School Polcies Essay Example for Free

School Polcies Essay In the school display policy it should include the aim and objectives for the display. It is there to stimulate learning environment. It helps a child to gain new information and also to build their learning skills. The displays must be kept in good condition and also where possible trimmed and mounted. Staple guns and sharp pins should be kept out of reach of children and also removed properly when taking down old posters. A person may use different materials to help their posters look better and more eye catching for the children. Posters should be mounted in different ways and in different varieties. Heading, titles, letters and information must be written clearly for children to read. Display areas must be kept tidy and clean to prevent accidents. Display areas can be in the corridors, the classroom and outside the principal’s office. Staff must take pictures and record evidence for their reference. Staff have responsibility to ensure that the posters are kept in good condition and also to use health and safety procedures while putting up displays. Staff must use staple guns rather than pins as this could be dangerous if children get their hands on it. Staff must know how to approach hanging up displays that are high by using ladder not standing on chairs and tables. In the display policy it includes to use spray glue not super glue and this contains many dangerous chemicals. Display policy outline the rules and regulations that staff and students need to know before they are able to put displays up.

Role of amygdala in the experience of fear

Role of amygdala in the experience of fear The amygdalae (from the Greek for almond) are two groups of almond-shaped nuclei located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans, (see Fig 1 below). Research has shown that the amygdalae perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions, and are considered to be part of the limbic system. [pic] Fig 1: Location of Amygdala. (Image from: imemat.blogspot.com) The regions described as amygdalae are a combination of several nuclei with distinct functions. Among these nuclei are the basolateral complex, the cortical nucleus and the centromedial nucleus, (see Fig 2 below). The basolateral complex can be further subdivided into the lateral, the basal and the accessory basal nuclei. Anatomically, the amygdala and more particularly, its centromedial nucleus, may be considered as a part of the basal ganglia. The amygdala sends impulses to various parts of the brain, for example, to the hypothalamus to activate the symp athetic nervous system; to the thalamic reticular nucleus to increase reflex movement; and to the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus for the activation of various neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine. The cortical nucleus is involved in the sense of smell and pheromone- processing. It receives input from the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex. The lateral amygdalae, which send impulses to the rest of the basolateral complexes and to the centromedial nuclei, receive input from the sensory systems. The centromedial nuclei are the main outputs for the basolateral complexes, and are involved in emotional arousal in rats and cats. [pic] Fig 2: Nuclei of the rat amygdaloid complex. (ABmc = accessory basal magnocellular subdivision; ABpc = accessory basal parvicellular subdivision; Bpc = basal nucleus magnocellular subdivision; e.c. = external capsule; Ladl = lateral amygdala medial subdivision; Lam = lateral amygdala medial subdivision; Lavl = lateral amygdala v entrolateral subdivision; Mcd = medial amygdala dorsal subdivision; Mcv = medial amygdala ventral subdivision; Mr = medial amygdala rostral subdivision; Pir = piriform cortex; s.t. = stria terminalis). (Image from: Physiol Rev 83: 805) The amygdala filters sensory information and acts as a sort of interpretation channel. The basolateral amygdala receives sensory information from the thalamus and cortex and then forwards a signal to the appropriate target areas (see Figure 3 below). It is also known as the amygdala proper, and the several areas of the brain that it targets are part of a broader network that serves much more specialized functions. Because the basolateral amygdala is critical for emotion, a better understanding of the chemicals within these brain circuits should lead to improved pharmacological treatments for emotional dysfunction in psychiatric disorders. [pic] Fig 3: The basolateral amygdala. (Image from: Current Biology, Vol.10, (4)) Within most of these disorders i s a common symptom in that the patient often says I didnt think, I just reacted. Straker, D. (2006) believes they may be exactly right. All sensory data, with the exception of the sense of smell, is sent by the body first to the thalamus which then forwards it to both the relevant part of the cortex and to the amygdala. The information is sent out over two parallel pathways: the thalamo- amygdala pathway (the short route) and the thalamo-cortico-amygdala pathway (the long route). The short route transmits a quick estimated representation of the situation, in which no cognition is involved. This pathway activates the amygdala which, through its central nucleus, generates emotional responses before the mind can form a complete representation of the stimulus. The amygdala does a quick threat assessment by comparing the sensory data received with already stored fear responses. If any of these are triggered, then the amygdala floods the cortex with chemicals to stop it taking over. The r esult is action without conscious thought. (See Fig 4 below). Subsequently, the information that has travelled via the long route and been processed in the cortex reaches the amygdala and tells it whether or not the stimulus represents a real