Religions and a Religious Feud

Encyclopedia Britannica-middle school level
-something all religions have in common is that they help whoever is a believer find meaning in the world
-major religions today: Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism-not-so-major religions today: Baha'i, Jainism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Daoism, Native American religions and traditional African religions-in 1777 Thomas Jefferson wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom-^^ basically just wanted the church and state apart--completely
-however this was not a feud because people were still free to worship as they pleased
-while the state and religion were still separated, people were still happy with this decision, so I have yet to find any major feuds*

Further Questions/Unanswered Questions:
1) Is a religious person more likely to be successful than a non-religious person, or an atheist?
2) *Are there any major feuds that go back to religion?

Comas

Three different types of neurons:
1. motor neuron
2. sensory neuron
3. interneuron
-motor neuron send messages away from the central nervous system
-sensory neuron regulates the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell)
-interneurons send messages between the motor and sensory neurons.
-a person in a coma is unconscious.
-they're still alive and able to breathe but they cannot respond to any stimuli
(sound of someone's voice or painful actions)
-they cannot perform any voluntary actions such as lifting arm or hitting someone
-the brain is still working but at it's most basic level
-consciousness depends on the constant transferring of chemical signals from the brainstem and thalamus to the cerebrum.
-they are connected by neural pathways called the RAS (Reticular Activating System)
-any interruptions to these messages put people into an altered states of consciousness.




http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/N/Neurons.html

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/coma.htm


1. How do people hallucinate?
2. What happens when a person is brain dead?
3. What happens to your brain when you die?

romance in india

 http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country_sections.php?&contid=3&wmn=Asia&cn=India&sname=Dating_and_Marriage&snid=12&cid=75

Culture Grams

		Dating and Marriage

• in india most mirrages are arranged by parents
• follow the csate system in order for the mirrage to be effective
• Indian Muslims have a strict male female seapration at a young age, so mirrages have to be arranged for them to happen.
• Marriage is sacred to most Indians and is believed to last beyond death
• modesty and chastity is very important fotr women
• mirrages happen during teens.. in urban areas later
• northen india: engagements are finalized in a specific ceremony. The families meet, and the couple agrees to marry. The occasion is celebrated with food, music, dancing, and exchanging of gifts. After this ceremony, a wedding date is chosen, and the couple is free to court and get to know one another
• western india:at an engagement ceremony, the bride's family arrives with a steel container full of sweets and gifts to be given to the groom and his family
• in southern inida:the bride and groom are not required to attend the engagement function. The commitment is made between their families. The most important ritual in finishing these engagements consists of each family giving the other a plate with exotic foods and plants
• Polygamy is practiced only by Indian Muslims, whose religion permits a man to marry up to four wives
• Divorce is relatively rare, most likely due to the cultural and religious importance of marriage.
•  In the case of divorce, Indian law stipulates that a man must continue to provide financial support to his ex-wife and any children they may have

1. why is Mirrage so important in idia?
2. do arranged mirrages really make the poeple happy, or do they just pretend to have peace?
3. why do men find it easier to remarry after a divorce and not women too?

love in Japan

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2106704,00.html

this article is about the most modern way to find true love in Japan.

•  according to this article, in 2005 61.5 % of the population in Japan has no interest in having a relationship. 
• about 40 % has no interest in a lifelong marriage
• and about 45% has no interest ion dating the opposite sex.
• the dating website O- Net has a bigger match making than older, personal times.
• in 2007, the divorcing parentage  increased

3rd blog post- Why do people behave the way they do in their daily lives?

Encyclopaedia Britannica
"The Psychology of Colour"
http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-21867

• warm or cool colors- People can perceive reds, oranges, and yellows as being warm while they consider greens, blues, and purples to be cool
• Different colors can produce different emotions: Reds and oranges can cause excitement or aggresion, blues and purples can cause calmness or a sense of security, and black colors can cause sadness.
• Different psychological responses to color vary from culture to culture: for example, some cultures use black as a mourning color while others use white or gold.
• People with similar characteristics can perceive colors similarly
• This response to color can possibly be used to treat mental illnesses: people with certain mental disibilities have a certain color perception, which can help identify a disease, while some colors can have a helpful effect on people with mental disabilities
• Rooms with lighter colors appear bigger, while rooms with darker colors appear smaller
• Rooms with a color considered to be cool require more heat than a room with a warm color, to achieve the same feeling of warmth
• Certain colors or colorful lighting can give people headaches or can sometimes cause people to view food as gross
• Color terminology- color harmony, color preferences, color symbolism: words that describe color and its uses

This article helps answer the question of what causes people to experience certain emotions. Different colors can induce certain emotions or sensations.

Questions I have after reading this article:

• Why do some cultures use white or gold instead of black?  What does it symbolize?
• Did painters like Van Gogh, Monet, and El Greco think about colors inducing emotion when they painted?
• What sort of rooms do interior designers use cool colors for and what sort of rooms do they use warm colors for?

