New course
Today we started a new course named developmental psychology. It is a really interesting one since it it related to our own development. At the first lecture, we learned how to test babies, which should be difficult because babies will not answer questions and it is not usually easy to control them. One of the experiments impressed me. The experimenter used fence to enclose an infant. Then he showed different things above the fence to attract the baby's attention. The result was that the baby showed more interest in human faces, staring at them for longer time.
We also talked about 'nature vs. nurture' debate. Some argued that humans were predisposed by genes and environment had no effect on humans. However, for the nurturists, they argued that humans were born like "a blank sheet" and all skills were learned from outside. We can say today of these opinions are naive and extreme. The most convincing idea is that there are predispositions for some skills (e.g. language) but only an appropriate environment can trigger them.
Psychology is exciting, isn't it?
New course
Today we started a new course named developmental psychology. It is a really interesting one since it it related to our own development. At the first lecture, we learned how to test babies, which should be a difficulty because babies will not answer specific questions and they are seldom controlled. One of the experiment impressed me. The experimenter used fence to enclose a babe. Then he showed different things to grab the baby's attention above the fence. The result was that the baby showed more interests in human faces due to a longer time staring faces.
We also talked about nature vs. nurture debate. Some argued that humans were predisposed by genes and environment had no effect on humans. However, for the nurturists, they argued that humans were born like "a blank sheet" and all skills were learned from outside. We can say both of two opinions are too naive and too extreme today. The most convincing idea is that there are predispositions for some skills (e.g. language) but only appropriate environment can trigger them.
Psychology is exciting, isn't it?
'which should be a difficulty because babies will not answer specific questions and they are seldom controlled.'
which should be difficult because babies will not answer questions and it is not usually easy to control them.
'One of the experiment' : one experiment, one of the experiments
'babe' : baby, infant
'different things to grab the baby's attention above the fence' : different things above the fence to attract the baby's attention
'more interests in human faces due to a longer time staring faces' :
more interest in human faces, staring at them for longer/a longer time
'about nature vs. nurture debate' : about the 'nature vs. nurture' debate
'We can say both of two opinions are too naive and too extreme today' :
We can say today that both of these opinions are naive and extreme
'but only appropriate environment' : but only an/the appropriate environment