threat. Should a real threat be presented the amygdala will then activate the efferent structures responsible for physical manifestations of fear, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweaty hands, dry mouth, and tense muscles. The parallel operation of our explicit (hippocampal) and implicit (amygdalic) memory systems explains why we do not remember traumas experienced very early in our lives. At that age, the hippocampus is still immature, while the amygdala is already able to record unconscious memories. Early childhood traumas can disturb the mental and behavioural functions of adults by mechanisms that they cannot access consciously. In complex vertebrates, including humans, the amygdalae perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events. Amunts et al (2005) indicate that, during fear conditioning, sensory stimuli reach the basolateral complexes of the amygdalae, particularly the lateral nuclei, where they form associations with memories of that particular stimuli. These associations between stimuli and the aversion may be mediated by long-term potentiation, a lingering potential for affected synapses to react more readily. Memories of emotional experiences that become imprinted in the reactions of synapses in the lateral nuclei produce fear behaviour through their connections with both the amygdalaes central nucleus and the bed nuclei of stria terminalis (BNST). These central nuclei are involved in the production of many typical fear responses, including freezing (immobility), tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), increased respiration, and stress-hormone release. Damage to the amygdalae impairs both the attainment and the expression of Pavlovian fear conditioning, which is a form of classical conditioning of emotional responses.    [pic]Fig 4: The Amygdala Bypass System. (Image from: www.changingminds.org) Advances in neuroimaging technology such as fMRI, have allowed neuroscientists to show just how much of a role the amygdala plays in many psychological disorders. Donegan et al. (2003) studied patients with Borderline personality disorder who showed significantly greater left amygdala activity than the normal control subjects. Some of these borderline patients even had difficulties classifying neutral faces or classed them as being threatening. In support of these findings, in 2006, researchers at Monash University, Australia, observed increased levels of activity in the amygdala when patients with social phobia were shown images of threatening faces or when they were confronted with frightening situations. These activity levels in the amygdala were in direct correlation with the severity levels of the social phobia. Similarly, depressed patients showed more activity in the left amygdala when interpretin g emotions for all faces, and especially for fearful faces, although this hyperactivity was normalized when patients were prescribed antidepressants. Cultural studies such as Williams et al (2006) showed that normal subjects exposed to images of frightened faces or faces of people from another race will show increased activity of the amygdala, even if that exposure is subliminal. However, according to Tsuchiya et al (2009), the amygdala is not necessary for the processing of fear-related stimuli, since people with bilateral damage show rapid reactions to fearful faces. Early research on primates has also provided explanations for the functions of the amygdala in relation to emotional disorders. An early study by Brown Shafer (1888) observed rhesus monkeys with a lesioned temporal cortex (including the amygdala) and found that they suffered from significant social and emotional deficits. Kluver Bucy (1939) later expanded upon this observation by showing that large lesions to the an terior temporal lobe produced not only fearlessness, but also severe emotional disturbances including increased sexual behaviour and a propensity to place objects in their mouths. Some monkeys also displayed an inability to recognize familiar objects and would approach both animate and inanimate objects indiscriminately, while also exhibiting fearlessness towards the researchers. This behavioural disorder was later named Klà ¼ver-Bucy syndrome. However, their study can be criticised in that these lesions were so large and crude when compared to todays techniques, that researchers werent exactly sure of the structures responsible for these significant changes in behaviour. Improved techniques, such as using the neurotoxin ibotenic acid to make more precise lesions are partly responsible for the more detailed understanding of the amygdale today. | | | |[pic] |   | Fig 5: Sensory data routes, the fear response and the amygdala. (Image from: http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/index_a.ht ml) Previous studies have examined activation of the amygdala in response to emotional facial stimuli, but these have been carried out in either the U.S. or Western Europe, although none of these explored cross-cultural differences. Although culture shapes several aspects of human emotional and social experience, including how fear is perceived and expressed to others, very little is known about how culture influences neural responses to fear stimuli. In response to this gap in the research, a study by Chiao et al (2008) found that the bilateral amygdalas response to fear faces is, in fact, modulated by culture. Using fMRI, they measured the amygdalas response to fear and non-fear faces in two distinct cultures, Native Japanese in Japan and Caucasians in the United States. Both culture groups showed greater activation in the amygdala to fear expressed by members of their own culture, (their in-group), than in any of the other emotional measures such as anger, happiness or neutrality . (See Fig 6 below). [pic] Fig 6: The amygdalas response to fearful facial