3rd blog post

Proquest

Lucid Dreaming Revisited

• lucid dream references date back at least to Aristotle, and the Dutch psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden coined the term lucid dreaming almost 80 years ago.
• modern surveys indicate that most adults can recall at least one lucid dream and that roughly one person in ten has such dreams regularly, once a month or more
• at that time, many sleep researchers believed lucid dreams to be simply delusions occurring during brief arousals from sleep.
• lucid dreams occur during a phase of sleep marked by rapid eye movement, commonly called REM sleep, when ordinary dreams occur.
• dream activities--including singing, counting numbers, and sex--evoke much the same neural and physiological responses as corresponding experiences do in real life
• studies have shown that most dreams occur at the tail end of a good eight- or nine-hour stretch of sleep
• many people interested in dreams have "what may unkindly be called superstitious beliefs
• lucid dreams could have therapeutic value
• searching for drugs that might increase the intensity of dreams and thereby the likelihood of lucidity
• dreaming is the basic function of the brain in understanding the world

what are things we can do to change the outcomes of our dreams?
is there a way to improve the rememberance of our dreams?

http://search.proquest.com/docview/229750535/13510F5237D543EC09/1?accountid=6222

Article on early religion

• It is thought that the first organized religions probably began in the fertile crescent area, which is Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, etc. during the Neolithic period where agriculture was invented and the human population became huge.
• It is believed that they probably formed to make these farming societies get along with each other because they would always be fighting with each other.
• However, there are ruins of an ancient civilization in Turkey which is ten thousand years old and there is archeological evidence that they must have had a religion. 
• Huge pillars and drawings of various things, including animals, were found that suggested a common religion, although this society was so old that agriculture wasn't even invented yet.
• This suggests that religious rituals probably began even before we had complex societies and instead might have began in small villages in primitive societies that were still foraging for food.
• Schmidt's view is that human beings began to do this when they stopped seeing themselves as a part of nature but as the masters of nature.

 1. If religion has been there since the beginning of time, then what does this say about the religions that we have today?
2. What were these religions like?

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=3&hid=21&sid=57dacb08-ea15-4bfc-9a48-0cf0a6832fc4%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=sch&AN=60677174

Age and it's relation to happiness

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SIL0185-0-6136&artno=0000272744&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=Positive%20psychology&title=Aging%20Well%3A%20Emotionally%2C%20the%20Best%20May%20Be%20Yet%20to%20Come&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=N
SIRS Knowledge Sourse
Emotionally, The Best May Be Yet to Come

• Studies have shown that older people are more content than younger people
• as people grow older they are less likely to be possessed by their emotions; therefore, they can recoer faster from a distressing event or situation
• it isn't so much that they're happier, they just don't experience bad emotions as much, probably because of past suffering
• older people also know that life isn't forever, so they are more likely to try to live it to the fullest
• more selective about activities and relationships
• Gratefulness increases happiness, according to studies
• older people are more likely to be grateful for what they have
• People generally only think about the negative things to come later in life
• as a general rule, people, especially young people, are not good at predicting what will make them happy
• Experts still say that the general rules of being happy apply to the elderly as well- they are happier when they are socially connected, do things that make them feel useful, and experience new things
• Recognizing mortality plays a part in happiness

Questions:

• Can you be content in life at a young age?
• It's kind of depressing that you realize you're going to die, so then you are happier to live life because you know it's almost over- is it possible to be happy with life without thinking about death?
• What's the difference between living contently and living happily?

Blog Post #3 - Ethics

DATABASE USED: Encyclopaedia Britannica 
TITLE: Divisions of Philosophy > Ethics

What I learned:

• concerned mostly with morality
• ethics play a large role in the way people live
• morality-conformity to the rules of right conduct
• some scientists have said there are definite standards for human behavior
• decisions should be based mostly on the situation in which one finds oneself
• relativism- any theory holding that criteria of judgement are relative
• relativists say that ethical decisions are related to specific circumstances
• this branch of philosophy is close to religion

QUESTIONS:
1.) What are types of situations where one could find oneself?
2.) What are types of ethical decisions?

LINK: http://www.school.eb.com/comptons/article-206435?

Attention and Habituation: Article 2

Database: Encyclopedia Britannica 
Article Title: Aspects of attention > Memory and habituation (attention)


What I learned:

• Shiffrin and Shneider have visual search theory in 1977
• Their theory has two modes: controlled search and automatic detection
• Controlled search demands high attention spans and therefore dependent on stimulus
• Controlled search uses short-term memory, while automatic detection uses long-term
• Memory is not only repetition but attention influenced
• Von Restorff effest suggests that items are learned from their differences in size, color, or other groups of imperfections. However, other standard items are then not as easily recalled in memory
• **When events take place, each spectator perceives something different so that they recall different memories of the event (Whorf conclusion)
• 2 types of attention : focal (active) and automaitc (not necesary to think)
• Interesting point: focal attention uses more brain power to think about and use but only uses short-term memory storage to recall focal attention
• Rehearsal (repetition) reamins in short-term storage but eventually makes its way to long-term
• Awareness is necessary for learning and memory (excludes sub-awareness in dreams)
• Dreams are not usually remembered because of the level of awareness
• **Habituation: loss of resondsiveness or attention
• Shorter time periods generally mean rapid habituation (short-term memory) and longer periods have more gradual habituation, unless the event has significant meaning than habituation slows drammatically (long-term memory)

Further questions:
Why do people remember certain events differently?
What factors decide how one person rembers something in comparison to another person?
I would like to further investigate the Von Restorff effect.
How long does it take to rehearse to move an event from short-term to long-term storage memory?


Link: http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-242019

Galileo Galilei and the Roman Catholic Church

Peter Brewer
Blog post 2
URLs of sources: http://www.school.eb.com/all/comptons/article-9274476?query=Galileo%20church&ct=null

• In what ways has religion stopped scientific truths from being accepted?
• "In 1616 galileo received a formal warning that the Copernican theory was contrary to the teachings of the church."- This kind of thinking seemed to come from the church every time somebody created a scientific theory that contradicted their beliefs. They were unable to tolerate new ideas. The roman catholic church put him under house arrest for the final eight years of his life for teaching the Copernican theory that we were not the center of the universe. He wasn't pardoned until almost 350 years later.
• The church seemed to be stopping any information that might cause people to falter in their beliefs, they were unable to adapt or accept ONE new idea of a respected astronomer for 350 years, just because they had been teaching something else for so long.

Perception

BLOG POST 3:

Database: Global issues in context.

