What Makes People Tick?

Global Warming. Climate Change. Greenhouse Gases. Terms we hear on an almost daily basis and should be familiar with. A quick explanation follow below. Please note that these are, as stated below the quotations, NOT MY OWN WORDS and I am merely copy/pasting small sections of text while giving credit where it's due. Scientists have spent decades figuring out what is causing global warming. They've looked at the natural cycles and events that are known to influence climate. But the amount and pattern of warming that's been measured can't be explained by these factors alone. The only way to explain the pattern is to include the effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans. To bring all this information together, the United Nations formed a group of scientists called the International Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. The IPCC meets every few years to review the latest scientific findings and write a report summarizing all that is known about global warming. Eac...

Hydropower. A word that I hear more and more on the news yet covers a concept that baffles me slightly. Hydro = water (from the Greek) and power, well that's self-explanatory. So power from or through water. I'm guessing this works in a similar way to a watermill which is powered by a water wheel however that's as far as my knowledge goes. Thankfully I've got internet access! "Hydropower is electricity generated using the energy of moving water. Rain or melted snow, usually originating in hills and mountains, create streams and rivers that eventually run to the ocean. The energy of that moving water can be substantial, as anyone who has been whitewater rafting knows. This energy has been exploited for centuries. Farmers since the ancient Greeks have used water wheels to grind wheat into flour. Placed in a river, a water wheel picks up flowing water in buckets located around the wheel. The kinetic energy of the flowing river turns the wheel and is converted int...

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917 - 2005) was a Russian American psychologist and professor known for developing the Ecological Systems Theory. He was generally regarded as one of the world's leading scholars in the field of developmental psychology. I learned about theorists such as Bronfenbrenner while studying towards my B.Ed. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory views the person as developing within a multi-layered system of relationships. Using the example of a child, the systems are: The Microsystem - One's family, classroom The Mesosystem - Two micro-systems in interaction (i.e. family and classroom) The Exosystem - External environments which indirectly influence development The Macrosystem - The larger socio-cultural context. Added later: The Chronosystem - The evolution of the external systems over time. Each system contains roles, norms and rules that can powerfully shape development. (Source: Wikipedia ) The Microsystem: The setting in which the indi...

I've been interested in "what makes people tick" for as long as I can remember. The way I see it, what makes people tick - what makes them think and act as they do, is a combination of two factors - Nature and Nurture. Nature being genetics and Nurture being our upbringing and environment. According to Wikipedia , "The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature", i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences ("nurture", i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits." I'm no genetic scientist or evolutionary biologist or any other person with a fancy title like that, so will leave discussion of the Nature side of this debate to those qualified to do so. While I'd be very interested in finding out exactly how much like our parents, grandparents et al we all are, I'm very happy to let...