I chose this question as it relates to topics of interest for me. Even in my inquiry projects last year, I focused my research on neuroscience – the study of the brain. I have always been curious on why humans do the things they do and what led them to their decisions. Within researching the brain, I have been able to answer some of these questions and narrow down my research. Through my previous research, I can see how much of an impact positive vs negative experiences in early childhood can change who we are as people. These memories can stay with us throughout our whole life to influence our personality, mental health and behaviour. Early childhood is such a crucial part in our life that is not recognized for it’s significance.
By continuing to research early childhood, I want to specialize my inquiry question this semester to implicit bias and how it affects childhood perception. Implicit bias are the attitudes and stereotypes we have about groups of people taught in society. These thought processes unconsciously affect our perceptions, actions and decisions. The world is full of social biases that we take like the truth, because of learning from society.
Childhood perception is based on our experiences and beliefs. These beliefs can be strong and if they are thought about often, they will be part of our core belief system for the majority of our life. Even though these beliefs cannot be based upon real facts, just based on experiences in childhood, we will defend these beliefs, even though we do not understand why we defend them. My question will allow me to explore these topics as I want to be able to learn about how we see ourselves, others and the world can impact our future mental health and self validation.
My goal in my career is to be able to make a difference in an area of the world that needs help. Mental health issues are a continuous problem in the world and a growing study of research. This question interests me into getting to learn more about what leads to mental health problems and what problems even in childhood negatively impact our future mental wellbeing.