Psychology has always strived to create measures for how to categorize one’s aptitude and behaviour based on brain function. “What’s your IQ? What’s your EQ? What do you see in this ink blot?” There are innumerable tests designed to determine how we as people think and process information.
Mapping Psychology
The cognitive tests, models and theories based on studying the human mind can help us determine individual and group responses to certain stimuli. With this research, we have a better understanding of the differences in the way people think.
Taking into consideration the theory that our brains function differently from person to person, yet can be categorized into different groupings, we can also divide people into right brained and left brained. This of course is nothing new. The basic understanding of right vs. left brain is that the right brain controls creativity, visual and spacial perception and thinks “big picture” and ideas. The left brain controls logic, maths and sciences and thinks “practical” and reality based solutions.
The right brained tendency
Personally speaking, I have always been categorized by others as a “right brained” person – long before I had an understanding of what that truly meant. I’ve taken the tests online, seen the dancer spinning clockwise and sometimes even counterclockwise. When I wash the dishes, sometimes I stack them neatly and other times I balance them precariously in a pile. But, I can say that I believe I do have a right brained tendency – tendency being the key word.
So, who are right brained people?
There is a lot of theory as to what makes the right brained person tick. According to my go-to source, Wikipedia: “The processing of visual and auditory stimuli, spatial manipulation, facial perception, and artistic ability are represented bilaterally, but may show a right hemisphere superiority.”
Of course, not everyone with a right brained tendency has the same behaviour and thought patterns. The same is true for those with a left brained tendency. Although, there seems to be enough common ground (or mind) that these hemispherical categorizations can and have been made.
What’s the point?
The point is, even with all the research, individuals with a right brained tendency are not that well understood. They don’t typically fit the mold. However, right brained thinkers have contributed to some of the greatest discoveries and creative masterpieces we’ve ever known.
A few likely right brained thinkers
- Thomas Edison
- Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
- Pablo Picasso
- Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Run
- Walt Disney
- Nelson Rockefeller
- Hans Christian Anderson
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Sir Winston Churchill
- Benjamin Franklin
- John F. Kennedy
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- John Lennon
- Louis Pasteur
- Orville and Wilber Wright
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Ludwig Van Beethoven
- Thomas Jefferson
- George Washington
- Vincent Van Gogh
- Agatha Christie
- Ernest Hemmingway
- Mark Twain
- Anna Roosevelt
- King Gustav IV of Sweden
- Albert Einstein
- Marie and Pierre Curie
- Socrates
- Galileo Galilei
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Abraham Lincoln
- Steven Spielberg
Bottom line
Don’t underestimate those right brained people that you know. Perhaps they have more clarity of thought than you realize. And, don’t be surprised when they come up with a really good idea seemingly out of nowhere. I have the privilege to work with some exceptional creative thinkers who have strongly developed right brains. Do you?
What do you think about the theories surrounding right brained psychology?