Right Brain vs. Left Brain and the sociocultural aspects involved.

When thinking about your brain and weather or not you think with your left or right hemisphere you still utilize with both sides of your brain. Weather being left hemisphere thinker or a right hemisphere thinker depends on your interests and what you are good at. The hemispheres differ completely when compared to one another as well as people. The left hemisphere utilizes classification, language and being able to analyze.  It also includes writing with your right hand and listening with your left ear. You right hemisphere utilizes recognition of faces and shapes and music recognition. It also includes writing with your left hand and listening with your right ear.

The way we recognize what side of the brain we use is the way we handle situations. If you use you’re left brain, which means your right handed, you use logic to determine your way through certain situations. Using your instinctual and gut feeling in a scenario is using the right side of your brain. Some people use both sides of the brain because they have to. In our society some left handed people are forced to learn how to use their right hand because of our societal aspects.

As stated, one way to recognize what hemisphere of the brain you use is by what hand you write with. In the sociocultural aspect of life a majority of American are right handed, therefore making utilities we use in everyday life easier for people who are right handed. In my family a majority of us are right handed, except for my little brother. While he grew up he had to learn to use both of his hands. While using his left hand and being left hand dominant he always struggled with not being able to use certain things. He was forced to adapt to our social atmosphere of right-handed people and learn how to use both his left and right hand. This allowed him to use both sides of his brain, which in the long run benefits him. He now uses both his right hand and left hand, which allows him to live his life through logic but also use his gut feeling. Finally our social atmosphere causes people who are left handed to try and adapt to use their right hand like the majority of society.

4 thoughts on “Right Brain vs. Left Brain and the sociocultural aspects involved.

  1. Miranda Mae Wack

    Emily, I can definitely identify with your brother. Before I started preschool, my grandma mostly took care of me since both of my parents worked during the day. She noticed that I had some left-handed tendencies. I would always pick objects up with my left hand instead of the right. She attended Catholic school where everyone was required to be right handed, so she began teaching me to write with my right hand. Growing up, I did and still do write with my right hand. However, I still have some left-handed tendencies. For example, I throw balls, eat, and bowl with my left hand.
    I’ve always wondered which I truly am, left brained or right brained. I’ve taken some online tests and all of the outcomes have stated I’m left brained. This makes sense since I’m a biology major and I’m not artistic in the least. However, I wonder if there are any scientific tests that can be done in order to conclude what side of the brain someone uses most.
    I’m thankful that my grandma switched me though because this is a world centered around right-handed people, like you said. I do enjoy being able to use both hands for things though, it makes me more interesting.

  2. Miranda Mae Wack

    Emily, I can definitely identify with your brother. Before I started preschool, my grandma mostly took care of me since both of my parents worked during the day. She noticed that I had some left-handed tendencies. I would always pick objects up with my left hand instead of the right. She attended Catholic school where everyone was required to be right handed, so she began teaching me to write with my right hand. Growing up, I did and still do write with my right hand. However, I still have some left-handed tendencies. For example, I throw balls, eat, and bowl with my left hand.
    I’ve

  3. Kendall Adair Pierce

    I find this post very intriguing. After reading your post a lot of questions pop up in my head. It makes me wonder if parents of young children should start to encourage their child’s use of both hands when learning new tasks, to write, or even sports. That way their child was well rounded and reasons not only logically but also trusts their instincts. I wonder if having access to both ways of reasoning would be beneficial and would allow an individual to process their actions and responses more clearly with better judgement of when to use which way of reasoning when they deemed appropriate. I wonder if a parent of a young child placed a small object in the center of the room that their child was in and waited for the child to pick it up, if the child would grab the object with their right or with their left hand? Also, could this mini experiment likely predict the child’s future dominate hand?

  4. Trevor Scott Beahm

    This post was very interesting to me Emily because I didn’t know that you were able to improve your other half of your brain by learning how to write with the other hand. Being able to see those kinds of improvements makes me think if children who are right handed should learn how to write with the left hand to get the right brain stronger.

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