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.