expressions is culture- specific. (Image from: Chiao et al 2008). As mentioned earlier, sensory data, apart from the sense of smell, is sent by the body to the thalamus and then forwarded to both the cortex and the amygdala. In relation to this sense of smell, when faced with a threatening situation, many organisms, including insects, fish and mammals, release volatile pheromones, signalling the danger to other members of the same species. Nearly 70 years ago, Karl von Frisch (1941), described the alarm response in a species of small freshwater fish called the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus). Frisch, who was one of the founders of the scientific study of animal behaviour, demonstrated that when a minnow was eaten by a predator, a chemical released from its damaged skin would be reacted to by other minnows that were close by. They would at first dart about randomly, form a tight school and then retreat fro m the source of the chemical. Frisch called this substance schreckstoff, meaning scary stuff, and we now know that similar chemicals are used throughout the animal and plant kingdoms. A team of researchers from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland (Brechbuhl et al, 2008) have shown that mice detect alarm pheromones by means of a recently identified sensory system in the nose by examining a structure called the Grueneberg ganglion (GG), which in mammals is located on both sides in the tip of the nose, close to the openings of the nostrils. When the GG was first discovered by Hans Grueneberg in 1973, its anatomy was not known in such detail and so it was thought to be a non-sensory structure. It is only very recently that the olfactory system has come to be viewed as containing 3 distinct channels, each with a unique structure and function. The main channel is involved in detecting aromatic molecules; the second channel is called the vomeronasal system, and is an accessory olfact ory system which is now known to be involved in the detection of pheromones; the GG constitutes a third component of the olfactory pathway, one that was thought to be involved in mother-pup recognition and suckling behaviour, because it is present at the time of birth. The researchers sought to investigate the role of the GG in behaviour. Because of its location, the GG is easily accessible, so they were able to cut the axons of GG neurons in live mice (axotomy), thus preventing any signals from reaching the brain. But after numerous tests for nipple finding and other possible functions, the team actually found that the ganglion played a role in danger communication. [pic] Fig 7: Scanning electron microscope images of the mouse Grueneberg ganglion. Left: a cluster of neurons (GC) in a meshwork of fibroblasts (Fb) Right: and a higher magnification of a single GG neuron (green), with its axon (red) and thin ciliary process (blue). Scale bars: 20 microns (L) and 5 microns (R). (Image f rom: Brechbuhl et al, (2008)). 30 days after the axotomy, the researchers then compared how mice with and without their Grueneberg ganglia responded to alarm pheromones. According to Broillet, the contrast was very striking. Normal mice with the ganglia showed fear immediately by freezing while mice without the ganglia seemed to be unaffected and they carried on as before, apparently unaware of the danger signals that affected the normal mice. Although their sense of smell did not seem to be affected as they were able to sniff out cookies hidden in their cages as well as the normal mice. This study clearly shows that in mice the GG is involved in detecting alarm pheromones, rather than in mother-pup interactions, as was previously thought. It is able to perform this primitive function thanks to a specialized yet very basic structure as the GG consists simply of a small group of cells separated from the external environment by a water-permeable sheet of epithelial cells. Its location , far away from the main olfactory system, enables rapid detection of alarm pheromones. Such a mechanism is crucial an organisms survival rate, and the GG is found in every mammalian species examined so far, including humans. However, whether or not alarm pheromones affect, or even exist in humans, has been a subject for debate in the scientific community. Since pheromones are not detectable by the human sense of smell, scientists believe that pheromones are sensed by the vomeronasal organ (VNO), part of the olfactory system and located inside the mouth or nose. For many years, the existence of the VNO produced much speculation because it had only been found occasionally in adult humans, and when it was found, it was believed to be vestigial. However, Johnston et al, (1985) conducted a study in which the noses of 100 human adults were examined post-mortem and the VNO was found in the septums of 70% of those examined. Since then, much evidence has been gathered to support these findi ngs of a presence of the VNO in most adult humans, but many scientists still believe it to be a functionless organ that was inherited from some ancestor of humans. However, recent genetic research has shown the possibility of a receptor in the nose that could sense pheromones. When searching the human genome for genes that had similar sequences to those of rodent pheromone receptors, a team of researchers from The Rockefeller University in New York and the Yale University School of Medicine identified for the first time a candidate pheromone receptor gene in humans. The findings, reported in Nature Genetics, may shed new light on the molecular basis of social communication between humans, including the fear response. In conclusion, despite the saying, have no fear, to live without the ability to experience and recognise fear is to be deprived of a vital neural mechanism that enables appropriate social behaviour, and possibly even survival.

