving The Scheme Theory. The Schema Theory is the influence of stored knowledge on current information-processing and behavior. Schema are cognitive structures that provide a framework for organizing information about the word. Empirical study is the effects of schemas on memory,that is was Bartlett studied in 1932.

Bartlett.

According to Bartlett , People will retell their memory the way the can relate it to their cultures or memories. He concluded that schemas can be activated to increase info-processing efficiency. They enable generation of expectations about everything. They can also lead to distortions and mistakes when settings are unfamiliar.The way the participants recalled the story came under the influence of relevant schematic knowledge in their memory. 

French and Richards 1993: studied the influence of schemata and memory retrieval. In their study,there were 3 conditions :
1. Particpants were shown a clock with roman numerals and asked to draw the clock from memory.
2.The same procedure,except that they would be required to draw the clock from memory.
3. The clock was left in full view of the participants and they just had to draw the clock.

The clock had the wrong numeral. In the first 2 conditions, most of the participants drew the right one but the rest drew the wrong number.  French and Richards concluded that the participant's knowledge of the Roman numerals is what caused him to draw it correctly.

Brain Structures and Memory Loss: The Case Study of H.M.

In 1953, Henry Gustav Molasion , More commonly know as H.M underwent a experimental surgery to cease his epilepsy. The doctors performed brain surgery and removed a portion of his temporal lobes - the hippocampus. Little did they know that that was going to damage his memory. they noticed that after the surgery he had profound Amnesia. He could remember his past,but anything new, he couldn't transfer it to his long-term memory.


H.M is still considered one of the most interesting and helpful case studies for psychology until today. He died about 3 years ago, He was 82. Tests and experiments were run on H.M . They tried to figure out how a human learns and deals with new experiences. Scientists saw that there were at least two systems in the brain for creating new memories. One, known as declarative memory, records names, faces and new experiences and stores them until they are consciously retrieved. Another system, commonly known as motor learning, is subconscious and depends on other brain systems. Another system, commonly known as motor learning, is subconscious and depends on other brain systems.

I think that Brain surgery is a very risky thing and that no doctor should have operated until he was fully informed about the case of how the brain works. However, I can not  deny that This surgery and what happened to H.M was of vital importance to psychology and the technology and advances we have made today.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/us/05hm.html?pagewanted=all

False Memory

Eye witness testimony was more commonly used before technology and investigations collaborated. However, This was not the most accurate solution to identifying the criminal or what really happened. Memory is subjected to change and whenever a memory is forced out of the brain, it is bound to be changed.  On August 1, 1984, Ronald Cotton was arrested for the rapes. In January 1985, Cotton was convicted by a jury of one count of rape and one count of burglary. In a second trial, in November 1987,Cotton was convicted of both rapes and two counts of burglary. An Alamance County Superior Court sentenced Cotton to life plus 54 years. 

The victim claimed she had memorized her attackers face, But when she was shown many pictures and asked to identify the person who did it. She picked the wrong one,she was convinced that it was him. When Ronald Cotton demanded that they run tests,the tests revealed that it wasn't him and it was another prisoner. When the confronted the victim,she was convinced it was Ronald not the other man,even though he was right in front of her.  Her  memory had altered itself to place Ronald Cotton in the place of the crime. I think that Eye witness testimony shouldn't be used in courts because it isn't accurate.