Psychopaths

We are afraid of psychopaths because they have no qualms about hurting other people. Discuss.

I agree with this statement. I think what makes psychopaths so scary is that they are unpredictable and it's hard to know what's going on in their mind. We are also afraid of psychopaths because they have a higher potential to cause harm because they are fearless and have no emotional attachment to others. Therefore they are capable of actions that other people are not capable of. (For example, like the man who murdered women and made furnitures with their skin). In addition, they are so difficult to detect as they are very good manipulators and have strong logic skills. For instance, a lot of criminals have psychopathic traits which means that they have a higher chance of being released from jail due to their masterful manipulation. Furthermore, psychopathy is an incurable mental illness and it is not possible to change the behaviour of psychopaths which is also a reason that makes them scary. Psychopaths are able to easily blend in with other people so we are scared of the fact that there are psychopaths around us that we are not aware of and we are also afraid to be a victim of their manipulation.

I also think that part of our fear of psychopaths comes from the way they psychopaths are always portrayed as violent in movies and media. It's true that psychopaths can easily become violent due to their lack of empathy for others, but most psychopaths don't act violent for no reason. As discussed in class, it's important to note that not everyone with psychopathic traits is a criminal or a violent person.

Parkinson's Disease

Treatment for Parkinson disease often hinder impulse control in human, therefore patients living with Parkinson disease should NOT be medicated.  Agree or disagree?  

I disagree with this statement. Parkinson’s disease is progressive, which means it gets worse over time. Medications help improve symptoms and therefore they should be used for Parkinson's disease because without them, over time the symptoms of Parkinson's disease would become severe. Although the medications have side effects such as hindering impulse control and muscle spasms, they can relieve or control many symptoms of the disease. Therefore, the benefits of medication outweigh the side effects. 

The muscle spasms and the lack of motor control (the condition known as Dyskinesia) are a main side effect of the most widely used and successful Parkinson's drug called carbidopa-levodopa (also called L-dopa). Parkinson’s disease is caused by the slow deterioration of the nerve cells in the brain, which create dopamine, a natural substance found in the brain that helps control muscle movement throughout the body. In order to increase dopamine, the goal of L-dopa drug is to converted to dopamine in the brain. Treatment with drugs is usually started when symptoms become disabling or disrupt a person's daily activities.  

L-dopa is just one of the drugs used for Parkinson's disease; there are other medications depending on the patient's condition and the stage of the disease. There is no cure for Parkinson's disease yet, so medication is the only hope for patients to cope with their disease.With medication, the patient would have a chance to perform their daily tasks with a bit more ease and this can increase the quality of the patient's life. There is not evidence strong enough to justify avoiding a treatment that is highly effective for most people. In most cases, medication for Parkinson disease is recommended once the symptoms are severe enough to interfere with daily living.

Sleep..

High school students are sleep deprived, therefore less homework should be assigned to them. Agree or Disagree?

It's quite hard to choose a side for this question... I could definitely use more sleep and less homework... On one hand, I want to blame my lack of sleep on homework; but I also know that homework is essential for student success, especially high school students. So I think there are two sides to this issue.  

One reason homework is good, is that teenagers are generally easily distracted and they are not disciplined enough to do all the studying by themselves if no homework was assigned. Therefore, students need enough homework to understand and learn the lessons and prepare for tests. For instance, if I didn't receive all that load of math homework to practice, I would have probably failed my tests. Furthermore, homework is not the only factor that results in sleep deprivation in students. As mentioned, we students are very distracted (by things such as social media, Internet, TV, etc.) and sometimes a simple task takes longer than it should to complete because we don’t yet have the time management skills. Hence, we end up not finishing our homework on time and pulling an all-nighter.

While I believe that homework is very beneficial, I think that maybe some areas of daily homework should be lessened. For instance, sometimes certain assignments and projects are too time consuming and have unnecessary aspects that don’t really relate to the topic being studied in class; such as making the assignment “pretty” or doing a project on something that does not contribute to the understanding of important topics. For example, sometimes I finish the most important part of the project, which is research and application, but spend a vast amount of time on making a poster. In this case, I feel that part of the project could be cut as students would have a chance of just focusing on the application and purpose of the project itself and not the unnecessary time consuming parts. In addition, another problem is the distribution of the homework load and not necessarily the amount. Often teachers assign a large load of homework at once. Personally, I have that one week (each month) when everything is due from all my four courses which then of course leaves me sleep deprived.

It's especially important for youth to get enough sleep. So I think if teachers try to distribute the load of homework as evenly as possible and negotiate deadlines with students, then students would not be sleep deprived (or not as much) and they would still receive the amount of homework needed for success.