Title: Perception

Link to article: http://find.galegroup.com/gic/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=Relevance&tabID=T001&prodId=GIC&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R1&searchType=&currentPosition=2&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C26%29psychology+and+environment%24&userGroupName=hins30136&inPS=true&docId=CX3045000923&contentSet=EBKS&docId=CX3045000923&docType=EBKS

- The way we view things can make an effect on how we act.
- The color of objects around you can effect your mood.
- Literally, the way you were created with organisms makes up the way your body works. Your eyes view things in depth and give you perception.

Examples:

A man who is colorblind would be more unhappy than a man who is not colorblind. They dont have the small, but beneficial things that make us who we are.

When the sun is out, some people are happy that there is good weather. When it is cloudy out, some people are not happy that the world looks so gloomy.

We also refer to these examples:

"He has a cloud above his head."

Colors:

Bright and light colors are considered happy and enthusiastic.

Dark colors such as black are considered to be evil, malevolent, and unhappy.

Questions:

- Do some people view the world in the same way throughout their life?
- Will colorblind people ever realize the effects of color?

What are some of the goals of Judaism?

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=SPJ.SP00&userGroupName=hins30136&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA13464399&&docId=GALE|A13464399&docType=GALE&role=
Gale Professional Collection
To Life! A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking

• Rabbi Kusner defines the goal of Judaism to "bring God into the world."
• They are supposed to do this by "sanctifying ordinary events and by helping people to become fully human through their relatedness to others" (Publisher's Weekly).
• Jews believe that both God and people have obligations to each other.
• Covenant = a promise.

• How is Judaism related to Christianity?
• Do Christians have the same goals as Jews?
• Do Jews believe in the afterlife?

Has organized religion been overall good or bad for scientific advancements?

Peter Brewer
Blog Entry 1

• Has organized religion been overall good or bad for scientific advancements?
• In what ways has religion stopped scientific truths from being accepted?
• Has organized religion advanced technology, or inspired advancements?
• Over time, how has the church adjusted to new ideas?
• Why does the church react this way?

Checkpoint 2

http://search.proquest.com/docview/337178122?accountid=6222
(ProQuest Platnuim- The Secret of Happiness)
http://search.proquest.com/docview/751175738/13510B483563D99A492/4?accountid=6222
(ProQuest Platnium- Happiness: Origins, Forms, and Technical Relevance)

• "happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence"                  -Aristotle
• the study of genetics led to the research that the ammount of happiness is out of our control.
• people think of happiness as an emotion- but Aristotle never classified it as an emotion.
•  for Aristotle, happiness was what he called the telos of human experience, the natural end.
• Sigmund Freud- the father of psychoanalysis, was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early twentieth century.
•  "The feeling of happiness derived from the satisfaction of a wild instinctual impulse untamed is incomparable more intense than that derived from sating an instinct that has been tamed" -Freud             (means that happiness comes from the a spontaneous impulse; instinctual discharge causes happiness and instinctual tension causes displeasure) 
• instinct- a natural or innate impulse, inclination, or tendency

1. does searching for happiness make you unhappy?
2. if its not an emotion, what is it?
3. can we control what makes us happy?

Death

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=SUIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX3424300188&mode=view
Death

-Death is a part of life.
-Death is expressed in many different ways.
-Artists sing, write, and put death into paintings and photographs.
-Religious leaders talk about how to live a succesful life.
-Activist talk about the right to live, die, and kill.
-People in medical jobs see death everyday.
-Physiologists, biologist, and children wonder how it really works.
-The Roman Catholic Church believes that death is "complete and final separation of the soul from the body."

What do other religions think about death?
What do they believe happens?

Dreams

http://find.galegroup.com/gic/retrieve.do?


Vocabulary

1. Lucid Dream - is a dream which anyone knows they are dreaming.
2. Daydreams- Is when you have a level of consciousness between sleep and wakefulness.
3. You daydream for 70-120 minutes a day.
4. Nightmares- Disturbing dream that causes you to wake up.
5. Some nightmares might come from real life situations.
6. Recurring Dreams- This can happen when you didn't solve the problem in the dream the first time so therefore it will comeback till you solve it.
7. Healing Dreams- Dreams regarding to the dreamers health.
8.  Epic Dreams- Are the really vivid dreams you cannot ignore.
9. Mutual Dreams- When two people have the same dream.
10. Mutual Dreams can help build relationships between two people.

I would like to know more about the Mutual Dream the Recurring, and the Daydream. This is because if you day dream from 70-120 minuets. A day how does that effect you during school. And if you cant control your dreams how can you ever solve what's going on in the recurring dreams.

Psychology in School

BLOG POST 2:

Database: Global issues in context.
Link to resource:  "The relation of age, gender, ethnicity, and risk behaviors to self-esteem among

What I learned:

- Age and gender play a role in how you end up interpereting things.
- Self-Esteem can also shape the way you act towards others.
- Mainstream and Non-mainstream students. (Popular, unpopular)
- Non-mainstream students have a bigger risk of suicide attempts than Mainstream students.
- Ethnicity also shapes how feelings are transfered from one to another. (African-American, asian, etc.)
- Grade level - Lower grades (Not a huge deal) Higher grades - struggle to find new friends.
- Environment - School status, neighborhood, etc.

