...especially in relation to behaviour. Biological psychology Different aspects of behaviour exist: * Physiological: relating to the activity, the function of the brain ans other organs. * Developmental: tracing how genes, nutrition and experiences influence behaviour. * Evolutionary: showing how certain behavioural patterns which evolved in our remote ancestors are inherited. * Functional: showing how he inherited behaviour is advantageous because of the useful function it serves. The Human Body * A complex organism made up of many systems. * Acts as a coordinated controlled unit. * It is the function of the Nervous and the Endocrine Systems to act as the coordinator of this controlled unit. The Nervous System and The Endocrine System * Both control and coordinate body activities. * Work separately and in different ways but are liked by the pituitary gland (the master gland) and the hypothalamus (part of the brain). * The hypothalamus regulates the functioning of the pituitary gland by monitoring the levels of the hormone in the blood. * The nervous system consists of: 1. The central nervous system (CNS): brain + spinal cord. 2. The peripheral nervous system (PNS): the somatic nervous system (voluntary) + the autonomic nervous system (involuntary). The autonomic nervous system consists of the sympathetic system (flight/fight action) + the parasympathetic system (relaxation). The Nervous System Function * Transmits...
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...ways: 1. Comparative method: different species of animal can be studied and compared. This can help in the search to understand human behaviour. 2. Physiology: how the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain functions, how changes in structure and/or function can affect behaviour. For example, we could ask how prescribed drugs to treat depression affect behaviour through their interaction with the nervous system. 3. Investigation of inheritance: what an animal inherits from its parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example, we might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from one generation to the next. Each of these biological aspects, the comparative, the physiological and the genetic, can help explain human behaviour. The biological approach believes that most behaviour is inherited and has an adaptive (or evolutionary) function. For example, in the weeks immediately after the birth of a child, levels of testosterone in fathers drop by more than 30 per cent. This has an evolutionary function. Testosterone-deprived men are less likely to wander off in search of new mates to inseminate. They are also less aggressive, which is useful when there is a baby around. Biological psychologists explain behaviours in neurological terms, i.e. the physiology and structure of the brain and how this influences behaviour. Many biological psychologists have concentrated on abnormal behaviour and have tried to explain it. For example biological...
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...Psych 100, Notes Sept. 6, 2012 History and Perspectives * Definitions of Psychology * The science of mental life (William James, 1890) * “The study of human or animal behaviour” (Webster’s Dictionary 1988) * “The scientific study of behavior and mind” “The scientific study of behaviour and its causes” (Passer & Smith) * Roots of the Word * Psyche – Greek for soul * Logos – Greek for the study of a subject * Related Fields * Philosophy * Rene Decartes (1595-1650) Dualism (interactionism) * Body is physical entity * Mind is nonphysical entity * Mind and body are separate, distinct entities involved in the production of behaviour * Pineal gland (Used for mind and body to communicate) * Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) * Materialism – position that since nothing exists other than matter and energy the concept of soul is meaningless * Form of monism * Empiricism (Position that all human knowledge and thought are derived from sensory experience * Branch of Biology concerned with the scientific study of how living organisms function (Muller, Helmholtz, Fechner) * Birth of Psychology * Wilhelm Wundt * Established first independent psychology lab at university of Leipzig 1879 (birth of psychology) * Established first psychology journal 1881 * Studied consciousness (one’s awareness...
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...ways: 1. Comparative method: different species of animal can be studied and compared. This can help in the search to understand human behaviour. 2. Physiology: how the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain functions, how changes in structure and/or function can affect behaviour. For example, we could ask how prescribed drugs to treat depression affect behaviour through their interaction with the nervous system. 3. Investigation of inheritance: what an animal inherits from its parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example, we might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from one generation to the next. Each of these biological aspects, the comparative, the physiological and the genetic, can help explain human behaviour. The biological approach believes that most behaviour is inherited and has an adaptive (or evolutionary) function. For example, in the weeks immediately after the birth of a child, levels of testosterone in fathers drop by more than 30 per cent. This has an evolutionary function. Testosterone-deprived men are less likely to wander off in search of new mates to inseminate. They are also less aggressive, which is useful when there is a baby around. Biological psychologists explain behaviours in neurological terms, i.e. the physiology and structure of the brain and how this influences behaviour. Many biological psychologists have concentrated on abnormal behaviour and have tried to explain it. For example biological...
