In the novel, “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, David Eagleman introduces the recent discoveries about the unconscious processes that go on in our everyday life; as well as, how individuals behaviors are driven by the unconscious mind. He poses many questions that challenge a person to see if they know their true self. For example, “Why do people whose names begin with the same letter have the tendency to marry eachother?”, “Why is it so difficult to keep a secret?” These are a couple of questions that Eagleman answers throughout the entire novel. The answer to all of these questions is that most of the brains work is unconscious; Therefore, we have no knowledge of these matters. The main idea of this book is to present the argument …show more content…
The brain assumes certain things and this is because of previous experiences. Vision is not an actual thing, but because the brain needs to know the object that it is experiencing, it interprets it clearly. The brain is able to remember and distinguish these new things because of the brain’s ability to be easily molded, also known as plasticity. Another theme presented throughout the story was Eagleman's argument about the separation of the conscious and unconscious minds, relies on the unreliability of the human senses. We cannot simply acknowledge that our senses are exhibiting to our conscious mind what is really occurring in the perspective of the outside world. Our unconscious brain processes small amounts of information at a time and discharges the results to our conscious …show more content…
Eagleman explains how genes are shown to have a significant impact on people’s behavior. It was proven that an individual with a specific set of genes has the probability of committing a violent crime by over 100%. Many people are born with instincts to be violent and cause crimes due to the set of genes they are born with, and is given no choice in that aspect. “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain” positively impacted my life in many ways. This novel opened my eyes more, and made me think and view life differently considering I’ve learned that the choices I’m making are mostly made unconsciously. It also helped me realize that seeing is not literally believing because what you are seeing can be seen differently based on past experiences and perspectives. While we may think that we are making a decision based on what we view morally correct, it is just our brain outwiting
Wilson, Jim. Criminal Genes. Popular Science. Pars International Corp. New York, NY. November 12, 2002. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1282176.html
Nature versus nurture has been argued in attempt to understand how criminals behave. The theory of what influences psychopath and serial killers’ violent and destructive pathways has not been agreed on till this day. Criminals such as psychopaths and serial killers have been researched for the past two decades. Scientists have found that genetics is a determining factor of who becomes a serial killer. It is important to understand the determinants involved within a serial killer, because if these social and environmental causes are discovered, they can be altered and controlled to reduce crime (Lykken, 1993). With more studies, we would therefore prevent mass murders and could assist in significant reductions of crime within society.
Genetics is responsible for not only fingerprints, moles, or skin tone, it also affects the whole system including our minds and our thoughts. Freud, 1957, claimed that active stimuli that are "emanating within the organism and penetrating to the mind" of humans drive them into action (Weiner, 1972). The nurture theory states that genetic influence over abstract traits may exist; however, the environmental factors are the genuine origins of our conduct. This includes the use of conditioning in order to induce a new behaviour to a child, or alter an unlikely behaviour being shown by the child. Capote believed that Hickock is a natural-born criminal since he did not have any problem growing in a loving family but he was the one who plotted the murder. And although he was not ill-treated in his childhood, evidences of criminal tendencies are seen in him. In an instance when he swerves to run over a dog instead of avoiding it. Feeling relieved by executing vicious deeds like hurting or slaying creatures is a behaviour seen in people who have higher chance of doing crimes. It is said that when they were younger, criminals felt inferior to their parents satisfy themselves though murdering animals (Stein, 2007). While Smith had a terrible childhood marked by cruelty and lack of concern of both his parents and the guardians in the orphanage who abused him instead of taking care of him may have developed his criminality, eventually killing the
David Eagleman, in his book Incognito: The Secret lives of the Brain, explores the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind. Referencing many real-life stories and scientific experiments, Eagleman argues that we governed more by our unconscious. The book explores one main question: “If the conscious mind - the part you consider to be you - is just the tip of the iceberg, what is the rest doing?". We are not aware of what the rest of brain, the unconscious, is doing; rather, “the brain runs its show incognito” (Eagleman 7). In my book report, I have interwoven my synopsis and my reflection/connections to what we have learned in class so the essay flows more chronologically. Additionally, I chose the examples and case studies that I believed best reflected the central argument of the book. For quotes, I only included sentences that reflected a main idea and terms/phrases that
The case of whether serial killers are born with the lust to kill or if they are truly victims of their environment has been a hot debated question by both psychologists and the FBI today. A serial killer is traditionally defined as one that kills 3 or more people at different times with “cooling off” periods in between kills. Both psychological abuse as a child and psychological disorders are to blame for the making of a killer. The nature vs. nurture debate is best applied to the mysterious behaviors and cases of serial killers and their upbringing and environment. Nature is the genetic and biological connections a person has, personality traits, and how genetic make-up all relates to a killer. Nurture is examining the upbringing and environment that a person is around that affects what a person becomes. In some cases however, the effects of only upbringing or only biological problems were the reasons certain serial killers committed crimes. Although there is no definitive answer to what plays the bigger role: nature or nurture, they both are contributing factors that make a serial killer. These deviants of society are afflicted with problems in either their upbringing or have psychological disorders, and are able to blend into our everyday lives with no apparent differences, yet they wreck havoc through their unremorseful killings.
