tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post6827591031162319982..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: The Male Brain vs. the Female BrainStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-62153835831078747212013-12-04T08:30:33.033-08:002013-12-04T08:30:33.033-08:00http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/cm11...http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/cm11.pdf<br /><br />Do your own research.<br /><br />You can't fudge facts. Child abuse is perpetrated by mothers with about twice the frequency as fathers. Who kills children? Mothers, far more often than fathers.<br /><br />Oh, fathers lead in the "sexual abuse" category, whoo hoo.<br /><br />Obviously, the mere fact that women are simply around children more often than fathers is going to ramp up the statistics. Of course. That is, whoever does the majority of the parenting is going to do the majority of the abuse. <br /><br />Still, whither the "hard-wiring" of the brain? If women are "hard-wired" to be "better mothers," then why aren't they "hard-wired" to have more patience, to avoid violence, to be little angels and never harm their children? <br /><br />The point being. You can try to make an argument that human anatomy alone "hard-wires" us for behavior, but without a cultural context it is ridiculous and meaningless. <br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-47134661845364067782013-12-04T07:07:37.226-08:002013-12-04T07:07:37.226-08:00I'm intrigued by Anon 6:27's remark about ...I'm intrigued by Anon 6:27's remark about women being more likely to abuse or kill their children. I have no reason to doubt the point, but I would be interested to have a link to a study. Stuart Schneidermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-81349654770418098762013-12-04T07:02:12.416-08:002013-12-04T07:02:12.416-08:00"I brought you into this world and I can take..."I brought you into this world and I can take you out of this world." Easy to say when one knows that the possibility exist to bring another into the world. It would also explain why abortion is so easy to conceive of as a solution when a personal dilemma is extant.<br />Always interesting that the ability to be a great mother comes with the ability to be very destructive to life as well. Men have developed science, literature, engineering, great compassion at the same time that their ability to do great harm exists as well.<br />We live with both the "Yin" and the "Yang" or whatever terms one wants to assign the opposites of our being. To not understand that is to not understand life. Life prospers because of death.Dennishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962996070458991675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-48952156219447536582013-12-04T06:28:17.681-08:002013-12-04T06:28:17.681-08:00Thank you for sharing this, Charles. Up until this...Thank you for sharing this, Charles. Up until this point, I have never heard the cranial capacity hypothesis questioned. In fact, most of the science I'm referring to on this topic was from just ten years ago, if that. So does an ant have a better organized brain and synapses firing faster than a koala bear? Ants can do pretty amazing things, and so can bees for that matter. A koala bear lives in trees eating eucalyptus leaves and sleeps 23 hours each day. What contribution does it make, eh?<br /><br />And why couldn't Austrolopithicus invent calculus? Are we seriously saying it's because he didn't have complex social networks to share knowledge? Are we saying that Neanderthal man was too into sports to be bothered with creative pursuits? <br /><br />Makes one think more seriously about conjecture posing as "the science is settled," doesn't it? Kind of like wild apocalyptic fantasies posed by those of the science academy who regard anthropomorphic global warming as a "fact." Given the reactions climate scientists under questioning (when they will actually debate a skeptic), it seems like a matter of faith.<br /><br />I am beginning to question the "studies say..." thing in this era of politicized, ideological social science posing as hard science. I wonder if it should be a posthumous addendum to Orwell's "Politics and the English Language."<br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-45651346482010556422013-12-04T06:27:10.105-08:002013-12-04T06:27:10.105-08:00That's strange. Because anyone knows, the &quo...That's strange. Because anyone knows, the "science" (that would be statistics) tells us that women are far more likely than men to abuse and kill their own children. How can that be, if women are "hard-wired" to be "better mothers?" <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-45396484467071196332013-12-04T03:48:33.797-08:002013-12-04T03:48:33.797-08:00Fact or Fiction: When It Comes to Intelligence, Do...<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-brain-size-matter" rel="nofollow">Fact or Fiction: When It Comes to Intelligence, Does Brain Size Matter?</a><br /><br />"...new scientific studies across several animal species, including humans, are challenging the notion that brain size alone is a measure of intelligence. Rather, scientists now argue, it is a brain's underlying organization and molecular activity at its synapses (the communication junctions between neurons through which nerve impulses pass) that dictate intelligence."