Questions:

- Does bullying play a role in this?
- Does attention play a role in this? Little things such as compliments, gestures, or a hello.

http://find.galegroup.com/gic/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=ContentLevel&tabID=T006&prodId=GIC&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R1&searchType=&currentPosition=3&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C8%29art%2Fmind%24&userGroupName=hins30136&inPS=true&docId=A150031843&contentSet=IAC-Documents&docId=A150031843&docType=IAC

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

3rd blog post
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-9056669?query=Obsessive%20Compulsive%20disorder&ct=

1.Mental Disorders: any illness that has to do with psychology or behavior and has a painful or disstressing symptom
2.OCD: a type of mental disorder in which someone has obsession or compulsion or both
3.Obsessions: recurring or persistent thoughts, images, or impulses that, rather than being voluntarily produced, seem to invade a person's consciousness despite his attempts to ignore, suppress, or control them.
4:Anxiety is accompanied to obsession
5: Common obsessions, doing violent acts, worriying about germs, extreme doubt
6 :in 80 percent of cases copulsions follow obsessions
7: Compulsion:recurring or persistent thoughts, images, or impulses that, rather than being voluntarily produced, seem to invade a person's consciousness despite his attempts to ignore, suppress, or control them.
8: People who are compulsive preform complulsive acts to prevent situations they think may occur
9: compulsive acts are usually simple, ex: washing your hands alot
10: The person usually knows the complusive act is meaningless but they do it anyway
11: 2 to 3 percent of the general population suffer from this
12: OCD is caused by high stress situations
13: there are drugs that help OCD tby changing the brains metabolism

Q1:Is OCD more common in Kinds or adults?
Q2:Which pschological disease is more crippling, a phobia or OCD?

blog post #1

-does your enviornment change you or do you change your enviornment?


1-how does art change you
2-do you change art with you mind
3-if your grow up with art does you mind change
4-what makes you "right brained" or "left brained"

-i know about how some people view art differently. in a museum i saw a picture of an old lay but if you morf it with your mind it turned into a young lady.some people who are "right brained" are very artistic and math and science are much harder for them to figure out. if someone is left brained they are very logical and mathmatical .the brain has memeory and other parts that change you as you grow. there are different memorys that might change if you become mopre arrtistic or not.

Experience Life

Experience Life
Purse Your Passions
Mindest

. What matters is to be mindful and intentional in all your actions from your paaion to the next stepin life.
. Expand their sense of self in the progress.
. The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindest.
. Adopting a growth mindest is the first key to building more happiness and success.

What are things we can improve in life?
How do religions view life?
How canwe choose the Life we want to live?

blog post 3 What are some of the more important hormones in a human body?

http://www.school.eb.com/comptons/article-202158?query=what%20are%20the%20most%20important%20hormones&ct

Polypetide Hormones: These are probably one of the most important hormones in your body.  They are Insulin and Glucagon.

Insulin is very important to the human body because it is involved in the digesting of carbohydrates, lipids, and protiens. 

Insulin is a shot, that mainly diabectics have to take, that lowers the amount of sugar in the blood. 

Diabetics are people that have too much glucose, sugar, in their blood, which is why they need to take shots of insulin. 

If diabetics don't ge this shot of insulin daily, they have too much sugar in their blood, which causes them to become weak. 

Too much insulin can cause weakness, anxiety, depression, and can cause a person to collapse, but can be cured by surgery or glucose treatment. 

Glucagon, on the other hand, tends to raise the amount of sugar in the blood.

It is important to have both of these hormones in the body, because they help to maintain homeostasis, or stability. 


Questions:

What I already know

So far I know a small amount about psycolagy and would like to know more.  I know things about senses and what body language has to do with in it.  I would like to know tings about dreams and things like that also, I would like to know things like how to know people are nervous, lying, or things like that. If i have time I would also like to learn about the differences between so

Background Psychology

http://www.school.eb.com/elementary/search?query=physcology&ct=ebkids&fuzzy=true&autobounce=true
This is the cite that i used to find my information.
Here are somethings that I found intresting about my topic.

. There are several branches of psychology and one of them is clinical which helps people with a mental illness.

. animal subjects are easier to control with pyschology then humans.

. theoretical pyschology is concerened with thought process.

. The birth of pyschology is credited to the German physiologist and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt, who established the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879.

. Social pyschology is one of the subfields most closely associated with focuses on individual thought.

. The classical problems of experimental psychology are determining reaction times and reaction thresholds

. Clinical has undergone rapid growth in recent years and is now the largest subdiscipline

. Comparative psychology explores animal behavior in comparison to human behavior.

. physiological psychology is concerned with thought and behavior at the level of neurology.


What are the other fields of psychology?

Specifically what is social psychology?

Why are animals compared to humans?

What causes emotions?

http://www.school.eb.com/comptons/article-9274173

The article that I researched has three pages, but I focused on the first page. The first page explained the role of emotion overall- not importance or theories of emotion etc.

Important definitions (A part of bullet points):

Psychologists: investigate emotions through the process of learning, personality development, and behavior with other people.

Psychiatrists: research, diagnose, and treat mood disorders (Examples: Depression and Mania)

Anthropologists: research the similarities and differences between different cultures

Sociologists: look at the effect social interaction can be to one's emotions

Philosophers: study the causes and effects of rationality, ethics, and religion, and how these different emotional aspects can cause different emotions

Bullet points:

*Emotions can be known as feeling such as: joy, sadness, fear, or anger

*Emotions can also be known as chemical changes in the brain, physical changes in the body, or can be recognized by certain behaviors (Example: facial expressions)

*Emotions represent a synthesis of physical processes and result from specific stimuli

*Emotions are behaviors that one expresses when they feel a certain way

Questions:

*What makes us feel emotions?

*Do all living things experience the feeling of emotions?

One religion

• All religions serve the same purpose despite how different they are, because they answer the basic questions of life.
• There would not be peace if there was only one religion because human beings are selfish in their nature.
• Being kept under the same religion will not keep people from committing crimes against each other as it has already been shown in the world.
• Everyone has their own individual thoughts and feelings, and there are some with very horrible thoughts and feelings who are not bound by religion.
• There will also be countless differences that will exist regardless of religion that threaten to divide people.
• Also, a common religion would do nothing to stop floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
• Over time, the religion would diversify and different sects and forms of it will form until there are several, completely different religions.