Despite much controversy surrounding the notion of inherited criminal tendencies, there is much evidence to support such theories. Although Lombroso may have employed his theoretic atavisms in an attempt to provide a biologically deterministic method of reducing or preventing crime, they have ultimately lead to an abandonment of gravitas concerning such a notion. However, as myopic as Lombroso's theories of criminality being a hereditary trait appears (Mannheim, 1965) research has shown shared physical characteristics to be commonplace in explicating the argument of genetic criminal behaviour. Although Lombroso presented...
The unconscious mind can be explained in various ways and can take on various attributes. Carl Jung the author of “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious,” defines unconsciousness as the first reactions and interactions a person endeavors. Several Physicists believe that the unconscious mind acts separately from our voluntary thinking. Scientist believes that understanding the unconscious mind is key to determining what type of archetype a person may have or develop. Experiments such as, reaction to stimuli, have lead cognitive psychiatrist to determine the strength of the unaware and involuntary mind. In addition, many social physicists have also believed that the unconscious mind is unaware of it actions and that the unconscious part of our brain can sometimes be focused on several signs that our conscious self can’t see.
All organisms on the planet have chromosomes that carry genetic material that makes it up protein by protein and that is passed on from generation to generation. Whatever the organism, fruit fly or humans, we all have DNA (Blum, et al, 2010). To understand criminality, we must first invest time into figuring out why humans behave and respond in a certain situation. We must look deep into the brain which is a result of our anatomy, neurochemistry, physiology, and genome (Blum, et al, 2010). The genome is the most important because it dictates the other three along with environmental factors. The field of behavioral genetics searches for the answer to the complex entanglement of nature verses nurture.
Nature vs. nurture has been one of the oldest and most debated topics among psychologists over the years. This concept discusses whether a child is born into this world with their developmental work cut out for them or if a child is a “blank slate” and their experiences are what shape them into who they are. Over the years and plenty of research, psychologists have all mostly come to agree that it’s a little bit of both. Children are both born with some genetic predispositions while other aspects of the child’s development are strongly influenced by their surrounding environment. This plays into the criminal justice system when discussing where criminal behavior stems from. Is a criminal’s anti-social behavior just part of their DNA or is it a result of their upbringing? The answer to this question is not definite. Looking at research a strong argument can be made that criminals developed their anti-social patterns through the atmosphere in which they were raise, not their DNA.
6. Joseph, Jay. “Chapter 8: Is Crime in the Genes? A Critical Review of Twin and Adoption Studies of Criminal and Antisocial Behavior.” The Gene Illusion: Genetic Research in Psychiatry and Psychology under the Microscope, Algora Pub., 2004, pp. 278–279.
There has always been a fascination with trying to determine what causes an individual to become a criminal? Of course a large part of that fascination has to do with the want to reduce crime, and to determine if there is a way to detect and prevent individuals from committing crime. Determining what causes criminality is still not perfectly clear and likewise, there is still debate as to whether crime is caused biologically, environmentally, or socially. Furthermore, the debate is directly correlated to the notion of 'nurture vs nature'. Over time many researchers have presented various theories pertaining to what causes criminal behavior. There are many theories that either support or oppose the concept of crime being biological rather than a learned behavior.
Murder, robbery, prostitution, rape; what exactly makes people partake in these crimes? The debate of Nature vs Nurture has never failed to raise questions about people’s personalities and actions. Whether a person commits a crime because of their innate character vs the way they were raised is something that people have been trying to understand for years. Due to this fact, the biosocial perspective of criminology does the best job at explaining criminal behavior because it combines the aspects of nature vs. nurture through various types of family, twin, and adoption studies and studies of the brain.
There are various theories within the biological explanation as to why individuals commit criminal behaviour, these include: genetic theory, hereditary theory, psychosis and brain injury theory. In the next few paragraphs examples of each will be shown.
Height, hair color, eye color and sex are just a few examples of ways our DNA has shaped us. But could it be possible that our DNA also effects the way we behave in society. It is possible that genetics effect us is more ways that we may have imagined. Dr. Peter B. Neubaur believes that shyness, eating disorders, obsessive behavior and psychological illness can all be traced back to our genetics. Sexual orientation is also believed to be derived from genes in our body which determine what sexual preference we prefer. Violence and other types of crimes can be linked back throughout a person’s lineage to witness that other family members have been committed similar crimes without ever meeting one and other.
There are more contemporary biological theories that have since developed. However, most are still nearly impossible to prove true; for example, the genetic theory of crime in fraternal and identical twins. This study is supposed to provide evidence that those who are born with the same genetically heritable trait are more prone to crime than fraternal twins or siblings because of the ...