William and Alice James:

Unsurprisingly Unable to See Eye-to-Eye

Music is without a doubt a universal language that transcends time, generations, and cultures. It makes for good entertainment, interest, and constructive pursuit that enriches the lives of whomever it touches. Some researchers believe that our natural, almost universal predisposition to the enjoyment of and emotional reaction to music is hard-wired into us – that it has always played a pivotal role in helping humans develop their minds and relationships with others. One writer suggests, “ Babies are born with musical wisdom and appetite, music facilitates well-being and returns people to well-being from mental and physical impairments – it is deep in our genetic structures” (1).

In her book, The Female Brain, Louanne Brizendine describes the stages that the female brain goes through during life, citing brain structure and chemistry as the departure for differences between the male and female brains. Most of the misunderstanding of female psychology, Brizendine notes, stems from the misconception held by scientists during most of the 19th and 20th centuries - “that women are essentially small men in psychology and physiology”. She says that it is important to make the distinction between male and female psychologies because physiological sources for these differences do exist, contrary to the reality that they are usually just brushed off as mere deviations during studies.

 Kate Gould

Professor Grobstein

Neurobiology

27 April 2010

Rifts in Time

Pharmaceutical companies have been grappling with the placebo effect since the 1950s, when its surprising powers were discovered. As long as a patient is under the assumption that he or she is receiving a drug, a sugar pill or saline injection can alleviate illness and cure disease—sometimes, with close to the same level of efficacy as the actual drug. The science behind the placebo is shaky, and there are studies being conducted, but what seems to be of more concern to scientists is the placebo’s detriment to drug trials. Martin Enserink, in Science, discussed in his report on the placebo the recent failure of a new drug by Merck, MK-869, an antidepressant.

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Michelle Han

Paul Grobstein

Web Paper # 3

May 13, 2010

            Research has shown that control is an important aspect in relationships. Control can be understood as a compensatory process where people are most likely to control their partners when control over their environment is challenged, When low mastery, low trust, or high conflict occurs in relationships, individuals feel the need to control their partners to compensate for their perceived lack of control. In order to better understand intimate relationships we need to examine processes such as commitment, love, conflict, and power.