Until lately, courage has never been studied systematically. However, its centrality to everyday life makes it an obvious research topic, and now researchers have begun to study it. The journal Current Biology put out a report of a woman whose congenital syndrome made her completely fearless to extreme extents; this calls upon the question; is it better to conquer fear, or to never have had any at all? Neuroscientists looked at brain scans of subjects who had managed to overcome their fear of snakes, attempting to pick out regions which control fear in humans. Researchers in the Netherlands are doing similar scans on children in varyig stages of development. Research on paratroopers has pointed to three groups of people. Preternaturally fearless are those who never showed classic signs of fear at all, but rather jumped without sweat or an increased heart rate. The next group was prevented from jumping by their fears, and the third reacted physically like the second group but acted like the first group; in other words, they showed signs of worrying about the jump, but jumped anyhow. Peter Muris of Erasmus University Rotterdam and his team found that children assume courage is conquering one’s fears. Joel Berger claims that animals behave boldly because they lack experience, and animals that continue an action they know to be dangerous, are separate groups.
How humans and animals react to fear seems so central to daily life that people rarely wonder about the reaction any more. However, scientists have recently begun researching this seemingly basic reaction to learn more about the human brain and psyche. Fear and courage affect us every day, as they are basic human emotions that we all feel. This also links in to what we have been studying. The sympathetic nervous system initiates the fight-or-flight response seen in most animals, while the parasympathetic nervous system calms the body back down after the danger has passed; among other things, it makes the pulse and blood pressure return to normal.
The article was well written, but could have been organized better. I felt as though the first part of the article had very little to do with the rest of it. The first part was an insight into the harrowing life of a paramedic and firefighter, perhaps as means on introducing the topic. But rather than ease into the science smoothly, there was a rough separation between the story part of the article and the last part, which was mainly facts and the opinions of scientists. It seemed at points as though the first and second parts of the article could have been separate articles.
Angier, Natalie. "Searching for the Source of a Fountain of Courage." 3 Jan. 2011. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.
Tony Tao
ReplyDeleteResponse Critique 4/12/2011
The article shows insight into the nature of fear and how one reacts to it. Courage has always been a desirable characteristic. In most people, courage is wanted in large amounts and people with courage are lauded and praised. While studies have been taken, it is important to understand what courage is. In psychology there are many differences between, courage, fear, fright and bravery. Courage as explained is mostly dependent on the cultural definition. It is an idea raised in a person and different nations and cultural groups have different idea to what it is. Courage also only occurs in the right environment. It is said courage is: “rarely expressed except where there is sufficient consensus to support it.” MRI scans of patients exhibiting fear showed that fear falls into 3 categories. One category is when fear never occurs and as a result there is no fear, in this case the MRI did not pick up a reaction. In the second category there is fear. The MRI shows that certain regions of the brain activate due to this. Finally there is a category of having fear, but being able to overcome it. In this category different parts of the brain light up due to the fact that varying regions must be utilize to combat and control fear. The examples used were people who have a fear of snakes and was tested in people who were about to parachute jump for the first time.
The article is important to humanity because it shows that conquering fear is better than having no fear at all. Conquering fear is a step people take to overcome an obstacle. Having no fear on the other hand may actually be a psychological problem, it does not take bravery to overcome a fear that is not there. This article is important because it helps people socially understand their emotions in a way that is helpful and beneficial. Most emotional understanding is understood in an introverted way, but scientific studies to understand emotions especially ones culturally valued such as bravery is a step in scientific advancement.
The article was well written, but more could be written to clarify the examples. The article was written in a friendly and easy to read way that allows any reader to understand the topic well. Although the article was written for the everyday man more could be done in terms of examples. More details and scientific ides could be added to the examples. Overall the response was well written.
Erin’s review is extremely well written and provides insight on a very interesting topic. She talks about where courage originates: whether it is from experience or the lack thereof. She mentions that there are three different groups of people when studying courage. There are those who are completely fearless and do not exude the classic symptoms of fear. On the other extreme, there are those who are prevented from something because of their phobia. In the middle there are those that do worry about, say, jumping off a bridge (with a bungee cord), but they jump anyway. This explanation enhanced the quality of her review because she clearly stated the levels of fear/courage. She was also very clear and concise. It was easy to read and understand the science behind the research she was reiterating. I also really liked how she connected the article to our curriculum. It really brought her review full circle because it introduced a relatable and familiar point.
ReplyDeleteIn order to improve the review I think it needed more specific examples of the actual people who participated in the study. Maybe a background on some of the people would have put the data into context so that the reader would know the range of courage the scientists were dealing with. I also would have liked to know if any of the participants had overcome their fears and if so how?
Overall, Erin seemed to have a very good understanding of her article. I learned that a person’s courage can come from a multitude of places: whether it is from learning that a certain action is dangerous or if the courage is somehow imprinted in their genetic makeup.