1. What if there was no religion at all?
2. What was the first religion like?


http://find.galegroup.com/gic/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=Relevance&tabID=T006&prodId=GIC&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R2&searchType=&currentPosition=1&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C8%29religion%24&userGroupName=hins30136&inPS=true&docId=A193289779&contentSet=IAC-Documents&docId=A193289779&docType=IAC

1- Joanna Jacobs (Checkpoint One)

#1. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-12-08-happy-main_x.htm
#2. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201004/what-are-emotions
#3. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/opening-happiness

• emotions are judgments about the extent that the current situation meets your goals. (2)
• happy people surround themselves with friends and family. (1)
• sadness is an evolution that your goals are not satisfied. (2)
• happiness is about broadening your perspective. (3)
• Buddhism- life goal: pursuit of happiness. (3)
• cognitive- pertaining to the mental process of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning.
• materialism is toxic for happiness- "stuff" wont make you happy. (1)
• altruism- the practice of unselfish concern for others welfare. 
• happiness can be a brain process that simultaneously makes appraisals and perceives the body.
• appraisals- the act of estimating or judging the value of something or someone. 

Questions:

1. If emotions are judgments about the situation you are in meeting your ultimate goal, is your ultimate goal happiness or something else?
2. If "stuff" doesn't make you happy, why do you feel happy when you receive presents or when you buy objects like clothes or electronics? How long can materials keep you happy?
3. If you look at the glass half empty, how can you begin to look at the glass half full? How accurate is the glass with your emotions/ feelings of happiness and depression?

How can you be happy?

To answer this overall research question I will try to find out:

1. what makes people happy?
2. what is depression?
3. what medications can you take to "make you happy"?
4. is your happiness in your control?
5. what are emotions? what makes emotions?
6. serotonin? norepinephrine? 

This is what I already know about this topic and what I want to find out:

I know that everyone feels different and has different emotions. People take medicine if they are depressed, and that seems to make the feel better. For example, when someone is diagnosed with clinical depression, they may be prescribed Cymbalta which increase the levels of the neurotransmitters, serotonin and norepinephrine, in the brain, or Celexa which works by increasing just the amount of serotonin in the brain. I know that everyone wants to be happy. I don't know if some people choose to be unhappy or if that is something beyond their control, but I do know that when people are happy, others around them tend to be happy too.

Checkpoint #1

-most religions deal a lot with person conduct
-people DO separate religion from personal conduct
-^^ an example of that is found with the history of ancient Rome
-however, most of the time religion ties in directly with personal conduct
-not all religions have a god
- what encompasses that to which people are most devoted or that from which they expect to get the most fundamental satisfaction in life--religion
-even religions that don't believe in anything have a religious name--atheism
-many/most religions have specific elements in common, such as rituals, prayer, holy days, literature to study
-many religions have buildings used for worship, such as a church or a mosque
-a lot of religions participate in prayer and contemplation, but some still also participate in sacrifice and magic

Questions:
1) Do all religions connect back to one story?
2) Are there any major feuds that go back to religion?
3) Is a religious person more likely to be successful than a non-religious person, or an atheist?
 
http://www.school.eb.com/all/comptons/article-9276688?query=religion&ct=null

4/5 Charlie Lang: Neurons

-Neurons: carry information of the brain

-branched out (dendrites) like a tree

-they receive impulses and carry them to the cell body where they are needed.

-Glial cells are cells that surround the neurons in order to help regulate the environment within the brain and are also there for support and help and control the nervous system. 

-Controls:
1. body temperature
2. blood pressure
3. heart rate
4. breathing
5. 5 senses
6. psychical movement
7. think
8. dream
9. feel emotions
-the cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, taking up 85% of the brain's weight
-there are no pain receptors in the brain, so it cannot feel pain.
-uses 20% of the body's oxygen intake
-if the brain loses blood for 8 to 10 seconds then you lose consciousness.

http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-9055388?query=neurons&ct=
http://www.nursingassistantcentral.com/blog/2008/100-fascinating-facts-you-never-knew-about-the-human-brain/

Q1: Are there different types of neurons?
Q2: Where are the neurons in the brain?

Letter: Meaning of Life

How can we live our Life

. Live all the days of our life
. Not disrupt the sweetest hour that life affords
. Sweetest hour in life is present
. Admire the creator
. Do all the good you can upon earth

Vocabulary

antiquities- belonging to ancient times.
distilled- to get facts from a much larger source of information.

Questions

How can a person go about and be happy when there is misery all around?
What encourages people to be happy and live life?
How can religion help explain how to live life?

<http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=8de64512480f8c58026cd9fc2834cb47&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=hins30136&tabID=T006&docId=CJ67284965&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0>.

checkpoint 1

http://www.school.eb.com/comptons/article-9274943?query=what%20is%20a%20hormone&ct=null
http://www.biology-online.org/3/3_hormone_production.htm
http://www.ftmguide.org/hormonebasics.html

• Hormones are basically chemical messengers that flow through the blood

• Hormones are made in "ductless endocrine glands." 

• Hormones "float" to certain organs where they "turn biochemicals reactions on or off."

• It is responsible for secreting release factors which instruct the pituitary gland to secret certain hormones. 

• Almost all living things produce hormones.  
• Hormones are always circulating throughout the body and come in contact with so many cells, but only effect certain cells called "target cells."              
• Hormones have a certain shape, and thus will fit into only certain receptors, but not others. 

Questions 

1. What is a biochemical reaction?
2. what happens when a biochemical reaction is turned on or off?
3. Why are the hypothalamus and pituitary gland important when talking about hormones?

What kinds of hormonal changes do kids go through as they get older?

Does the brain cause any or most of the hormonal changes?
Where are hormones produced or made?
At what age do most of the hormonal changes occur?
What are some of the effects of these hormonal changes?
What parts of the brain cause changes in behavior?
What are some different types of hormones?

