Statement of Purpose I've always wondered why we cringe at nails on chalkboard and not music, or why we can’t swim in an ice cold pool. I've also wondered why it's so hard to do basic tasks with your non-dominant hand. That’s why I chose my topic: behavioral science – is your reaction to stimuli higher on your dominant hand. A few reasons I chose our hands as subjects. First reason is that I've always found hand dominancy interesting. That and when I was younger I was left handed and I eventually became right handed. Does that mean my reactions to stimuli will be the same on each hand? Let's leave that to the experiment. Hypothesis I believe if I test by inserting test subjects' hands into ice cold water and asking test subjects what their hands feel like, I can determine our more sensitive hands would be our dominant hands. I also believe if you “write” on ones hand, they’re dominant hand will better identify the character. We use our dominant hands are used more which probably keeps the blood flow going. If you’re like me and when you’re writing something and you’re cold, you sit on your hand or put it in-between your legs or something to keep it warm while you’re dominant hand is at work. The lack of usage would probably lower the rate of blood to your hand making it less sensitive. Research To find the correct answer to my hypothesis, I will need to conduct some research. I decided to look up a few key words such as sensitivity and hand dominancy: Behavioral genetics There are many things you must put into consideration when performing behavioral experiments. Twin studies are a good example. The studies are called monozygotic if they are identical twins and dizygotic if they’re fraternal twins. This would be useful for test... ... middle of paper ... ... Nov. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. "Hand Dominancy--a Feature Affecting Sensitivity to Pain." NCBI. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 31 Dec. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. Johnson, Keith A., M.D., and J. Alex Becker, Ph.D. "The Whole Brain Atlas." The Whole Brain Atlas. N.p., 1999. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. Kathi. "Gifted and Highly Sensitive To Stimuli." Socially Awkward Gifted and Misunderstood. N.p., 6 Feb. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. Melucci, Nancy J., Ph.D. E-Z Psychology. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series, 2010. Print. Barron's Educational Ser. Rachlin, Howard. Introduction to Modern Behaviorism. 3rd ed. New York: W. H. Freeman and, 1991. Print. Satcher, David, M.D., Ph.D. "Mental Health: A Report by the Surgeon General." Surgeon Generals Mental Health Report Chapter Two: Overview of Etiology: The Genetics of Behavior and Mental Illness. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. (2010). Psychology. (2nd ed., p. 600). New York: Worth Pub.
The participants were the twenty-seven students of Professor David Otis' Experimental Psychology class. The group of twenty-seven was split into smaller groups. We were not paid with pecuniary funds, but we did receive partial credit towards our final grade in the class.
Wade, C., Tavris, C., Garry, M. (2011). Psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
The hands are the most important tool. They are sensitive and versatile and can transmit all kinds of information about the condition of the tissue. Different parts of the hand will be used depending on what stroke technique is used such as the heel of the hand, the fingers, the thumbs, the fists or assisted hands.
Carlson, Neil R. Psychology: the Science of Behavior. 7th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2008. Print.
Gall, S. B., Beins, B., & Feldman, A. (2001). The gale encyclopedia of psychology. (2nd ed., pp. 271-273). Detroit, MI: Gale Group.
Understanding brain functioning has been a complex phenomena in the field of Biopsychology yielding mountains of research, speculation and differing opinions amongst researchers. Obvious is that, which our brains are comprised up from two hemispheres, the right and the left (in Gazzaniga., 2002). With great scrutiny research has successfully demonstrated that the two hemispheres are highly specialized regions serving differing functions; a concept referred to as lateralization of function (in Passer, Smith, Holt, Bremner, Sutherland & Vliek 2009). For example, the left hemisphere is responsible for speech production whilst the right hemisphere deals with the comprehension of emotional responses. It is also the case that the right hemisphere governs the left side of the body and the left hemisphere governs the right side of the body with the brain displaying contralateral control (in Passer et al., 2009). A common misconception exhibited by most is that the brain acts as a whole, rather the brain is performs on a unitary level with independent functions (in Pinel., 2009).
Almost Ten percent of the population is left-handed. Growing up being left handed has forced me to adapt to situations that were simple for a right handed person. In my early childhood, I was forced to use my right hand when I would use a computer mouse. When it was time to write in our notebooks I was always aggravated with the metal spiral rubbing against my hand in my notebook. Once I reached high school, the desk was another change I had to adapt to; the desks were made for right handed people. It allowed them to rest their elbow while writing, Left-handers do not have an elbow rest. Left-handed people are struck with problems all around the world today in ways of non-compatible product design, forced right handed learning, and receiving
There are many reasons why I am a tactile learner. To begin, how I learn is that I do things with my hands. I mostly do hard work that uses my hands like carrying things. Additionally, it has been proven that I am a tactile learner through a quiz. I will do lots of hands-on activities. I can learn faster by taking notes, or using a bookmark or sticky note to mark something important so I can go back to it whenever I need to. For example, I will always either tap a pencil, shake my foot, or hold on to something while learning. To conclude, I learn best by touching, building, moving, drawing and typing.
Hand grip strength of both hands was assessed using a hand grip dynamometer (Anand Agencies, Pune, India). Subjects were tested in 6 trials, 3 for each hand alternately , with a gap of 10 seconds between trials. During the assessment subjects were asked to keep their arm extended at shoulder level, horizontal to the ground as has been described earlier (3). The maximum value obtained during the three trials was used for statistical analysis.(Dash & Telles, 2001)
Have each person will do a few tests that include something that is hand dominate, foot dominate and eye dominate. Determine if the person is right handed or left handed by observing them do the tasks and seeing which hand they use to complete each task. First we are going to test hand dominance by doing 3 tests. Start by asking the individuals to write their name on a piece of paper. See what hand they use when writing their name. Once they finished that have them cut a piece of paper using scissors. Look to see what hand they use when they cut the paper. The finally piece in the hand dominance is asking them to throw a ball to see which hand they throw the ball with. Now on the foot dominance, there are two tests. The first test is to have the person kick a ball, while they kick it you need to observe which food they use while kicking the ball. The second test is the stair test. First you need to go to the bottom of the stairs and have your person walk down the stairs to you. Make sure you observe which foot they step with. Lastly place a coin on the floor directly in front of your person. Next we are going to do the eye dominance tests. In the first test give your volunteer a paper towel tube and tell them to look at a object through it. Look to see which eye they use to look through the tube. The last test is to hold your finger in front of your volunteer so it is centered in front of them. Ask them to keep their eye on it and
Green, Christopher D... American Psychologist, Feb/Mar2009, Vol. 64 Issue 2, p75-83, 9p, 2 bw, DOI: 10.1037/a0013338, (AN 36872963)
One of behaviourists main strengths is that it boasts the use of rigorous and experimental methods of research and has many experiments to support its theory. These experiments are based upon measureable and observable behavuours,meaning that the theory is scientifically tested. Although scientifically tested and supported with evidence, the behaviourist
First, at 1960s Dr.Engelberger invented the first robotic hand and the function of this hand is similar to the human hand. However, some researchers are trying to develop on it so it can be easily used by people with disabilities to do certain tasks. Robotic hands can give back hope to those who lost it. Moreover, it can be used by normal people to perform their tasks like doing house chores or helping them with drinking a juice etc. Also, robotic hands can be made from iron, wood, and cardboard. To make us work in a team, we we’re asked to make a robotic hand that can hold a fork and eat.
Edited by Raymond J. Corsini. Encyclopedia of Psychology, Second Edition, Volume 1. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.