I read an article on love and the effects it has on behavior and brain chemistry. I found it interesting that, Dr. Michael Meaney believes that heredity is one of the factors that can influence the range of events when shaping the personality and temperment of an individual, but he feels that the environment is a strong part of the way people act. I agree with him in the sense that what people see around them influences what they do around others. It's kind of like a chain reaction, 'I saw this woman do it, so it can't be that bad of an idea.' People will do things to impress others, and it is likely that their ideas come from other people they see on the street. In the article, Dr. Meaney talks about an experiment that he did on rats. The rats that were nurtured by the mother every time they returned from a 15 minute lapse alone turned out to be brave and stronger than the others who weren't removed from their mother's care. He said that this love "rewired" their brains in the sense that they now had more receptors that helped to shape their personality. Although rats and people are far from the same, their brains develop similar, and we would respond to stress in a very similar way. The stress that the animals recieved from being removed from their mother is too dangerous for a human child, so they experimentors used monkeys and rats. It helps us to see that we are similar and how we deal with stress is greatly affected by how much love we recieve as children. Neglected children are more likely to act before they think in dangerous situations, that can most likely hurt them. The moral of this story is, love your children.
Here is the article link:
http://www.exn.ca/Templates/Story.cfm?ID=1997092601
1 comment:
It is an interesting concept that is depicted in this article. This can be seen in children that go to daycare as opposed to those that stay at home with a non-working parent. As a child, having the experience of other children around and getting a feel for a sense of structure that daycare provides (such as meal time, craft time, play time, etc), can have a dramatically different effect for a child. Interaction and stimulation in a child that may have ended up quite shy may help shape a more sociable and dynamic adult.
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