I know a little about this topic. currently i am not an expert at the subject, but that is what i hope to become.  I already know some parts of the brain that causes the hormonal changes, and i also know at what time period they occur. i also know a couple of the effects these changes cause.

Passion Project Checkpoint #1

http://www.school.eb.com/all/comptons/article-9276688?query=religion&ct=null

• People expect religion to give them satisfaction in life.
• Relgion answers the question of "what is the meaning of life".
• Martin Luther said that religion is to “have something in which the heart trusts completely,” (he believes it can be a god or something in the world such as wealth, power, career, or pleasure).
• Religion fills people's lives with meaning.
• Monotheistic- one god.
• Atheism- the belief that there is not a god.
• How do different religions answer the question of "what is the meaning of life"?
• Are there similarities among their views?

basics of positive psychology

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SIL0185-0-7561&artno=0000172099&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=The%20Value%20of%20Positive%20Emotions&title=The%20Value%20of%20Positive%20Emotions&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=N

• The study of positive emotions uses a completely different framework than the study of negative emotions.
•  Negative emotions: (anger, fear, sadness) have a clear evolutionary purpose- they are associated clearly with urges to act in a certain way- such as anger and the urge to attack, and fear and the urge to escape, they are easier to tell apart. 
• Positive emotions: (joy, serenity, amusement) don't have a clear evolutionary purpose- they don't lead us to act in a way that will help us survive, and all positive emotions are generally expressed the same way physically (smiling, muscles around eyes contract causing cheeks to lift)
• Studies have shown that those who possess high levels of positive emotions live longer.
• Studies have shown that positive emotions generally produce a broadened pattern of thinking and cause the thinker to think more creatively and to be more flexible with other ideas. 
• Even short-term happiness can have long term effects. A positive state of mind produces positive actions.

Basics of Memory: Article 1

http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-9109427


What I found:
- good definition: the encoding, storage, and retrieval in the human mind of past experiences
- memory is the result of and an influence on perception, attention, and learning
- patterns in memory show that attention means better remeberance of the event
- repetition of memory also helps to recognize the memory again and again
- memory is a major part of learning and makes learning possible
- a “retrieval cue” elicits the memory of the experience
- without current repertition, events are forgotten
- purposeful forgetting can reduce anxiety and create feelings of relief
- old memories weaken and new ones tend to be vivid
- forgetting 'old news' is sometimes for the better
- continual adjustments are made between learning or memory storage (input) and forgetting (output) balances of input/output
- the rate of forgetting is dirrectly related to the rate of learning
- every event leaves a "trace" in our central nervous system that can be restimulated or remembered
- some traces are deeper than others based on the experience and our feelings towards it


Further Questions:
Do we want to forget some things and remember others?
What would happen if memories failed to fade?
Why can’t we remember something from surgery when we are put to sleep?
Can we increase the capacity of memory our brain can hold?  

2nd post.

http://www.school.eb.com/all/comptons/article-9276566?query=phsycology&ct=null

• The field of psychology has a number of subdisciplines devoted to the study of the different levels and contexts of human thought and behavior.
• Social physocology deals with human thought and actions through a social context.
• Physocological physocology deals with thoguth and behaivor at the level of nueorology.
• Comparitive physocology compares thoughts and behaivors of humans and that of other species.
• Psychology is an interdisciplinary science.
• In general the methods range from simple observation to rigorous experimentation in the study of physocology.
• Through the use of statistics the experimenter is able to test for the extent to which results of an experiment could have occurred by chance.
• Some physiological psychologists are concerned with mapping the functions of various parts of the brain.
•  Physiological psychologists study the effects of drugs on human behavior.
• The effects of drugs and tobacco on animals are observed to determine the effects these substances have on humans.

question: How can drugs affect how a physciatrist looks at their patient?
             Whats kinds of test to the run on animals to avoid harming them?

1st Article on Decisions

LINK: http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=SUIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CA165166613&mode=view&userGroupName=hins30136&jsid=858d55f567b134b26fad2a3ee1b0ba20

What I learned:

• decisions are made in the frontal cortex of the brain, along with where risks and benefits are weighed
• the exploration of drugs' effects on decisions making are linked to drug abuse and addiction
• drug addiction is associated with decision making and your fail to learn from repeated errors
• there are chemical "labels" that help woth decision making diseases
• many therapies to study decision-making
• drugs lead to destructive decisions; genetics and environment
• dysfunction in decision making which predisposes a person to drug abuse
• those dysfunctions might lead scientists to an effective treatment for men and women who's lives are diminished by decisions that bring them harm

Questions that I have:
-What could be those therapies used?
-If one has a specific dysfunction, how could one get rid of it?
-How could the environment have a threat to those who make poor decisions?
-If scientists were to study more of the brain, where could they find the specific part that makes those decisions for us?

what are dreams?

What are some things that can what a person dreams about?
How can someone determine a person's personality by their dreams?
What makes people remember their dreams?
Does certain music effect what a person's dreams are about?
Do drugs affect dreams?

What I already know about dreams:
        Dreams are a series of thoughts, images, and sensations, occurring in a person's mind during the time of sleep.
        Dreams can be about positive things or negative things.
        Generally people have multiple dreams throughout one period of sleep; the human mind normally forgets most of the dreams that the person has had. And only re4member the ones that occurred moments before they woke up.

http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country_sections.php?&contid=3&wmn=Asia&cn=Afghanistan&sname=Dating_and_Marriage&snid=12&cid=1

love in afganistan

What is Death?

http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=8de64512480f8c58026cd9fc2834cb47&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=hins30136&tabID=T006&docId=CJ66840122&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0
Hiding death away does not cheat it, but deceives us that life is forever; The BBC is being cricitised for filming a patient dying of cancer, but, says Suzanne Moore, we can no longer turn away from reality.