I am going to explain how I would direct the final part of Act3 in order :: Drama

I am going to explain how I would direct the final part of Act3 in order to highlight the dramatic tension and to show the audience Priestly's message concerning social responsibility! An inspector calls "An Inspector Calls" -Out Line- I am going to explain how I would direct the final part of Act3 in order to highlight the dramatic tension and to show the audience Priestly's message concerning social responsibility! -Introduction- In 1945 JB Priestly made a play called "An inspector calls". Priestly belived that tho's who were wealthier should pay more taxes. So the government could pay for a state wellfair like NHS and education. He believed this because he was a socialist and belived in fairness. He knew lower class people were not payed much but still had to give virtually all their money away. The state wellfair system would make it fairer! Lower classed people did much more for the country than the upperclasses. The play was written in 1945 but set in 1912. This was done so the audience would realise how arrogant the upper class was. This is shown by Mr Birling where he says; "The germans don't want a war. Nobody wants war, except some half civilised folks in the Bolkans." This shows how arrogant Mr Birling is as the audience knew there were two world wars between 1912 and 1945. And as I said it was the lower classed people who did more for the country, it was the lower classed people who fought in thos two world wars. -An Inspector calls- At the beginning before the inspector leaves they are all feeling increadibly upset and angry at each other. Priestly shows this in a stage direction. Mrs Birling is "Distressed" when she finds out about Erics involvement with Eva Smith. She is depressed because she said how she wouldn't let the inspector catch her as she has nothing to hide but when the Inspector tells her this information she is deeply upset. I would have Mrs Birling sit down at this point if she isn't already sat down and hold her head in her hands, crying and have Sheila showing no sympathy for her mother as she tried telling her that the inspector would get the better of her. -Dramatic Tension in ACT 3- The most dramatic part of the play "An inspector calls" is where the adults are feeling joyuss and happy with them selves, after a phone call to the police asking if the Inspector is real and that no girl is dead. This is shown by Mr Birlings reaction towards Sheila and Eric. As they are still feeling upset as they know each others personal