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...The normal functioning of a human is largely dependent on the behaviours which relates to the central nervous system; hence behavioral techniques have been used in both animal and human model to further understand the central nervous system. These tests have been widely used to look at the pharmalogical efficacy and the mechanism of depression, anxiety, addiction, memory other mental complications. These techniques are relatively more cost efficient, simple, and easy to conduct, therefore it is widely used. The aim of this paper is to review the advantages, and disadvantages of such techniques and what have been discovered using such techniques. DEPRESSION Depression is a growing concern around the world, and anti-depressants available are not always effect for each individual. In addition, the therapeutic effect of all anti-depressant can be only seen only after a few weeks after administration, therefore having a much delayed therapeutic effect (Lopex-Rodriguez et al., 2004). Hence the forced swim test (FST) is used in numerous studies in expectation to help improve the efficacy and development of antidepressants. The FST, also known as the “behavioural despair test”, due to its ease of use, and inter-lab reliability and specificity, it is very common technique to assess depression and assess efficacy of antidepressant in animal models, typically in rodents. In a FST, a rodent is placed in a pool filled with water which rodents cannot escape from. Data observed are usually...
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...he function of nervous system is to coordinate the activities of our body. It is the control system for all our actions, thinking and behaviour. The nervous system helps all other systems of our body to work together.The nervous system is like a manager inside our body. Its job is to control and coordinate the parts of our body so that they work together, doing their job at the right time. Our nervous system coordinates muscles so that we can do things which need thinking like reading, writing, cycling or dancing. The nervous system also coordinates things which we don't have to think about, like heart beat and breathing. The human nervous system receives information from the surroundings, processes it, interprets it and then responds accordingly. The nervous system also passes information from one internal system to another. For example, as soon as we put food in our mouth, it immediately causes the release of saliva from the salivary glands. The Unit of Nervous System: Neuron : The units which make up the nervous system are called nerve cells or neurons. So, neuron is the structural and functional unit of the nervous system. We can now say that nervous system is made of special cells called neurons. Neuron is the largest cell in the body (which looks like an electric wire). Neurons contain the same basic parts as any other animal cell but their structure is specially adapted to be able to carry messages over large distances in the body quickly. The neurons carry...
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...Behavioural neuroscience is the study of how the behaviour in humans or animals is controlled by biological systems, such as the brain and the nervous system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that shoots nerve impulses through the brain and it is important as it makes sure that the nervous system functions normally. It's role is controlling the brains reward system, plus our sensitivity to rewards and motivation. However levels and responsiveness to dopamine can differ. Higher levels of dopamine can alter a person's emotional trait as it makes them more eager and more likely to go after rewards such as food, money or education. In addition to this it helps regulate the emotions of an individual. Behaviour is explained by how an individual conducts...
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...Sciences, whilst Biology is categorised under the Life Science category of Natural Sciences. To keep this essay as relevant as possible I shall only be focussing on the Life Science division of Natural Sciences. Like Botany and Zoology, Biology studies living organisms such as plants, animals and several microorganisms. On the contrary, being a Social Science, Sociology studies the working, functioning and the behaviour of society as a whole. So what about Psychology? Is it a Social Science or a Life Science. To get a clear idea we must first define Psychology. Psychology is the study of behaviour and mind, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. To my utter disappointment, simply defining psychology will not resolve our dilemma, but it does give a clear idea of things. Psychology as a science is interested in what people think, what they feel and how they behave, the subject studies everything from the human brain to consciousness, memory and mental health ,whilst studying the same, as a subject, psychology is interested in the reasoning behind several phenomena and hence studies the working and functioning of complex organs and complex systems in an organism. Most natural sciences like biology and botany use an empirical approach, that is they use objectivity and empirical evidence. As a science psychology does exactly this, it refers to data being...
