Blog Post 6

1. I have learned that my person, Hemang Srikishan, has studied Psychology, Spanish, Hindi, and academic education. Currently, he is a middle school teacher who teaches math for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.

2. I believe he is a reliable source because he has studied Psychology. This is the main subject that I am currently learning about and he seems to know what he is talking about from the questions he has answered.

3. I interviewed my person on April 26th at around 12 pm. I sent him an email with all my questions and he answered them fully based on opinions or facts.

These are the questions and answers that we discussed.

1.

1. Do you think the environment of a person is the main reason of how people act? For example, if a boy grew up in a rough neighborhood, he would have rough qualities and act violent, right? Do you think the environment he grew up in is the main reason why he is a violent boy?

This is a big question in psychology that is broadly called the "Nature vs. Nurture Debate."  People argue that it is nature that makes people act the way they do- that it is their genetic make up and something about the biological make up of a person that makes them act the way they do.  On the other side are the Nurture members.  They say that the way people turn out is exactly how people raise him/her to be.  Some of them go as far as to say that they can make any child into any professional that you ask them to as long as you let them raise the child from birth.

 

Nowadays though, it is largely accepted that it is not just Nature or Nurture that is involved- it is a blend of the two.  So with you example, I think that a boy that grows up in a dangerous neighborhood might be 'predisposed' (which means that he might be more likely) to be violent because he sees lots of violence and his family might also be involved in violence- so in a sense he might grow up thinking that violence is normal.  However, the boy might also be genetically predisposed (their genes might actually make them more likely) to be violent or take pleasure in violence.  It is really a mix of the two things rather than just one. 

 

2. Do you think the "spread of feelings" is possible? I read this in a psychology book. For example, if a man walks on a bus and the bus driver greets him happily with a "hello," and the man does not say anything because he was not yet "happy." But when the man walks off the bus, the bus driver again says goodbye in a happy way, and the man responds happily with a goodbye. The bus driver sort of made the man happy and put him in a positive mood. Imagine all of the people that go on and off the bus, they could all become positive and spread the happiness throughout the entire city. I believe this is possible because in real terms, if I were to greet you, for example, with a negative attitude, you would also act negative towards me and others because I put you in that bad mood. Do you think this is possible?

I really believe that this is possible and I love the fact that it is possible. This is opinion, but I absolutely believe that we can greatly influence others by how we act towards them.  By acting with courtesy to others we certainly get courtesy back (at least most of the time).  I'm a little less sure that the courtesy spreads beyond the 2 people that are in the interaction.  I think it does at times but at other times it ends there.

3. Are there any other ways feelings could be spread through people besides actions, words, and attitude?

 I think actions, words, and attitude are the main ways that feelings are spread through people.  Since these are the ways people communicate with each other, they are the ways that any type of feeling spreads.

4. Do you think the school life of a boy or girl could be a reason of why they act positive or negative? If the boy is popular, or if the boy is bullied.

Yes, absolutely.  School is an important time and if someone is bullied in school it can make him/her avoid school at any cost.  At the same time, if schools are really positive and make a student feel successful, they can get kids to come back day after day even when the student might have a lot of difficulty in his/her life.  That being said, I think a student can also be resilient against negative forces in school or any part of life.  Your environment could influence your behavior, but it is not necessarily the only thing that plays a part and plenty of people in really poor and oppressive environments can succeed beyond our imagination.  The human body and mind are really quite amazing.