Human Biology Capstone

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

In the excerpt “Right Brain Rising”, Daniel Pink tells his experience in depth detail of an intriguing brain scan beneficial both to his curious mind, and the world of science. He then goes on to inform readers of the two distinct halves resting in our skulls; following up with the past inferiority associated with the human right brain, thought to be due to years of evolution. After acknowledging the disproved theory, Pink delves into information pertaining to psychology’s six

Candance West and Don Zimmerman are the authors of “Doing Gneder” that was published in ‘Gender Society; on 1987. The point that the authors were trying to get accros in “Doing Gender” was that people fullfille their ‘gender’ just like any other rutine that people do in their life. It is hard for people to avoind ‘doing gneder’ becae it is almost a never ending activity. We do gender each and everyday to where we are onlivion to it. We step into our gender unknowingly while we are interacting and socializing. Children learn frm a ver yound age how to do gender. From a young age girls care about things like lip glass. The little girls associate wearing lip gloss with looking prettier. We make sure that they know how to be a ‘boy’ and ‘girl’. Gender is not at all who we are and it is not our identity. Gender is a mask that we put on when we face others. We don’t act in public like we act when we are alone. Just as stated in “Doing Gender” by Creative Sociololy, “It Is a product of social interaction… production…..A social construction. “ We do gender to avoind being judged by others. A man takin on the characteristics of a femal and vise versa is risky. As stated in the article “Doing Gender”, “…behave outside the boundres…risk…judge harshly…” Society treats the individuals who break the statues quote unfairly becase they are challenginf the system. There is a raise of unequal distribution of power by every person who participates in doing gender. Whne you compare men and

According to Steven Pinker “Anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution is certainly not going to believe in the evolution of the mind, and anyone who believes in an immaterial soul is certainly not going to believe that thought and feeling consist of information processing in the tissues of the brain” (pg. 128-130). On the other hand, Tom Wolfe insists that the mind is a ghost in a machine. Determination of how the mind came to be helps to discount the views of Pinker and see that the views of Wolfe are more realistic in conjunction with human actions.

Humans, Pinker asserts are born with a moral quirk that compels humans to reason in certain ways. Many of these ways of thinking/ mindsets are illusions. We consider our interpretations to be universal making us

Pink’s argument that we are moving out of a left-brain dominance and in to a new era where right brain qualities will be prized is well illustrated in part one the book. According to Pink “the two hemispheres of our brain don’t operate as on-off switches…both halves play a role in nearly everything we do” (2011). Pink suggests that both hemisphere of the brain are equally important. In fact, “a healthy,

A specific study that Pinker mentions is anthropology, which is the study of human universals. Anthropologists show and study cultures, how different and contrasting they can be to one another. Pinker insists that we do not focus on what is different about the cultures, but rather focus on what is similar; all cultures have a set of behaviors and emotions that create the world. Furthermore, every culture have faced different experiences that have shaped them; yet common aspects among the cultures range from affection, aesthetics to weapons, power, hierarchy and worldview. This follows his argument because it is evidence that humans are not completely different from one another based on their surroundings but because of universal human nature; we are different from one another yet have similar

However, the most memorable thing I was able to see that day was the human brain. Looking at it, it didn’t look much different than models we had used in class. The student in charge of that section went over the fundamental parts of the brain, things I had studied for class. Though it was interesting, the moment that made it really real for me was the moment I was able to hold it. Holding it is my hand, the basic anatomy of the brain went away. I stood in an awed silence as I tried to imagine the things it had seen, had heard, the life it had lived. This was the motor to human existence. Though brains may look similar on the outside, on the inside they were so unique, so different, each like a snowflake, only ever occurring once. It was in that moment that I knew I wanted to learn all I could about this fascinating object that is the mind, unlock doors that had previously been closed, and leave the world a better place than I found it.

This marvelous, complex organ is considered to be the command center that controls our every move, and thought. However enigmatic in its own rite, it holds many ambiguities, and the key to unlocking man’s ever growing temptation to discover new ideas and concepts. Man’s perception of the brain has changed significantly. For centuries, the concept of how the brain works has intrigued man’s understanding. Man is fascinated with the human brain, its functions, and physiology. Consequently, why we discriminate, prejudge, stereotype and engage in racist acts seems to be a big mystery. Moreover, man can use his brain to find cures to heal and eradicate diseases, but he cannot seem to find a cure for the discriminatory,

