40's 40 Studies That Changed Psychology

The first study in “40 Studies That Changed Psychology” is about the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere of the brain. The left side of the brain and the right side of the brain are separate. The left side of the brain deals with speech, writing, and logical thinking while the right side of the brain understand emotions, space, and abstract concepts. Both parts of the brain can work efficiently when separated but work more efficiently when they can communicate with each other. Studies were done with cats, split-brain patients, and regular patients to determine the functions of each hemisphere and how the two hemispheres communicate. There were visual tests involving lights and pictures, tactile tests involving the touching

Because the left side of the brain controls speech, the right side of the brain cannot vocally express their understandings, even though they do actually understand. Also, split-brain patients function basically normally, with the exception of a few disabilities, and can even possibly take in more information than regular people. These finding makes people wonder if it would be beneficial for everyone to have the hemispheres of their brain’s separated. This concept and these tests are extremely interesting to me. Though I don’t like the idea of experimenting with cats—or any animals for that matter—I like how complex the brain is, how two hemispheres control different things, and that split-brain patients could have higher IQ levels. It’s extremely interesting that even though the right hemisphere of the brain understands what it is seeing, it cannot communicate with the mouth. The second study is about whether or not different environments effect brain

It is common sense to assume that socialization, happiness, and more food and water is better for the brain than isolation and just enough sustenance to stay alive. The third study was about one of phycology’s biggest debates; nature vs. nurture. Nature vs. nurture has been one of psychology’s biggest debates for decades, maybe centuries. Many studies have shown that nature rules seventy percent of our behavior but people hate that idea, especially parents. The biggest study that was done was by two men named Bouchard and Lykken, to see what the strongest influence of personality is, genetics or environment. They found thousands of twins with identical genetics, especially those who were separated at birth. They gave each twin over fifty surveys on anything about themselves and their upbringings that one could think of. The results showed that twins have similar personalities, even if they didn’t grow up together, even if they lived in completely different households, and not all twins who grew up together were completely identical in