Our Cheating Hearts

1. What is the thesis of the article? (One or two sentences only.)

Due to evolution and natural selection, humans are not naturally born into monogamous; males and females desire different qualities, so they work in different ways to carry on their genes, which usually result in polygamous.

2. In what ways are the strategies employed by men and women to pass on the next generation at odds?

The first most obvious, contradicting strategy is that men—having unlimited chances of reproduction—are less finicky about choosing a mate; therefore their focus is on quantity. For women—having limited number of eggs—are choosy about their mates, so their primary goal is about quality. The second is that women try to find high male-parental investment, including money, resources, and other supports, so cheating may be necessary. Men, trying to have maximum number of offspring, tend to find many females as possible; therefore, they might not have enough investment to keep the women interested.

3. What conclusion does the article draw about monogamy?

The article concludes that monogamy is not natural for humans. Monogamy and love are created by humans during evolution through intimacy, which parents have to encounter when their offspring is born. Women’s basic instinct to survive and provide the best for their offspring makes them seek out numerous mates who can offer different resources, and men’s natural desire is to successfully pass on their genes, so it is inevitable that many fertile mates are the solution.

4. In your own words explain the last paragraph of the article.

According to Darwin, the human species is the only species capable of being moral—the ability to compare his past and future actions and motive and to approve or disapprove them. We are animals with the potential to be moral, but this ability does not exist naturally in us. When we fully understand the natural desires and features born within us (or in another words, how immoral we are), we are capable of being moral to judge ourselves and others.

5. What are you personal reactions to the article?

The article really suggests to me why men and women seem to always be on each other’s nerves when it comes to marriage and how to make it last, and the passage in the article stating that men and women have different kind of jealously—for men, sexual infidelity, and for women, emotional infidelity—supports what I already acknowledge from experiences. In a way, this article saddens me that humans are truly driven by different things which almost make it impossible for monogamous, but I still do believe that humans are capable of being moral and not being totally submerged in our genes’ calling and that love can still be existed between two individuals.

Principles of Biological Psychology

1. Everything psychological is simultaneously biological.

Any emotion we feel and any feeling we encounter is our biological occurrence. When we receive a rush of pleasure when we are exercising, it is due because the release of endorphins in our body, and when we move our hand to turn a page of a book, millions of neurons work together to fire impulses to and from our nervous system.

2. The nervous system is complexity build from simplicity.

Neuron is simple in its structure, but many neurons are gathered together to form small subsystems, which form subsystems, which at the end form our nervous system. A neuron’s purpose is just to fire or not fire neuron impulses, but just because of this simplicity, human’s complex nervous system is created and it enables human to do the things we do.

3. The brain is both specialized and integrated.

Human’s brain is consisted of many parts, which control different functions of a human body, but these parts have to work together to enable humans to be fully functional. For example, the parts that control the listening, talking, and thinking have to work together to make a person be able to speak and carry on a conversation

4. The nervous system is “plastic” especially at early ages of development.

An infant is born with many more neurons than an adult, but these neurons are not connected together; when infant grows, neurons would start to make connections and excess neurons will disappear. Experiences shape babies to be a particular type of adult with a particular culture. If an infant’s brain is destroyed or cut in half, he or she will not experience any type of mental illness due to the brain’s ability to enormously develop during the early stages.

A Boy Without a Penis

After reading the article, “A Boy Without a Penis,” I really feel bad for John (David Reimer) for having his life turned around by a careless doctor and an ambitious psychologist who wanted to use him as a guinea pig to prove his theory; however, because of this tragedy, the whole psychological world is enlightened. We now can say that our biological bases and genes influence on our thoughts, feelings, and how we view ourselves more than we could imagine. Although we cannot conclude that all thoughts and actions come from the biological features, but it is undeniable that nature might have a part in our lives as equally as nurture. The question that I’m wondering the most is, “To what extend does nature have control of one's life and when do our actions fall into our own judgements?"