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...Outline and evaluate the biological model of addiction (24 marks) Addiction is the behaviour of repeating the same behaviour and therefore becoming a habit and pattern within an individual’s life, this behaviour can lead to a risk of disease and other social and personal problems. These habit patterns lead to immediate gratification (short term reward) which then has long term effects. Many individuals are able to recover from their addiction but there is a high risk of relapse occurring. The biological approach see addiction as being due to the individual them self, being an illness and addicts have a predisposed biological vulnerability. The model has 3 different aspects initiation, maintaince and relapse. Initiation is the stage in which the individual begins to become addicted which is then followed by maintaince whereby the individual continuous the addictive behaviour even with the occurring consequences. The final stage is relapse were the individual gives up the addictive behaviour but eventually sign’s and symptoms return and individual continuous these behaviours. The biological model of addiction see addiction as occurring through 3 different ways Biochemistry factors, Genetics and reinforcement. Research has been done in order to prove whether genetics may play a role in addictive behaviour. It is likely that multiple genes play a part in forming addictive behaviour rather than a single gene alone. For instance there is a link between tobacco smoking and genes...
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...including their advantages and limitations. Naturalistic Observation – where reasearchers observe behavior in its natural setting without attempting to influence or control it. It allows study of behavior in normal settings but you have to wait for things to happen and observer bias distrots observations. Laboratory Observation- Studying behavior in a labortatory, Reasearchers have more control and use morepresise equipment to measure responses but they lose sontaneirt that occurs when behaviours take place in a more natural setting Case study – an in depth study of one or a few participants consisting of info gathered through observations, interviews and psychological testing. Good for studying people who have uncommon psychological or physiological disorders or brain injury. But reasearchers cannot establish the causje of observed behaviours. Surevey- a method of study in which reasearchers use interviews and or questionnaires to gather info about attitudes, beliefs, experiences or behaviours of a group or people. It provides highly accurate info about large numbers and show changes in attitudes over time. But respondents may provide inaccurate info...
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...the messages from the immune system were interpreted or translated into being a signal to the central nervous system (CNS). While most research agreed that there was a correlation in data between cytokines and depressive symptoms, they did not believe this indicated a causal link (Anisman, 2002). I have chosen to focus one of the most popular theories, the “cytokine theory of depression”, as I believe the research shows that it has a causal link between inflammation, cytokine activity and depressive symptoms (Roque, et al., 2009). This hypothesis recognises and explains the highly integrated processes and mechanisms that a person or animal goes through, from the initial stressor to displaying the depressive symptoms, termed as “sickness behaviour” (Dantzer, 2006). “Sickness Behaviour” is the term given to the symptoms caused by high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the periphery of the body; these symptoms overlap with the general characteristics of depression and include; decreased appetite, increased desire to sleep, cognitive dysfunction, social withdrawal and decreased sexual drive. It is believed that these symptoms result from the response by the body’s healing mechanisms, to ensure people with illnesses take respite during their recovery and healing phase (Wilson & Warise, 2008). The activation of the immune system is shown to have neural, neuroendocrine and behavioural effects, which may be responsible for the sickness behaviour symptoms (Wilson...
