Psychological and Social Human Evolution - Admission/Application Essay Example

? Article Summary Plotnik, J., De Waal, F.B.M., & Reiss, D. (2006). Self-recognition in an Asian Elephant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(45):17053–17057. According to Plotnik, in both psychological and social human evolution, empathy and altruistic behaviors changes as well as self-awareness are some of the characteristics observed. Scientists, however, have continuously subjected different species to an experimental analysis for self-awareness in humans and animals. This experiment is known as mirror self- recognition where animals are brought before a mirror and their responses noted. The experiment consists of four stages, which includes, social response, inspection of the mirror, repetitive mirror-testing and self realization. Currently, human, apes and dolphins are the only spices that have successfully undergone all the four stages while other spices get stack in stage two. However, in this case, the focus is on Asian elephants and their responses before the mirror. Three elephants happy, Maxine and patty were exposed to an ordinary mirror, covered mirror, open mirror and partially covered mirror. Moreover, since the elephants can touch any part of their body with their truck, they were also subjected to the mark test. In the first stage, none of the elephants socially interacted with the image on the mirror. In the second stage, the elephant displayed investigative behaviors by touching and sniffing the mirror which are consistent with mirror-testing. In the third stage, the elephants repeatedly brought food and ate standing before the open mirror. In the last stage, all the three elephants occasionally moved their trunk and body while before the mirror as if they knew the images were theirs. On the other hand, the mark test result which involves marking of the elephant’s forehead, only one out of the three elephants realized and touched the mark. In conclusion, it is true to say that elephants show a sense of self realization. Loeches, A., Carvajal, F., Serrano, J, M., & Fernandez-Carriba, S. (2004). Neuropsicologia de la percepcion y la expresion facial de emociones: Estudios con ninos y primates no humanos. (Neuropsychology of perception and expression of facial emotions. Studies with children and nonhuman primates. Anales de Psicologia 20 (2), 241-259.   This article outlines a number of researches conducted to examine children’s and non-human primate’s expression of emotions and neuropsychological facial expression. It is also vital to note that most of researchers in this field borrow research materials from neordawinian theories. In this case, the research is based on Darwin’s theories involving the origin of emotions. These theories are considered relevant because they take into account and outline the specific cerebral circuits expressing emotion as well as the effects of emotions. They also revile children’s inborn or phylogenetic behaviors. According to Loeches, there are four key points that can be concluded from the study on emotions expression and neuropsychological facial expression in non- human primates and children. The first one is that the ability to express emotions in infants is noted as early as the first year of existence. Further neurobiological research shows that emotional expression, in children and non-human primates, mostly occur in the right hemisphere of the face as compared to the left hemisphere. However, some studies illustrate a division of emotional action between the two hemispheres, whereby the right is responsible for negative emotional expressions and the left hemisphere for the positive emotional expressions. The second one is that there is no difference in the way children and non-human primates recognize and discriminate emotional facial expressions. The third one is that children and adults express emotions with equal muscular actions regardless the difference in body size. Lastly, emotions expression and neuropsychological facial expression studies in non- human primates and children reviles characteristics of irregularity and unevenness in the facial response to emotions. This is because emotional responses seem to involve the left hemisphere of the face. Childress, A, R., Ehrman, R, N., Wang, Z. L, Y., & Sciortino, N. (2008). Limbic Activation by “Unseen” Drug and Sexual Cues. Prelude to Passion. 3 (1), 1506. This article illustrates a neuroimaging experiment conducted to examine human brain response to unseen signs for sex and drug rewards. “Unseen” in this context is used to mean signs presented in a way that the brain does not recognize them. Early research on the field proposed that human motivation is vastly contributed by desires and fears even when they occur outside awareness. The research also showed that even a brief indication of fear or threat, regardless of whether the brain recognizes it, it will still respond. Therefore, in the case of sex and drug reward brain responses, neuroimaging experiment is considered to the most relevant. This is because, although long exposure to sexual and drug reward stimuli has a powerful motivational effect that activates the limbic reward circuit it is not clear if the same can happen outside awareness. The experiment involves exposure of drug patients to four images related to sex, drugs, aversive condition and a neutral image in a “backward masking” manner. Backward masking is where the target images are briefly presented to the recipient and immediately another image with a different content follows. In this case, 22 male cocaine patients between the 36 and 46 and had been using cocaine for an average of 15.7 years, were randomly subjected to four stimulant images which includes cocaine related image, sex, aversive, and neutral images. Each image was then presented for 33 milliseconds followed by an intermediate for 467 milliseconds. Two days later the same group was subjected to clearer images of the same stimuli to determine the valence between the two situations. In both situations, the brain indicated a rapid response when sexual and drug images appeared. Therefore, it is true to say that the human brain is motivated by sexual and drug stimuli even outside awareness. Steele, C., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African American. Journal of personality and social psychology 69(5), 797-811. This article tries to explain how the performance of high-ability African American scholars is affected by making race salient, especially when they are involved in difficult test. This phenomenon is referred to as stereotype threat. According to the article, the mean differences found when various racial groups are tested, are commonly realized when tests of skill, knowledge, achievement, or ability are used in employment and education context. Many researchers have been conducted attempting to understand the contributors of these mean differences. Currently, both Aronson and steele claims that stereotype threat theory has acquired a considerable amount of popular and scientific attention as a potential cause of mean differences as observed in the test scores. Aronson and colleagues put forward that when a person is engaged in a situation where a stereotype of the group in which he or she belongs becomes salient, then he or she is judged according to the stereotype of that group hence inhibiting performance. Despite this phenomenon affecting the student’s performance in various domains, one area is the applicability of stereotype threat in the context of cognitive capacity testing. The article also argues that when members from a similar minority race group encounter tests, their awareness that it is obvious for the minority group to score below average on tests, increases concern that they may perform poorly on their tests and thus proofing the stereotype. A similar scenario has been identified for gender in the field of mathematics, where it is common for women to perform poorly than men. If competence in mathematics domain is something with which individuals identifies stereotype threat is usually experienced. If the mathematics domain is not essential to the student’s self image, the situation of testing will not bring out stereotype threat. Reference Plotnik, J., De Waal, F.B.M., & Reiss, D. (2006). Self-recognition in an Asian Elephant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(45):17053–17057. Childress, A, R., Ehrman, R, N., Wang, Z. L, Y., & Sciortino, N. (2008). Limbic Activation by “Unseen” Drug and Sexual Cues. Prelude to Passion. 3 (1), 1506. Loeches, A., Carvajal, F., Serrano, J, M., & Fernandez-Carriba, S. (2004). Neuropsicologia de la percepcion y la expresion facial de emociones: Estudios con ninos y primates no humanos. (Neuropsychology of perception and expression of facial emotions. Studies with children and nonhuman primates. Anales de Psicologia 20 (2), 241-259.   Steele, C., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African American. Journal of personality and social psychology 69(5), 797-811. Read More