On Wednesday September 2nd, 2015, Dr. Graham gave incoming seniors another one of his memorable speeches.  We all remember the “cookie story” but during this welcome back speech, Perry Graham referred to his knowledge of psychology. He started off with the Monkey Experiment.

He explained that at first scientists thought the reasons babies attach to their mothers was because their mothers feed them. But they were proven wrong. With one monkey made of wire who provided food and one that resembled a soft stuffed animal, they tried to see who the monkey would favor. They found that despite the wire monkey’s supply of food, the baby consistently retreated back to the soft one for protection and comfort. So what’s the purpose of all of this?

Well, as Dr. Graham said, there are a lot of factors that go into who we like and who we don’t like. It isn’t as simple as being fed or by any one factor. We connect to people for various reasons whether that be sense of humor, personality, or interests. In the end, the people that we pick and choose to surround ourselves with, are the ones that shape us into who we become.  

Dr. Graham also, went onto to speak of the Line Experiment in which their test subject could either say the correct answer or go along with other people who purposefully said the wrong answer. Dr. Graham’s conclusion was that we are largely influenced by those who surround us. It’s important to be thoughtful in our choices regardless of what others do or say; especially since we will soon be in college and will be expected to make our own choices.

Dr. Graham gave a great speech to welcome seniors back. Of course, this year will be crazy for seniors regarding our choice in where we go, but from Dr. Graham’s promises, it also sounds like it will pretty fun. So here’s to a year of tough choices, new memories, and hopefully many more speeches from Dr. Graham.