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Risky behaviours in teenagers
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Beautiful Brains by David Dobbs is an article about why teenagers usually take more risks than adults. In the article Dobbs begins by discussing how his son once got in trouble for speeding down a highway just because he was curious to know what it felt like. He then goes into asking why teenagers often do "stupid" things and then explains that teens have always done that throughout time. He provides scientific evidence that the brain changes between the ages of 12 to 25 affecting our decision making. One way that a reader could interpret this data is that teenagers have a hard time using new parts of their brain and seem to be in a state of retardation. Dobb also describes the reckless acts of teenagers in order for them to adapt to any situation.
Teenagers are thrill seekers, they crave new experiences, which causes them to get out of their parents houses faster. They like having the approval from others so that they can have successful lives. Dobb’s second view states that teenagers act a certain way because they are persuaded by evolution.
In Carol Dweck’s article titled, “Brainology” Dweck discusses the different mindsets that students have about intelligence. Some where taught that each person had a set amount of intelligence, while others were trained that intelligence is something they could develop and increase over time. in Dweck’s article she writes, “ It is a belief that intelligence can be developed that opens students to a love of learning, a belief in the power of effort and constrictive, determined reactions to setbacks” (Dweck pg. 2). Dweck is talking about a growth mind-set in which is how students perceive the growth of knowledge and that no one person is born with a certain amount of intelligence, it too can be trained and developed over time. By introducing Dweck’s ideas of a growth mind-set to students, students will enjoy learning and be less devastated by setbacks, because they know they can develop intelligence. Dweck also writes that students with a growth mind-set, “believe that intelligence is something that can be cultivated through effort and education. They
McMahon’s “Inside Your Teenager’s Scary Brain” discusses how adolescent’s brains are delicate and can easily affect their development in a good or bad way, depending on the individual’s experiences. According to Jensen, a Harvard neuroscientist and senior neurologist at two Boston hospitals, “teenage years comprise one of the brain’s most critical periods of development”. She parallels her experiences with her own children with observations of teens in general. With new research continuing to surface, studies illustrate how susceptible juvenile’s brain are and how this could generate different techniques on how society, parents, and teachers handle them.
In “The Brain on trial”, David Eagleman (2011) recounts the horrifying events which occurred on August 1, 1966. Charles Whitman entered the University of Texas with a rifle and secured himself in the bell tower. He then proceeded to shoot and kill 13 people and injure 32 more. Whitman was also shot and killed; however, during his autopsy it was discovered that a tumor was pressing against his amygdala. According to Eagleman, “The amygdala is involved in emotional regulation, especially of fear and aggression” (2011). Therefore, Whitman was possibly experiencing a fundamental change in his emotions and personality due to the tumor. Though Whitman did not survive, his case still poses questions as to whether or not he should be held accountable for his actions; moreover, should Whitman have received the maximum punishment for the murder he committed? Charles Whitman may not have had control over the feelings of “rage and irrational thoughts” (2011) he was experiencing; however, the precision of the attack indicates he was well aware of the actions he was committing.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is a memoir by Susannah Cahalan, intended to narrate her story as she fights for both her sanity and her life. The memoir details her frequent hospital stays and is ripe with personal accounts and memories from those who were there with Cahalan through her agonizing month of insanity.
Everything is criticized at every level in this story, the people by the main character, the main character by the author and even the story by the author as well. The cruel egoistic personality of Anders is definitely identifiable through these different levels of criticism. I will prove that the inner motivation of this behaviour derives from Anders' egoistic personality which sometimes makes him cruel against others, sometimes against himself. Furthermore, I will prove that whenever Anders criticizes somebody or something he actually tries to punish because of the imperfectness of the object. In order to make the referring to the different part of the story easier I divide it into three parts. The first part ends when the robbers appear at the door of the bank, the second ends when one of the robbers shoots at Anders and the left is the third part.
As a part of the English 101writing course, doing well on an in class writing is essential to excel in the course. During the second in class writing, individuals such as myself, had to respond to the article “Brain Candy” by Malcolm Gladwell. As a result, I wrote about whether or not Gladwell agreed with Johnson’s assertion that pop culture has made America smarter. Upon analyzing my graded in-class writing, I realized several errors that could be fixed.