What is Death?
-Hiding death away does not cheat it.
-Death can be described as many things.
-Death is a private and individual act.
-Seeing may not be believing.
-Its sometimes hard to distiguish the difference between life and death.
-You should think about you life now rather than thinking about death.
-Seeing someone actually die is different than seeing a dead person.


How does it feel to see someone die right in front of you?
Whats the real difference between life and death?

How Dreams Work

How Dreams Work

1. How does what you did during the day effect your dreams?
2. Are dreams based off events in your life
3. Are they based off events to come?
4. Why do you have the same dreams

What do you already know about the topic?

1. Many people have the same dreams over again
2. Its okay to forget your dreams.
3. Your dreams can mean many things

What causes emotions?

 

https://webmail.hinsdale86.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=1666dc64f83b49cb8b4b8b2e778c99d8&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.school.eb.com%2fcomptons%2farticle-9274173?


Did you know that no one really understands how emotions/feelings such as joy, disgust, anger, or sadness occur? 


* Emotions can be activated by several things: processes in one's brain, changes in one's body, sense perceptions, and mental activity


* Emotions can be influenced by learning something or remembering something


* Constructivist: one's life experiences that are factors of determining how one will react emotionally


* Emotions are in relation to stimului triggering changes in one's body


* Constructivists study people's interactions with the environment, and how one's memories, perceptions, beliefs, and thoughts, as well as evaluations affect one's emotions


* Biosocial theories: are types of theories that emphasize the importance of biological factors in determining high levels of emotions


*Walter B. Cannon suggested that emotions can be "felt" in the thalamus, a structure near the top of the brain stem that works with sensory signals, and sends sensory signals to other parts of the brain 

Why do some people remember parts of their childhood but others dont?

1.How does memory work?
2.Can people control or block what they do or dont want to remember?
3.Can traumatic events effect what a person remembers?
4.Is a person able to bring back memories that were forgotten?

I already know that everyone remembers different parts of their childhood and that some people might block certain memories that are unpleasant. For me most of my childhood memories i dont remember well and i only remember certain memories even though they arent very significant. The memories i do remember are only small clips of events that happened.

Article on Phobia

Blog #2
1. Phobias are uncontrollable fears that can take over your life
2. Names of phobias come from a greek word added to the word "Phobia"
3. Social phobias can ve especially controlling becuase it keeps people from leaving the house
4. Phobias are htougt to be learned  emotional responses, you are not born with it
5. Phobias are caused by situations that feel treatening ex.) you almost dround as a child so now you have a phobia of water
6.Behavior therapy= often used/successful in overcoming phobias
7. Behavior therapy exposes people to what exactly they are afraid of
8. Behavior therapy gradually helps the person overcome their fear
9. Psychotherapy= usefull in treating phobias
10. when a trained person and a patient talk and form a relationship and help the patient overcome their fear
 Q1: how does Psychotherapy really work?
Q2: which is better,  Psychotherapy or Behavior therapy?
http://www.school.eb.com/all/comptons/article-9473828?query=Phobias&ct=null

Article on Romance

Blog #2:
1. The theme of early romances is a quest or search
2. The tales told by minstrels in the courts during the Middle Ages are called Romances
3. They were called romances because the minstrels used one of the romance languages
4. Romance are the tales told by minstrels in the courts during the Middle Ages
5. Minstrels are professional entertainers of any kind
6. French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish are called romance languages
7. They are considered romance languages because of similarities in their structure and vocabulary

http://www.school.eb.com/all/comptons/article-9276774?query=romances&ct=null
http://www.school.eb.com/all/comptons/article-9276773?query=romances&ct=null

Questions:
How do people write romances?
What was the first romances to be written?

Background on Psychology

http://www.school.eb.com/ebi/article?tocId=9276566
This is an article from Encyclopedia Brittanica that gives a background on psychology.  I learned:

• Psychology is studing how and why humans think and behave
• Psychology has many different smaller sections of specific fields of study
• Social Psychology: why and how people think in behave from a social viewpoint
• Physiological Psychology: studying thought processes and actions based on neurology
• Comparative Psychology: comparing the psychology of different species
• Abnormal psychology: the study of actions and thoughts that are not typical
• Many different types of psychology relate to each other and include even smaller subtopics

These many types of psychology all sound really interesting.  But I want to learn:

• What is neurology?  How does it relate to physiological psychology?
• What does abnormal psychology study about irregular behavior?  What has been discovered about it so far?

Why do children change, in behavior, as they get older?

How does memory of the past (or lack of) affect our lives?

To answer this overall research question I will try to find out:
How does memory of the past (or lack of) affect our lives?

1.Why do we remember some things and forget others?
2.Are we in control of what we want to remember?
3.Can we “jog” our memory of an event or time in the past?
4.How is it that no one remembers when they were born?
5.Why does longer time in the future prevent us from remembering our past?
6.Is it easier to remember our past or someone else’s? (history)
7.Is it possible to forget something or will it always be in our brain?
8.Why and how do we forget our dreams?
9.Do we forget dreams because they are not reality?
10.Can we make ourselves forget something? Or will that just make us remember it more?
11.How does time affect our memory of events?
12.How is memory related to personal knowledge?
13.Can we make ourselves remember something?
14.Are there ways to better our memory?
15.Is memorization really knowledge?
16.Do we forget things because they are insignificant in our life?
17.Can we control what we chose to forget?
18.Is there a limit to how much memory capacity our brain can hold?
19.Does our brain sort significant memories from those that are insignificant?
20.How does alcohol consumption affect our memory?

This is what I already know about this topic and want to find out:
I know that we have short term and long term memory. There are things we can also do to help benefit our memory to make it last longer. I want to know how our brain retains images of our past and stores them. I would also be interested in finding out why we can't remember when we were born or why intoxication makes you forget an event that happened. I am interested in researching ways to help better our memories or take some control over what we want to remember and things we can let ourselves forget.

