Jane Van ap psychology “Let’s Talk About it”

3) Daniel Z. Lieberman Dopamine Driving Your Brain into the Future
The brain is your ally, but it could also be the enemy. Its process of information get influenced a lot between the “peri personal space - within reach and extra personal space - beyond reach.
Dopamine, while oftenly associated with happiness or pleasure, is actually responsible for novelty and desire, which is great for maximizing future resources. Unexpected and challenging experiences trigger the dopamine to release as part of motivation. However, the dopamine release disappears right when the reward is achieved. In life, there are situations in which humans have to shift between dopamine - driven motivation circuits to at the moment satisfaction through other chemicals such as endorphins. We have to balance between “future”
dopamine and things such as being in the present with people we love. As in Buzz Aldrin case study, unbalanced amounts of excessive dopamine-driven, which lifted him to heaven can also drive him insane.
In conclusion, I think the importance of this TED Talk laid on the fact that life had to be balanced between two pleasure chemicals, of both overarching future happiness and being at the present moment. I choose this lecture because I do come across lots of videos on youtube about dopamine detox but in the past, I heard of dopamine as a positive happy chemical which sounds conflicted, so my curiosity sparks. As it can be easily applied in my daily life,
dopamine is achieved when my Straight A’s goal is reached. However, if I only focus on that motivation and sacrifice my present happiness and sleep, as soon as the dopamine disappears,
my life suffers. The key takeaway of this lecture is about balancing as we still need long term goals in life for grit to be resilient, but our current mental health plays a vital part of success too.
4) Kim Gorgens: The surprising connection between brain injuries and crime
In her presentation, Traumatic brain injuries ( TBIs) caused by external head blow. Even though often associated with athletes, inmates and probationers are also a large group that experience this. About 50-80% of them have experienced a TBI, while the general public is less than 5%.
TBI often are physical assaults that affect the people’s judgements, lead to their impulse control and behavior. The speaker believes it’s important to solve the root of the problem, not just their criminal behavior. She designed a program altogether with her colleagues to assess the inmates, provide recommendations for them and empower them to take the responsibility for their actions. This aims to change their perceptions, help them to understand and find ways to overcome their problems. TBI and cognitive deficits are the underlying issues that need to be

addressed, making the criminal justice systems safer for both the inmates and the staff, giving them a chance to break the cycle of their criminal behaviors, and eventually can rehabilitate and be responsible for their lives.
Growing up in a safe environment both at home and at school, TBI or cognitive impairment is not my area of interest or concern. Thinking of crime I am scared of people who have been in jail and definitely have an assumption for them. I cannot count how many times I am about to click out of the video in the first five minutes of the presentation when she mentioned “inmates.”
I think this is a really interesting topic in the field of psychology, as I believe that psychology knowledge get applied in the justice system a lot. As I learned from the textbook, the openness in science is really important, therefore I chose this lecture because I want to challenge how open I am and it is a challenge for me to not back down from this decision. Out of the scientific context, I really like how she asked for us to change our perspectives on the inmate, because empathy in life is just as important as knowledge we gain in a school setting or scientific research.