According to first principle of biological level of analysis, there are biological correlates of behavior. The hormone oxytocin is secreted by the hypothalamus and released into the blood stream via the pituitary gland or into the brain and spinal cord where it unites with oxytocin receptors; it mostly acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. Oxytocin is responsible for trust between people. Experimental manipulation of this hormone has shown change in levels of trust.

According to evolutionary psychology, trust is a vital tool in the relationship between humans; also it is an adaptive mechanism meaning that disloyalty will break the bonds between individuals.

Baumgartner et al. (2008) has conducted an experimental research where he was aiming to investigate the role of oxytocin in trust in economic behavior. Participants were the economists and neuroscientists were to play a “trust” game and amongst the participants there were two groups: placebo and those who received oxytocin via nasal spray. The results were obtained through the fMRI scans whether the participant received placebo or the actual hormone. The placebo group showed less trust during the game comparing to those who received oxytocin. From this experiment, it can be evaluated that oxytocin could be the explanation to why people have the ability to restore their trust for someone and be able to forgive in the long-term relationship. Also, the brain mapping is not definite however there is still a correlation between trust and oxytocin. Although, biological psychology applies the principle of reductionism still it is too simplistic if we were to establish a direct link between trust and oxytocin.

Sebastião Salgado (born February 8, 1944) is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist.

Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado spent much of the past nine years trekking to the last wild places on earth to take the pictures collected in his new photography book, Genesis, a window into the primordial corners of creation.

The Genesis project grew out of two dilemmas in Salgado’s personal life. In the late 1990s, his father gave him and his wife Lélia the Brazilian cattle ranch where Salgado, now 69, spent his childhood. He remembers the place in those days as “a complete paradise, more than 50% of it covered with rain forest,” he told Time on the phone from his home in Paris. “We had incredible birds, jaguars, crocodiles.” But after decades of deforestation, the property had become an ecological disaster: “Not only my farm, the entire region. Erosion, no water—it was a dead land.”

Everybody knows that when doing IB, there is an interesting and quite controversial subject. Quite frankly, I have no spare time to write a long meaningful blog post hence I would like to share with you the beginning of my ToK essay 🙂

“Approaching an area of knowledge has to have its own method. Human culture is widely varied and it has recognized many areas of knowledge such as religion, art, history and so therefore there have been created different ways of gaining knowledge. Additionally, humankind has found ways in which the information can be obtained from these sources; the ways are such as sense perception, logic and reasoning, emotion and so on. It’s quite obvious that each area of knowledge would need to have a different and unique approach and this can sum up what Abraham Maslow is claiming in the quote above. For instance, if we take the example provided by Mr. Maslow, one can easily hammer down the screw but there is a greater chance that the screw may break what it is being hammered in hence the problem would not be solved. Emotion and reason are different in gaining knowledge consequently they should be applied in different areas, for instance in ethics it would be likely to utilize logic same as emotion in arts, however what would happen if ways of knowing were applied in a different area of knowledge hence how radically would the outcome change?

Emotion is a subjective way of knowing based on physiology or psychology of the person. Life without emotions is unheard of because of the cultural values and traditions, which are based upon the emotion. A common saying “listen to your heart” refers to the person following the gut instinct with little or no utilization of reason and logic. The hammer is a connotation of emotion as a way of knowing because when applying emotion in an area of knowledge like ethics a conflict may arise. “

My gorgeous roomie Natalia allowed me to try different styles of make up on her.  

Also, I decided to try a natural look on myself 🙂