Uranus (not finished) :: essays research papers

Because Uranus is the 7th planet from the sun, not only is it cold, but it's barely visible too. During the night the only way you can see it is through binoculars or telescope; sometimes on a clear night it's visible to the naked eye. Even from the planet it is dark. Only 15moons are able to be seen, the rest is too dark to tell. Uranus was discovered with a telescope, by William Herschel. Uranus reaches a maximum brightness of magnitude 5.5 and can be seen by the naked eye as a faint point of light in a clear, moonless sky. In Voyager 2 photos, Uranus appears as a generally featureless disk, except for considerable darkening toward the edges. Faint banding is seen in contrast enhanced images, which are clouds. Uranus's average distance from the Sun is 2.875 billion km, and the planet takes 84.01 Earth years to make one revolution about the sun. The inclination of Uranus's orbit is 0.742. Its period of rotation was determined by Voyager 2 to be 17.24 hours. One weird aspect of Uranus is that its ration axis inclined 97.54 degrees from its orbital plane. The circumference of Uranus is 160,454km. This means that the poles of Uranus lie nearly in the plane of its orbit path. Uranus has an equatorial diameter of 51,100km; almost precisely four times that of the Earth. The volume is approximantly 67 times greater than Earth. The gravity is 1.17 times greater than that of Earth. The dark bands discovered in 1869 in the red part Uranus were identified in 1932 as being caused by methane gas in Uranus's atmosphere. This red "spot" of Uranus is the major cause of the blue green color of the planet; the methane absorbs much of the red light from the impinging white sunlight, leaving a bluish green color in the reflected sunlight. Measurements by Voyager 2verified that hydrogen is the main constituent, about 15% in terms of molecular weight, which is a larger percentage than in the atmospheres of either Jupiter or

Essay --

Hypnosis Hypnosis is like guided daydreaming, a form of relaxed concentration. What is relaxed is first, the body and second, the conscious part of the mind. Hypnosis can be helpful at any age. Getting a good night's sleep, or conquering a phobia, are just two of the benefits you can bring to yourself with hypnosis, whereas other benefits include controlling pain, dealing with disease, positive idea about illness or serous diseases, reduction of medications, getting a good night’s sleep, overcoming guilt, resisting disturbing memories, improving relationships with family members and those around you are some of the benefits and positive uses of Hypnosis. Hypnosis has also been defined as a form of conditioning. A person learns, through direct experience or the media, how to behave 'hypnotized.' Another way to see hypnosis as something learned is to assert that a person becomes conditioned to a word stimulus such as "Relax." Once having allowed himself to relax, the client is thereafter conditioned to repeat the experience of relaxing upon hearing the stimulus-word. Yet another definition of hypnosis, one that has wide support among researchers, is that it is a form of dissociation. That is, that in some as yet unexplained way, the mental functioning of a person is compartmentalized and one part can be isolated from the others. The art and science of hypnosis is at once both old and new. Old, because it was used in ancient times and has a pedigree that stretches back to the beginning of mankind’s conscious development. New, because only over the past 100 years has it been subject to the full force of scientific scrutiny, after the discovery (re-discovery) that the unconscious mind, emotions and personal history directly affect ... ... 75-year-old who had no trouble sleeping at night but who found he could no longer enjoy his afternoon nap. At the root of his difficulty in letting himself sleep in the afternoons was a fear that he might never awaken. This was easily dealt with by providing Harold with an audiotape that put him into a pleasant state of hypnosis, with positive suggestions about enjoying a deep, refreshing sleep and awakening at the time he chose. Now Harold drifts off to sleep whenever he wants. Hypnotherapy is very effective in helping a senior who, many years ago, suffered sexual or other abuse. Even when the trauma has caused you decades of distress you can free yourself from its suffocating aftermath. This is done with the remarkable ability of hypnosis to, in a sense, rewrite your history. So you know the event happened, but you are no longer tormented by it. Bibliography