In Carol Dweck’s “Brainology” the article explains how our brain is always being altered by our experiences and knowledge during our lifespan. For this Dweck conducted a research in what students believe about their own brain and their thoughts in their intelligence. They were questioned, if intelligence was something fixed or if it could grow and change; and how this affected their motivation, learning, and academic achievements. The response to it came with different points of views, beliefs, or mindset in which created different behavior and learning tendencies. These two mindsets are call fixed and growth mindsets. In a fixed mindset, the individual believes that intelligence is something already obtain and that is it. They worry if they
As far as I could remember I was never really any good at school. I couldn’t concentrate on things for no more than 5 minutes at a time I would either get discouraged or find it too easy and just give up. An author by the name of Carol Dweck wrote an article called “Brainology” in it Dweck describes that there are two types of mindsets fixed and growth. Those who are afraid to fail so they never try anything new are ones with a fixed mindset and the growth mindset are those who are not afraid to fail and find a new challenge an opportunity to learn something new. I guess you can say that I had a bit of a fixed mindset growing up I was always too scared to look stupid that I didn’t want to fail because I didn’t want to disappoint my siblings
Science cannot explain everything but it strives to look for answers and relies on proof. Religion is based solely on faith and believes in many things that do not make sense and do not have proof to support its ideas. The belief that there is a substance beyond the element that takes up no space, but is still connected with the body is one of them. The belief that the mind or soul are not linked to the body and that they are both two separate substances. The body is one and the mind is another. This belief is not logical and does not make sense now that without the brain, which is a substance that makes up a body, a person could not function in the world. The mind and the brain are one, and these two elements cannot be separated now that the brain is just another part of the body.
Similarly, going along with the prior rebuttal of the importance of differentiating juvenile’s characteristics and actions of that of an adult, science is compiling more evidence of its vitality. Many adults can look back and reminisce about an action he or she did when younger and say, “Wow I cannot believe I did that.” Science has proven the reason behind that is because an adolescent’s brain has not yet fully matured. Tsui states “Studies conclusively established that the brain of an adolescent is not fully developed, particularly in the area of the prefrontal cortex, which is critical to higher order cognitive functioning and impulse control” (645). The facts of scientific research need to be taken into consideration when distinguishing
Dobbs states that, “Reckless’ sounds like you’re not paying attention. But I was. I made a deliberate point of doing this on an empty stretch of dry interstate, in broad daylight, with good sightlines and no traffic. I mean, I wasn’t just gunning the thing. I was driving.” The boy that was speeding gave his father another perspective about why he did what he did and how he did it safely. Researchers helped gain another perspective by writing, “The resulting account of the adolescent brain-call it the adaptive-adolescent story-casts the teen less as a rough draft than as an exquisitely sensitive, highly adaptable creature wired almost perfectly for the job of moving from the safety of home into the complicated world outside”(Dobbs 3). Researchers published information that allows the father to get a new perspective on the way that the teen brain works and also why he didn’t object to any of the accusations his father was saying except that it was reckless. The father gained a new perspective because of the way his son decided to describe the way he was driving. Coming of age allowed the son to understand what he did wrong, but also gives a detailed explanation that allowed his father to get a new
I see their point in that not all 18 year olds are mature, but you can be responsible without being mature. Also some might disagree because the brain’s prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed until the age 25. The prefrontal cortex helps with decision making. I can’t disagree with science, but just because your decision making skills aren't fully developed, they are developed enough to be accountable for their actions. So even though not all 18 year olds are mature or fully developed they still are able to make the right decision.
The teenage brain makes rash decisions often made without thinking of the outcome. In the article “The Teenage Brain” Jenson, the writer makes a statement of how her son died his hair black and no longer did well in school. This is important because it shows that the brain changes its mind without really thinking of what it is doing. Also Romeo and Juliet got married within five days of meeting
Judith Edersheim explains, on the topic of teen brain development, that there are differences between the brains of adolescents and the brains of adults. Adolescence lose what is called “gray matter” which are the cells in charge of the brain's computation. This loss is concentrated in the frontal lobe of the brain, responsible for decision making and self control. Therefore, adolescents shouldn’t be subject to adult prisons while their brain is still developing. People of all political standings believe that a population that doesn’t pose a serious safety risk shouldn’t use the limited public resources of an adult prison. An issue that presents the question of whether teens should be in adult prisons or not also lies in data. Studies show that kids who served in adult prisons were thirty four percent more like to commit new crimes. A reason for this is that juvenile detention facilities have more programs for counseling and rehabilitating the kids in order to learn from their mistakes and have a better future. Adult prisons pose a risk not only for a criminal future, but also for serious physical and psychological
The movie A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard, tells the story of Nobel Prize winner, and mathematician, John Nash’s struggle with schizophrenia. The audience is taken through Nash’s life from the moment his hallucinations started to the moment they became out of control. He was forced to learn to live with his illness and learn to control it with the help of Alicia. Throughout the movie the audience learns Nash’s roommate Charles is just a hallucination, and then we learn that most of what the audience has seen from Nash’s perspective is just a hallucination. Nash had a way of working with numbers and he never let his disease get in the way of him doing math. Throughout the movie the audience is shown how impactful and inspirational John Nash was on many people even though he had a huge obstacle to overcome.