Chapter 1: Overview and Major Issues

• Humans are unique because they are capable of rationalism.
• 1. All psychology is biological
  2. All organisms
  3. All that you do is part of biology/life.
• 3 major issues:

  the brain, nature-nurture, ethics of research.
• Behavioral activation system activates rewards and goals. Connected with dopaminergic system.
• Consciousness is something we experience and it calls for an explanation, even if we do not yet see how to explain it.
• The brain is just like a machine that reacts to an outside stimulus.
• 4 areas of biopsych: roots of behavior, evolution, development, brain functioning.
• Dorsal view: top; Ventral view: bottom
• Neuron - conveys messages even through kong distances.
• Gila - does convey but limited to the brain.
• Brain: 1.3 kilograms covered in cerebro-spinal fluid.
• Physiology - for example, the chemical reactions that enable hormones to influence brain activity and the routes by which brain activity controls muscle contractions.
• Ontogenetic- describes the development of    a structure orbehavior. including the influences of genes, nutrition, experiences, and their interactions. For example, males and females differ on average in several ways. Some of those differences can be traced to the effects of genes or prenatal hormones, some relate to cultural influences, many relate partly to both, and some await further research.
• Evolutionary-    focuses upon the genetic    history of a behavior. The characteristic features of an animal are almost always modifications of something found in ancestral species. For example, bat wings are modified arms, and porcupine   quills are modified hairs.
• Functional- describes why a structure or behavior evolved    as it did. For example, a dominant male with many offspring spreads all his genes, including some that may have been irrelevant to his success or even disadvantageous. However, a gene that is prevalent in a large population probably provided some advantage—at least in the past, though not necessarily today

  –A functional explanation is that camouflaged appearance makes the animal inconspicuous to predator
• Dualism is the belief that there are different kinds ofsubstances and the mindand the body are separateentities. Rene Descartes.