The first is the Human Genome Project which his argues against stating that the number of genes in the genome plays a smaller role in comparison to the role of gene x gene interactions. I agree with Pinker’s argument here because regardless of quantity, the effect of one deletion or insertion or substitution can carry massive consequences genetically and phenotypically, and Pinker’s understanding of that strengthen his argument here. The second is connectionism, where the brain is explained as a computer network of neural signals. This a plausible argument, but it is defeated by the fact that connectionist networks on their own are too simple to duplicate the complexity of human thought, emotion, and understanding (Pinker, 79). This recalls the idea of artificial intelligence and the advances that are being made daily to achieve a fully functional, feeling, thinking robot. Although this could be something that eventually happen, I am skeptical as to whether there could ever be created something as highly complex emotionally, as a human being. Lastly, he brings up the idea of neural plasticity which argues that the brain is a thing that can be changed or essentially conform based on the environment and environmental stimulus. Although Pinker strongly disagrees with this idea, I strongly disagree with Pinker because I do believe it is possible to retrain the brain or we

The structure of development of brain has always been interesting to study. There are various theories to how the brain has evolved since ancient times. Scientists consistently try to find new researches that helps us understand our past. Humans have much in common with animals biologically. We, humans share similar properties with animals, and of the many factors, morality and ethics are the driving forces that makes us humans unique to other animals. Although it has long been a debate to weather animals too have a sense of morality and ethics, or share a similar level of consciousness, it is widely recognized that humans have a greater level of language acquisition and emotional feelings. Many scientists have tried to prove such

Historically throughout the earliest centuries, the term gender and sex has been a vital focus in distinguishing the overlap between gender differences. Matlin’s book, Psychology of women, explains that gender similarities of females are at most similar to men, however, considering that culture influences individual’s beliefs; women are expected to behave the way culture entitles us to (Matlin, 2008, p.8). In contrast, the book also reveals that women and men are different from one another in terms of social and intellectual skills according to biological inheritance (Matlin, 2008, p.9). These two perspectives expose valid reasons in terms of the roles that men and women play in society. Even though feminists and female psychologists imply

In the twenty-first century, western culture frequently dismisses the concept of men and women holding highly distinguishable traits that denote respective functions in society. Such movements insinuate that the objective of absolute equality between the sexes has been met, despite history presenting an entirely contrasting view of gender roles that have perpetuated inequality in the minds of mankind. In order for one to fully comprehend the continual battle that women have fought against the stereotypes that history has tried to allocate for them, a distinction must be made between the terms gender and sex. According to Monash University, “Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine,” while, “sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs.” Due to the evident physical differences between men and women, society formulated the ideology that men were intelligent, courageous, and determined. Women, contrarily, were more governed by their emotions and were expected to be modest, compassionate, and pious. Therefore, as there is a clear variance between the aforementioned terms, one can notice that the cultural construct of gender spawns from the biological distinction of sex, and that women are deemed socially inferior because they appear naturally inferior to men. Because such principles were essentially rooted in the structural process of society, similar to the

As evident from the generalized patterns found in differences in behaviour and outlook observed between the sexes, it may be tempting, as has been done in the past, to conclude that gender is an unavoidable aspect of human existence as determined purely from one 's genes. Indeed, human physiology is subject to sexual dimorphism; statistically significant differences in brain size and rate of maturation of specific substructures in the brain exist between males and females (Giedd, Castellanos, Rajapakese, Vaituzis, & Rapoport, 1997), yet these physical differences fail to explain how individuals form their concept of their own gender, and why they tend to conform to their perceived gender roles as defined by the society in which they live, when these roles are ever-changing. Thus, it is important to differentiate between the physical and nonphysical traits, and how the labels of femininity and masculinity should not confuse the two aspects. As defined by Unger (1979), “sex” would be used to refer to the biological differences in males and females, while “gender” describes socioculturally determined, nonphysiological traits which are arbitrarily designated as being appropriate for either females or males. With more recent awareness and interest in matters of gender nonconformity and individual gender identity, new research now explains how these concepts of gender are shaped by social influences (Perry

Pinker's views that he establishes about language are in accordance with other notable figures in the humanities field. A man by the name of Noam Chomsky has views that are representative of the point Pinker is trying to convey: language is a biological makeup of the brain. As a professor of linguistics at MIT, Chomsky imparted sound arguments as to the nature of language. Chomsky has suggested the fact that every sentence that a human speaks or comprehends is an original combination of words that has not been voiced before. Therefore, language is not a learned trait that has an extensive gamut of expressions, but rather the brain must contain a "hard drive" that can fabricate an unlimited set of sentences from a limited amount of words. He also strongly feels that children are inherently equipped with the ability to cull the syntactic patterns of speech from their parents. We can see this when a young infant begins to babble at the youngest of ages. This furthermore qualifies and represents Pinker's views on the idea that language is instinctive.