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...A critical review: Chickens prefer beautiful humans by Ghirlanda, Jansson, and Enquist (2002) Ghirlanda, Jansson, and Enquist (2002) used both humans and chickens as participants. With the assumption that similar processes can develop in any nervous system, a comparison of these two species’ preferences to human faces was made, with the aim of determining whether human preferences arise from general properties of the nervous systems, or from face-specific adaptations. However, several methodological issues have been encountered and are discussed below. In their design, they used a set of seven faces as stimuli. These were increasing in femininity, ranging from exaggerated male traits to exaggerated female traits. Figure 1: Set of seven faces as stimuli (Ghirlanda et al., 2002) The experiment consisted of one training period and one testing period. During training, chickens were presented with, on a screen, only the average male and female faces for 10 seconds, or until these were pecked. Hens had to peck male faces, and cocks had to peck female faces in order to be rewarded with food, so the animals were taught to prefer the opposite sex. The training period lasted until the animals learned choice preference for the opposite sex faces, more specifically, when 75% of the total pecks were directed towards the rewarded face. Human participants, on the other hand, did not receive training, but were shown the set of faces, in a random order, once, before the testing phase...
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...essay will discuss the causes of two emotional disorders and explain how the human body responds to the stress response. Two causes of emotional disorders, stress and phobia will be discuss. It will also evaluate the theories and literature used to explaining the disorders. According to Eysenck (2008) Emotional disorders affect human behaviour in relation to the cells, muscles, blood, hormones and the nervous system. The biological and psychological approaches allow psychologists and other health professionals’ to accessed deeper understanding of the disorders and its impact on human behaviour. Stress which is one of the emotional disorders can be seen as a physical or psychological response to a threatening event. The causes of stress (the threatening event or the demands of a situation) for instance, exams or being redundant, are referred as stressor (Woods 1997). Selye (1956, cited in Woods 1997) suggested that the human body respond to stress in three different patterns known as “the general adaptation syndrome” which is identified in three stages, firstly is the alarm response; this involves the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system to prepare the body for ‘fight, flight or frolic’. The hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland to trigger the release of stress hormones like the adrenaline and noradrenaline to cause changes in the physiological activity such as, fighting inflammation and breathing difficulties. Secondly is the resistance, this is when the alarm...
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...disturbances in eating behaviour, such as extreme reduction of food intake or extreme overeating, or feelings of extreme distress or concern about body weight or shape. A person with an eating disorder may have started out just eating smaller or larger amounts of food than usual, but at some point, the urge to eat less or more spirals out of control. Eating disorders are very complex, and despite scientific research to understand them, the biological, behavioural and social underpinnings of these illnesses remain elusive. The two main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Eating disorders frequently appear during adolescence or young adulthood, but some reports indicate that they can develop during childhood or later in adulthood. Women and girls are much more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. Over 90% of people diagnosed with eating disorders are adolescent or young women. Eating disorders are real, treatable medical illnesses with complex underlying psychological and biological causes. They frequently co-exist with other psychiatric disorders such as depression, substance abuse, or anxiety disorders. Biological Perspective The biological perspective is a way of looking at psychological topics by studying the physical basis for human behaviour. It involves such things as studying the immune system, nervous system and genetics. Also considered are physical factors that directly affect the nervous system, including heredity, metabolism...
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...This essay will define stress and stressors. It will also explain the how stress can affect an individuals and outline and evaluate the at least two models of stress. It will explore how stress can be measured and outline and evaluate two models of stress and stressors. Stress is a pressure or force exerted on an object according to engineers and physicians (Gross r,Mcilveen r and Cooligan2000). Lazarus and folkman (1984) define stress as “a pattern of negative physiological states and psychological response occurring in a situation where people perceive threats to their well-being which they may be unable to meet” (Grossr,Mcilveen r and Cooligan 2000). There are different views of stress. Stress as a “stimulus” which means it is applied to the person or stressor and it is in the environment. This relates to the engineering model of stress identified by Cox (1978)(blackboard).secondly stress is seen as a “response”, the body identifies stress as a reaction made within the body(Blackboard).Selye 1956 defines stress as “the non-specific response of the body to any demands made upon it” this relates to the physiological model of stress(Blackboard). Finally stress is viewed as an interaction, in this view stress is seen as a transaction between environment and the individual and this relates to the “transactional model of stress” (Blackboard). The ability to cope with stress and the meaning people give to stressors will define the stress experienced (Blackboard).How people react...
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