What makes people happy?

Sub Questions:

• Do relationships play a part in happiness?
• Is it possible to achieve or create true happiness?
• Why are some people happier than others?
• Do certain people have a predisposition towards happiness?
• Does money have anything to do with happiness?
• What is happiness, scientifically?
• Are there certain things that unanimously make people happy?
• Does age have anything to do with happiness?

What I already know:

• Certain religions, like Buddhism, believe it is possible to achieve true happiness
• Reasoning conflicts though, because Buddists say that to achieve true happiness you need to get ride of personal attachments, while psychologists say that to be happy you need to have personal relationships- so which is right?
• There is a difference between true or permanent happiness and temporary happiness- but how can we predict what category things will fall in?

How do people make decisions?

Sub-research questions:
1.) Does conforming/nonconforming affect your opinion?
2.) Do your ethics change who you are? Or what you choose?
3.) How do people shape their ethics?

What I already know about this topic-
I know that if you were to follow with others, or conform, then that could affect your future, especially if you end up successful, or even happy. If you were to go your own way, or not conform, you could be praised or scolded for that decision. There are multiple ethics in the world today, especially with religions, and that could affect whether or not you do something that someone else is doing. You could be born with specific morals, ethics, or opinions but those could be changed with what you see or hear. Even magazines/TV can change that.

How do people express their love toward one another

1. How is mairrage developed in other countries?
2. How does literature help people express their love.
3. Wat other types of art helps them: music, art...?

 love is strong, blind, and painful. everyone in this world loves someone, they may just not know it yet, or just havent met the right person, but i believe that everyone will find a way to incorporate love into their lives. all cultures have different rules and believes, so therefor they may have different views on love. for example some have arranged mirrages, some may be free to do whatever they like, or some may even have to stay single. during my studyingh of hinduism, i have learned that about 95% of the population have arrangesd marriages and believe that for two people to be rightfully together they must be from the same caste. during a wedding, the moman gets a hanna all over her body and the darker it gets, the better the relationship is between the wife and mother in law. during the ceremony, the wife hands the husband hanfullls of white flower pedals to simbolize all the wifes wealth, which now belonged to the husband. soon after themyst walk seven times around the altar to walkl the path of life. durinmg this walk, the woman walks first for the first three times then the husband walks in front for the rest of the way, showing how he will lead the wife and family.

How does daily life effect how a person feels?

Sub Questions:

1) How do people react/feel when they are given actions from another person?
2) Can feelings between two people change completely if something wrong is done?
3) Do people hide their feelings from others to make their feelings towards that person better/worse?
4) Do people hide their feelings from others to make themselves seem superior/inferior?
5) Is happiness contagious?


Daily actions and words towards other people can effect how they act towards you and others.
Being happy and nice to someone will also make them happy.
Happiness can be spread from person to person by little things such as compliments, questions, or small talk.
Some people hide who they truly are to make themselves fit in.
People who hide who they truly are miss out on a lot of opportunities in life.
Negative feelings and actions towards a person can make that person negative as well.

What causes emotions?

1. What is the cause for different emotions?
2. What causes people to feel emotions?
3. What makes you feel different emotions?
4. Are emotions scientific or a theory/something you believe in?




What I already know:
I know that many people feel different emotions at different times. Emotions can be caused by people, animals, and objects etc. An example of an emotion is:
One day Alaina, my sister, had skittles on our counter. Of course, I envied her skittles because I didn't have any, and took a couple of skittles. She saw me taking her skittles, and started yelling at me. She questioned me: Why did I take her skittles without asking? I sat on the edge of the couch she was sitting on, and she became angry and upset that I had taken some of her skittles. She pushed me off of the couch and I fell into a picture-frame, cutting my eyebrow open. Something I can conclude from this is that other people's decisions can lead to emotions, and cause the people feeling those certain emotions to do something- good, or in this case bad.

What is the meaning of life?

1. How do different religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism) view the meaning of life?
2. To have a meaningful life, do you have to be successful?
3. What makes people truly happy and satisfied in life?
4. Is the goal of life to prepare for another life?

What do you already know abput this topic?

To have a meaningful life, you have to be happy.

What happens after you die?

1) Does everything happen for a reason?
2) Why are things as they are?
3) What is death?
4) Why do bad things have to happen?
5) What do other religions believe happens?

I know that some religions believe in reincarnation and some believethat nothing happens.

How does the human mind work?

1.) How do criminals mind work?
2.) What are the different parts of the brain?
3.) Is it possible to think of an original thought?

What do you already know about this topic?

I know that the right side of the brain is the creative, thinking outside of the box. Whereas, the left side of the brain is a more logical thing, straightforward type of thinking.

art in the brain

do you control your envirnment or does your enviornment control you?

What is 'Normal'?

Why do people have Phobias?
Why do people have OCD and what are the affects?
What are characteristics that make up a serial killer?
Why do people have addictions and what are the affects?

I know that there are many different types of phobias, but I don't know why people have them. I know that a lot of people have OCD but some don't have it as much as others. I don't know much about serial killers other than what I see on Criminal Minds. I know that people with addictions have an extremely hard time getting off the addiction.

Why do people behave the way they do in their daily lives?

In order to to answer this overall research question, I will try to find out:

1. Why people bully and tease others?
2.  What causes people to feel certain emotions?

I already know that sometimes people bully others because of their own insecurities, and I also know that certain chemicals in the brain create sensations of each emotion, but I still want to know what causes those chemicals and I want to go into more depth with why exactly people bully.

How do people across the world express love?

What is the significance of Valentines Day?
How has the view of love changed over the years?
How do others show love to their significant others?
Do movies potrey love correctly?