The Jaunt

Psychology Essay #1 – Senses The average human being lives through each and every day using the five sources of sensation, whether or not it’s done consciously or unconsciously. These sources, known as the five senses- sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell- help in the process of taking in information about our environment. These senses, all very important, give us valuable data- what is out there in the environment, how much there is, and what it’s doing. To give up or lose one of these senses would be awful, as each of the senses gives us different input, but I would say the two I find the most important are touch and sight. The sense of touch plays “an important role in keeping us standing upright, moving straight ahead and literally out of hot water” (Benjamin B. Lahey, 2009). Reading “Are We Led by the Nose?” by Terence Monmaney, I came to understand the dangers of being unable to smell, which I never really thought about, such as being unable to smell the smoke from the fire that was in David Griffin’s apartment, not being able to “detect leaking gas” or being “poisoned by spoiled food” (Terrence Monmaney, 1987). The dangers from being unable to touch/feel can be just as or even more perilous than other dangers from losses of other senses. Being able to touch and feel allows us to feel pain, which is perceived through pain receptors. These pain receptors send signals to our brains that we must discontinue the actions that are hurting our bodies. Along with allowing us to depict pain, the sense of touch also allows us to feel something very important to me as a human: the warmth and comfort of others.
The sense of touch can also overcome disadvantages of losing other senses. The use of Braille allows the blind to see, the use of sign language allows the deaf to listen, and the use of putting fingers to another’s lips to understand what he/she was saying (what Helen Keller did after treatment) allows the blind deaf to communicate. Losing the other