Left
handed people really seem to be a different species to the right handed
majority. Evidence has proved there is a connection between personality type, learning
preference, talents and handedness.
Bossy
Left Brain or Recessive Right Brain
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| The Left Brain and the Right Brain |
Two Brains and Two Personalities
This all goes back to the hemisphere of the brain. It is widely known that we have two brains: the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. As the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, right handed people would be governed mostly by the left brain. Left handed people (on the other hand – pardon the pun) favor the right brain. In fact, we use both brains, or we couldn’t live, but favor one side more than the other. This is known as ‘lateral dominance’. I researched into lateral dominance during my teacher training and found a connection between this and learning styles (how people prefer to learn).
This all goes back to the hemisphere of the brain. It is widely known that we have two brains: the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. As the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, right handed people would be governed mostly by the left brain. Left handed people (on the other hand – pardon the pun) favor the right brain. In fact, we use both brains, or we couldn’t live, but favor one side more than the other. This is known as ‘lateral dominance’. I researched into lateral dominance during my teacher training and found a connection between this and learning styles (how people prefer to learn).
Left
Handed People and Personality Type
But
how does cerebral hemispherical dominance relate to personality traits and
talents? Well, although both brains would on the surface appear alike (a mirror
image of each other) there are differences. The speech centre (Broca’s area) is
found in the left hemisphere. It has now been accepted that both hemispheres function
differently and therefore see the world differently.
Right
Handed People and the Rational
The
left hemisphere of the brain (that controls the right side of the body) is the
following:
Verbal,
analytical, logical, sees sequentially, stereotyping, temporal, ordered, sees
the world in its parts, tries to make sense of things, remembers lyrics above
melodies, names rather than faces, down-to-earth, understands the abstract. It
can also be rather bossy, opinionated and makes rational associations.
The
‘left brain’ is also known by the following synonyms: the male brain, the major
hemisphere, the sequential thinker, the inchworm, the logical brain, the
dominant brain and the thinker.
Left
Handed People and the Emotional
The
right hemisphere (that controls the left side of the body) is the following:
Emotional,
sees holistically, silent, instinctive, forgets about time, sees the world as
it is, quixotic, thinks in the concrete, visual, is silent, remembers melodies
above lyrics, remembers faces above names, is rebellious and makes bizarre associations
and is therefore creative. Sadly, the right hemisphere, being silent, is easily
dominated by its more verbal, leftie neighbor.
This ‘right-brain’ is also known as the female
brain, the minor hemisphere, the holistic thinker, the grasshopper, the
creative brain, the recessive brain and the artist.
Daydreaming
Left Handedness
Handedness
and personality types would seem to have a correlation by evidence. The right
brain tends to daydream, is emotional, thinks in pictures, is anti-authoritarian,
dislikes conventions and makes irrational connections between ideas. It might
be true that right handers also possess some of these traits, but remember one in
ten of the population is left handed. A larger ratio than this comprises
notable names in the music industry, the arts and great scientists. Consider
Hendrix, McCartney, Newton, Beethoven, Picasso, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Chaplin
Curie and loads more.
The
left hander, incidentally, is also more likely to be schizophrenic (well, you
can’t have it all).
Left
Handed Learning Styles in Schools
Left
handed people have personality traits according to history, where some are
given to emotions, such as embarrassment, anger and stubbornness. This
might be due to the emotional right brain. The left hander also makes bizarre
associations to make creative leaps. Some of these left-handed traits resound
with me. Could this really be due to being a left hander? I dislike reading
instructions, and prefer to get on and assemble that wardrobe. I also make
random associations and have been a terrible daydreamer at school.
Right-Handed
Schools
How
reassuring to think that some of these great lefties in history have also
daydreamed. Many flopped in formative education which incidentally, possesses a
right-handed way of teaching (reading instructions sequentially, lots of verbal
with abstract concepts). Only in later life on escaping the prescriptive
classroom, did many of the great left handers blossom in the world.
