Can People Change
Do humans have the capacity to change? The modern view of neuroscience is that ‘You are your brain.’ Many scientists conclude that any behavioral change in humans is a direct result of the imbalance in their neurobiology. Humans have the capacity to change, and it can be either positive or negative depending on the experience that caused the behavioral alternation. The literature brings variety of examples on different types of human change. Some of them can be taken consciously when others are the result of trauma, eye-opening events, or the strong influence of the environment.
Humans constantly change. The number of people fighting their addictions is constantly increasing. As the awareness of the problem spreads widely the more people start to engage in a positive change process. But why is the overcoming of addiction so difficult? The problem lays in our physiology. Our bodies and especially the brains are quickly adjusting organs. They respond to the incoming data and process them in the most convenient and simplified way. If you are to start smoking for example, you will teach your brain to respond to nicotine dosage by releasing the dopamine hormone. The dopamine is known for activating and stimulating the reward centers in our bodies, so once the brains is ‘taught’ to become excited during smoking, it will become a habit and a part of your body’s physiology. For a smoker to quit and embrace in positive change is to again teach his/her brain to start releasing the dopamine without the presence of nicotine. This process can be tough and challenging, but ‘You are your brain’ and as long as your brain can evaluate the proper response to incoming signals, the behavioral change can be approached.
The process of thinking is the way our brains respond to information we feed them with. The perfect example of how quickly the brain can burn the information down into the circuits comes from the story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. It is a short story that
Humans constantly change. The number of people fighting their addictions is constantly increasing. As the awareness of the problem spreads widely the more people start to engage in a positive change process. But why is the overcoming of addiction so difficult? The problem lays in our physiology. Our bodies and especially the brains are quickly adjusting organs. They respond to the incoming data and process them in the most convenient and simplified way. If you are to start smoking for example, you will teach your brain to respond to nicotine dosage by releasing the dopamine hormone. The dopamine is known for activating and stimulating the reward centers in our bodies, so once the brains is ‘taught’ to become excited during smoking, it will become a habit and a part of your body’s physiology. For a smoker to quit and embrace in positive change is to again teach his/her brain to start releasing the dopamine without the presence of nicotine. This process can be tough and challenging, but ‘You are your brain’ and as long as your brain can evaluate the proper response to incoming signals, the behavioral change can be approached.
The process of thinking is the way our brains respond to information we feed them with. The perfect example of how quickly the brain can burn the information down into the circuits comes from the story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. It is a short story that
Cited: Carver, Raymond “Cathedral.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Ed. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2011. 513-523. Print. Erdrich, Louise “The Red Convertable.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Ed. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2011. 111-117. Print. O’Brien, Tim “The Things They Carried.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Ed. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2011. 539-551. Print. Udall, Brady “He Becomes Deeply and Famously Drunk.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Ed. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2011. 552-569. Print.