Plato’s Three Parts of The Soul Essay

As the founder of the first university and considered the most powerful thinker in history Plato believed that the soul was made of three parts. The Three Parts of the Soul in Plato’s Republic and Phaedrus are mans Appetite (Black Horse on Left), Spirited (White Horse on Right), and Reason (Charioteer). Each part of the soul has it’s own virtue as well as its own vice. Temperance is the virtue of Appetite, Courage the virtue of Spirit, and Wisdom is the virtue of Reason. It was Plato’s belief that goodness and justice come from the correct balance of the Three Parts of the Soul. We will uncover the perfect balance of the soul According to Plato and how goodness and justice come form this balance. Known as our animal side the appetitive part of the soul includes a myriad of desires for different pleasures, comforts, physical satisfaction, and bodily ease. Temperance, which is the virtue of the appetite, is ones ability to exhibit moderation and self-restraint when indulging in life’s pleasures. The good and just practice temperance while the evil and unjust practice lust, greed, and gluttony, commonly referred to as the Vice of the appetitive part of the soul. There are so many appetites that Plato does not mention all of them, but he does say that they can often be in conflict with each other. In the republic the workers and artisans were in this category. The ugly black horse on the left represents the appetitive element of the soul. The spirited part of the soul or hot-blooded part is where we get our source of action. This is the part of the soul that will get angry if we feel an injustice is being done. It is also the part of us that loves facing and overcoming challenges, the part that loves victory, challenge, and winning. Courage, which is the virtue of the spirited element of the soul, enables the soldier to stand and fight as well as control the lower class consisting of merchants, artisans and peasants. The souls source of action derives from courage and enables the appetitive part of the soul to exhibit moderation and self-restraint keeping us good and just. Anger and envy are the vices of the spirited part of the soul. When anger and envy take control gluttony, lust, and greed will soon follow. The spirited element of the soul is represented by the noble white horse on the right. The last and most important element of the soul according to Plato is reason. This is the part of the soul that thinks, looks ahead, analyzes, rationally weighs options and tries to decide what is best for us overall. It was Plato’s belief that the rational part of the soul convinces the spirited part of the soul to control the appetitive part of the soul. This is the only way one could achieve balance and harmony. The rulers and philosophers were amongst the most rational people in the republic. The charioteer represents our mind and conscious awareness that is guiding the horses and chariot. The charioteer should be in charge of the whole system deciding about when to give each horse it rein or when to hold it back. The horses should not govern the whole system; the whole system should be run by the rational decisions of the charioteer. Plato believed this was the perfect balance of the soul and would lead to harmonization and happiness of the soul creating a good and just person.

