The Origin of Blue Eyes

            I found the origin of blue eyes to be incredibly intriguing.  It had never occurred to me that blue eyes were a relatively new eye color, because I had always thought of them in the same way as any other eye color.  Additionally, I am surprised of the rarity of blue eyes in the United States.  Since Denmark's immigration caused the blue eyed population to increase from 8% to 11%, it would seem that the U.S. would have also experienced an increase in blue eye color, because of our frequent immigration.  However, since the 1950s, the percentage of blue eyes in the United States has decreased from 35% to 17%.  In addition, similar to the fact that Mr. Womack and Kristyn are related, all blue eyed people can be traced back to a common ancestor generations back, which I found rather interesting.

 1.) While our genotype evolves into our phenotype, how much of a factor do you believe genetics has on our behavior and mental processes? Scale of 1 (lowest) to 100 (highest)? What specific examples can you note?

            While our environment strongly influences our behavior and mental processes, I believe that genetics play a serious role in the determination as well.  I think that genetics is a factor that determines 50% of our behavior and mental processes.  For example, I think that obesity has much to do with one's genes.  In my opinion, it seems that relatively obese people tend to have lower self-esteems or lower confidence levels, thus causing them to make different decisions and changing their behavior.  In addition, I believe that individuals are born with set intelligence levels, which help them succeed, or fail, in life.  The intelligence level helps these individuals process problems and create solutions faster or slower than others, which affects the mental processes aspect.

2. ) How much of an effect does our environment (nurture) place on our mental processes and behaviors? Scale of 1 to 100? What specific examples can you note?

            The environment makes up the other half of the influences on mental processes and behaviors.  I believe that parents play a critical role in the behavior of their children.  Stricter parents may cause their children to follow rules regularly, or cause retaliation, while parents who do not keep track of their kids as much may cause them to choose their own path in life at a very young age, whether their decisions are good or bad.  Additionally, friends deeply affect one's behaviors.  Friends may utilize peer pressure to alter the decisions that an individual may normally make. And finally, I think that teachers play a role in the mental processes aspect of psychology.  They can cause an individual's mind to speed up its processes, slow down, or remain the same with their methods and style of teaching.

Ethics, Animal Rights, and Torture

            I was thoroughly intrigued by the pigeon experiment that was used in the Coast Guard.  It had never occurred to me how useful their eyesight could be because of the fact that they are a different species.  This example of behaviorism shows how psychology can be utilized in order to help humans by incorporating the special features of certain animals.  Additionally, I enjoyed this experiment because as far as I know, none of the animals were harmed.  They were simply awarded food for their obedience and for their spectacular eyesight.
            I think that the use of animals in experiments can be completely justifiable as long as the safety of the animals is protected, I only wish that regulations to ensure animal safety had been instituted earlier.  The current safety regulations ensure that animals will be well taken care of, but not that they are given a choice.  Although I would rather have a rat die than a human being, I hope that psychologists find a way to give the animals a choice on indulging in an experiment.
            As for the ethical considerations in psychological research, I think that the human morals must always remain intact.  Baumrind stated that when people are given false information that they  are deprived of their rights as volunteers.  Agreeing with Baumrind, I think that participants must be given informed consent, along with debriefing.  Deceiving members of psychological studies is immoral and goes against humankind to test an experiment.
            Torture is extremely different from interviews.  Torture demands answers and will stop at nothing to receive those answers.  Interviews are a simple question and answer session where harmful measures, whether it be emotional or physical, are not taken.  However, they do have certain similarities. They both attempt to reveal information about certain subjects and they both require at least two people to conduct.  Torture is not moral, or legal, in any sense and I believe that every person has the right to remain free of torture, no matter the act.

The Biopsychosocial Approach to Obesity Analysis

1. Which approach do you think is more concrete? Explain why.

            In my opinion, the social cultural perspective on obesity is the most concrete. As Paul Rozin explicitly stated about when guests come to one's home, "the worse thing you can do is not give [houseguests] enough food" (The Weight Is Over). Agreeing with Rozin, it is a practically a social convention to give houseguests an abundance of food. As Americans, we eat what we can, as much as we can, and as quickly as we can. Ignoring the high chance that we may get obese, we continue to do so because eating with friends of family is a favorite pastime of our society.
            The citizens of France, however, do not have the same eating social conventions. They eat slow and enjoy their meals while Americans do the opposite. The French seem to have the right path because currently, around 40% of France is obese while around 70% of the United States is obese, In addition, the French are predicted to be 45% obese in 2020 and Americans are predicted to be 75% obese (OECD: Obesity and the Economics of Prevention). Evidently, our social and cultural tacit rule to voraciously devour food as soon as it reaches us is not the proper method of decreasing obesity.

2. Based on your introduction to the various modern approaches to psychology, which approach not discussed might provide another rationale for obesity? Explain your answer.

            I believe that the developmental perspective might also explain why the number of obese citizens in the United States is so great. As a kid, I was always instructed to finish my plate in order to not waste food because "there are starving children in Africa" or so I could join the "Clean Plate Club." I was taught to eat as much as I could, whenever I could. As I grew older, I continued to eat past the point of feeling full. Growing up with such stress on eating as much as possible made me consider that food was a necessity and not an unlimited resource.