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01990269310381826048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-6399145945528288542013-12-03T20:18:10.705-08:002013-12-03T20:18:10.705-08:00It's always seemed odd to me that evolutionary...It's always seemed odd to me that evolutionary scientists universally talk about the anatomical volumes of early hominid brains as if they were talking about something as innocuous as the existence of sandpaper. The theory is that smaller brains make early hominids cognitively inferior to modern humans. All scientific literature talks of the positive impact larger brain size (neocortex development and expansion) has on modern human performance in comparison to our primitive ancestors. This measurement of the cranial interior is usually done in cubic centimeters (cc) or cubic inches, and is correlated with cognitive function, and complexity... and the ability to adapt to and impact different natural environments. I have never heard this hypothesis seriously questioned. <br /><br />But aren't women's average cranial capacities smaller than men's, given all measurements or scales of comparison? Does this have any impact on cognitive or biologically structural mental performance (or capability)? What of other cognitive capacities? If no, it makes no difference, why is that? And if yes, it does, how does this explain the clearly greater faculty women have over men in skills like verbal language, tactile acuity, sensitivity to smell and color, and many other abilities?<br /><br />I am not a heavy-duty skeptic of evolution, though I do recognize it is a theory... unlike the prevailing scientific attitude that it is something akin to a law. That said, while I am sympathetic to evolutionary theory, it does seem like scientists want to have it both ways. They seem to make absolute claims of universal human equality in terms of global cognitive capacity, while simultaneously saying that evolutionary adaptations can happen over short periods of time -- and that these mutations are agnostic to benefit or detriment of the human organism. Are we to believe these degrees and variations don't apply to cognitive capacity? I feel that religious and/or mythical viewpoints have a stronger claim to universal human equality and dignity than do scientific explanations, at least as they relate to social conventions or moral imperatives regarding equality. After all, Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't cite biology journals to make his courageous claims of human dignity... he quoted from the Bible. And his message was taken seriously, as it should've been following the earlier part of the 20th century human horror show of eugenics, nazism, etc. This showed the limits of social Darwinism and the absolute freedom science claims to offer humanity. <br /><br />Which is valid? If both are valid, how can this be? <br /><br />When I consider these questions, it reminds me why "Lost In the Cosmos" by Walker Percy is one of my all time favorite books. Hilarious and insightful!<br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-77582034303206382392013-12-03T19:00:30.651-08:002013-12-03T19:00:30.651-08:00Hunting has greater occupational hazards than does...Hunting has greater occupational hazards than does gathering. Hunting is also far more creative and physically demanding for sustained duration. Yet both functions require communication and complex coordination. So thus means we are the same, but different, kind of like how boys enjoy contact sports and get up and cheer after a hit, while their mothers look on in empathic horror (and delight when successful). Women are not as tolerant to risk as men. The female physical structure is not as resistant to violent collisions. Just about every scientific discipline has borne these data, while most social sciences use every language trick to obfuscate and minimize them. None of this is surprising, for myriad reasons. Yet we continue to have these droll conversations and resist the obvious, working through the political, administrative and legal systems (all civilized luxuries when compared to millions of years of hominid genetics and cultural memes) to convince ourselves that these differences are all a grand illusion. <br /><br />Hilarious. To be ignored...<br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-62537864047374895412013-12-03T17:25:55.184-08:002013-12-03T17:25:55.184-08:00Paging Larry Summers! Paging Larry Summers! Plea...Paging Larry Summers! Paging Larry Summers! Please come to a white courtesy telephone.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-21196905374577332942013-12-03T11:52:00.914-08:002013-12-03T11:52:00.914-08:00Ares,
Here's a research report on gender late...Ares,<br /><br />Here's a research report on gender laterality: <a href="http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/08/29/cercor.bhr230.full" rel="nofollow">Laterality Patterns of Brain Functional Connectivity: Gender Effects</a>.<br /><br />"The greater lateralization of the male's brain (rightward and predominantly short-range) may underlie their greater vulnerability to disorders with disrupted brain asymmetries (schizophrenia, autism)."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01990269310381826048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-72492999097615806992013-12-03T09:12:24.367-08:002013-12-03T09:12:24.367-08:00I read somewhere that men's brains were on ave...I read somewhere that men's brains were on average more lateralized, more specialized, so more geniuses when it worked well and more idiots when it didn't, while women's brains had a higher redundancy, and resilience to injury.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-54243483498236615122013-12-03T08:46:51.708-08:002013-12-03T08:46:51.708-08:00I saw this report yesterday, and was surprised tha...I saw this report yesterday, and was surprised that this research took this long to come to light. I remember discussing this in a few psychology classes that I took in the mid-1900's. <br /><br />There are two other brain studies that had an impact on my understanding of human psychology:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Phineas-Gage-Neurosciences-Most-Famous-Patient.html" rel="nofollow">Phineas Gage:</a> a case study that drastically increased our understanding of how physical brain trauma can completely change a person's personality.<br /><br /><a href="http://blog.lib.umn.edu/meyer769/section16&17/2011/09/nature-vs-nurture-genie-the-wild-child.html" rel="nofollow">Genie the feral child:</a> a case study on the importance of brain development in the first 12 years of life.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01990269310381826048noreply@blogger.com