Nineteen Minutes

The nature versus nurture conflict has continuously been a controversial subject for the public. People want to know what effects our development, personality, and especially our behavior, which seems to overlap the two. The nature side of the argument believes that a human is developed by the genes that are hard-wired into them. In other words, the reason why this human behaves the way he or she does today is because of the genes he or she were born with. On the other hand is nurture, which says a person is formed into the person they are by the environment. This suggests that a person is born with no inborn tendencies and acquire traits off of the setting and the people they are around. In Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult, Peter Houghton, the main teenage character, suddenly snaps. Prior to Peter’s murders, he showed no aggression or violence whatsoever. Even his childhood best friend, Josie, who eventually became a member of the popular crowd in school, made efforts to back him up. The sudden outburst from Peter clearly demonstrated that his environment shaped him into the killer he became. An adolescent can be bent and twisted into a completely different person. Hostile environments, like Sterling for Peter, could distort any type of personality and shape the person in undesirable ways. A famous psychologist, by the name of Sigmund Freud, believed that there was evil built in us all. People, after his time, ran with this naturist belief and also said that it is in one’s human nature to do wrong. It is a pessimistic view on the matter, however, they also say that the evil, or wrongdoing, may be brought out with time. Nonetheless, this side of the debate still thinks people are born as thieves, criminals, or in Peter’s case, murderers. Josie‘s mother, Alex, has a strong first impression, from Peter‘s childhood, as she recalls the day when Peter and Josie were playing with the firearms. Alex states, â€Å"I keep thinking about him as a little boy†¦sometimes I can still see him handing you that rifle-â€Å" (Picoult 170). Alex references the time she walked in on Peter and Josie playing with the firearms, accidently left out by Peter’s father. She associates him as a little boy and relates it to why she thinks he killed his peers in high school. This is an easy way to blame Peter, despite the fact that he has been tested before by bullies, and never showed any aggression at the time. Also, instead of blaming Peter, the finger should be pointed at Lewis Houghton. He is the one who made Peter knowledgeable about the guns at a young age, and also was irresponsible by leaving them out with kids around. If Peter’s biological genes were a factor, his aggression should have been presented at a younger age, when the bullying was excessive then too. In contrary to Freud’s theory on human development, comes behaviorism. This theory, which was created by psychologist John B. Watson, essentially states that every infant is born with a blank slate. Meaning that any personality can be molded into what its educator or environment makes it to be. The most influential element of a child’s life is clearly the parenting. This makes the child-parent bond the most important relationship a child has. The way the child is shaped dictates how he or she will view the world, and more importantly themselves. The bullying was immediate for Peter. His first day, on the bus to school, resulted in a lost lunchbox and a few tears. The bullying continued and Peter’s parents were notified. How Lewis and Lacy Houghton handled the situation is vital. After the unpleasant incident, in a conversation with Peter, Lacy replies, â€Å"I know about the lunch boxes. I know what’s been going on with [the bullying]†¦The next time it happens, you have to stick up for yourself. You have to, Peter, or I†¦I’m going to have to punish you† (Picoult 73). The sudden change in Peter’s guidance is drastic. This new approach for Peter suddenly makes violence acceptable. Even though Peter doesn’t show it right away, due to shyness, a seed is planted which ultimately grows into the violence he displayed the day of the massacre at Sterling High. This type of shaping taught the child to become violent since he was not already. Due to the young age, the child will obey the parenting without question, or any conscious conflict. When a child reaches adolescence, physical maturity plays a major role in a human’s development. The dramatic changes of the body are a big change for any teenager. If one’s physical development becomes delayed like Peter’s, then it can become complicated to live an ordinary high school life. During adolescence is when one determines their identity, and with Peter’s difficulty to fit in, he had trouble finding who he was. With the stress and anxiety building for Peter, he can’t even decipher if he is straight or not. The narrator states, â€Å"He just wanted to know what it was like to be among guys who were gay, and totally okay with it. He wanted to know if they could look at him and know, instantly, that Peter belongedâ€Å" (Picoult 231). It’s not that hitting puberty late was a bad thing for Peter, it just made it harder for him to uncover himself. He had to resort to the extreme by surrounding himself with homosexual men. Also, a run in with Mr. McCabe, a gay teacher at Sterling High, aided the discovery Peter needed to experience that he was straight all along. The confusion and delay of puberty makes it easy for a low self esteem to take place. Bullying can be another significant factor in social development. A victim of bullying usually is incapable of having a high self esteem, and sustaining a healthy lifestyle. If bullying is suspected, it is important that the victim has someone to go to. In Peter’s case he had no one. He learned early in life that he had to stick up for himself, so his parents were ruled out the equation early. If a victim of bullying cannot seek help, the bullying can cause emotional, social, and even academic problems. Peter clearly had problems in these three areas. Combine the pressure built from the bullying with no one to talk to, and Peter was a balloon ready to pop. However, Peter shows no remorse after the incident. When talking to his lawyer he states, â€Å"Why is everyone so upset that those jerks are dead? I mean people are crying over them†¦and they were assholes, Every one’s saying I ruined their lives, but no one seemed to care when my life was the one being ruined† (Picoult 134). It is clear to see the damages given to Peter over time. What once seemed like a kid who wouldn’t hurt a fly, is now a kid who shows no remorse and is forced to play survival of the fittest. With Peter Houghton as a prime example it is evident that nurture takes its course. It’s not that Peter became one of the bullies, rather than he adapted to the dog eat dog world. Any parent imagines the potential their baby boy or girl can have when it is born. Some kids may be ignored, steered in the wrong direction, or bullied at school. No one can say what his or her child will be like before he or she is born. Nonetheless, every infant learns. What they learn makes up the world, but they must make up their selves first. The environment around a child is critical to the learning and shaping he or she endures.