Physio Bio Week 2

• Biological psychology - also called physiological psychology, is the study of the biology of behavior; it focuses on the nervous system, hormones and genetics.
• Biological psychology examines the relationship between mind and body, neural mechanisms, and the influence of heredity on behavior.
• BIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGY

  1. Comparative method - different species of animal can be studied and compared.
  2. Physiology - how the nervous system and hormones work
  3. Investigation of inheritance - what an animal inherits from its parents
• BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF BEHAVIOR

  1. Physiological Explanation -relates the behavior to an activity of the brain
  2. Functional Explanation -defines or elaborates why a behavior evolved in the way that it did.
  3. Ontogenetic Explanation -describes the development of a behavior or structure.
  4. Evolutionary Explanation -looks at a behavior or structure by way of evolutionary history
• Consciousness - refers to your individual awareness of your unique thoughts, memories, feelings,

  sensations, and environment.
• Rene Descartes introduced the concept of mind-body dualism or the idea that while the mind and body are separate, they do interact.
• Structuralists - used a process known as introspection to analyze and report conscious sensations, thoughts, and experiences.
• William James - compared consciousness to a stream; unbroken and continuous despite constant shifts and changes.
• Sigmund Freud - focused on understanding the importance of the unconscious and conscious mind
• MODERN THEORIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

  1. Integrated Information Theory - looks at consciousness by learning more about the physical processes that underlie our conscious experiences.

  • This theory tends to focus on whether something is conscious and to what degree it is conscious.

  1. Global Workspace Theory -suggests that we have a memory bank from which the brain draws information to form the experience of conscious awareness.
• Chromosomes - contain genetic material that can determine a person’s characteristics.
• Chromosomes are structures in the nucleus of a cell containing DNA coiled around histone proteins.
• All animals have some number of chromosomes
• Human beings - have 46 chromosomes (23 pairs)
• Humans have two types of chromosomes: autosomes and sex chromosomes.
• 22 of these are autosomes, while the remaining pair (either XX, female, or XY, male) represents a person’s sex chromosomes.
• Chromosomal abnormalities - can occur during fetal development if something goes wrong during the replication of the cells.
• Common abnormalities

  • Down syndrome (caused by an extra chromosome #21)
  • Klinefelter syndrome (caused by an extra X chromosome)
  • Turner syndrome (caused by a missing X chromosome)
• Genetic counseling - is available for families in order to determine if any abnormalities exist that may be passed along to offspring
• Sex linked Genes

  • genetic linkage - has to do with the X and Y sex chromosomes.
  • and carry some other characteristics as well.
• • Genes that are carried by either sex chromosome are said to be - sex linked
  • Men - X and a Y combination of sex chromosomes
  • Women - Have 2 X's
  • Since only men inherit Y chromosomes, they are the only ones to inherit Y-linked traits.
  • Men and women can get the X-linked ones since both inherit X chromosomes.
• 1,098 - human X-linked genes
• linked genes are responsible for abnormal conditions

  • hemophilia
  • Duchenne muscular dystrophy
  • fragile-X syndrome
  • high blood pressure
  • congenital night blindness
  • G6PD deficiency
  • the most common human genetic disorder, red-green color blindness.
• X-linked genes are also responsible for a common form

  of baldness referred to as "male pattern baldness".
• Sex limited Trait - The characters limited to only one sex (gender) due to hormone differences or anatomical difference
• ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR

  • Passive Gene Environment Correlation - Parents create a home environment that is influenced by their own heritable characteristics.
  • Evocative Gene Environment Correlation - when an individual’s (heritable) behavior evokes an environmental response
  • Active gene-environment correlation the person’s genetic makeup may lead them to select particular environments. (shy person choose to be alone or do quite activities rather than go to club/party)
• THE INFLUENCE OF GENES IN BEHAVIOR

  • Behavioral genetics - studies heritability of behavioral traits, and it overlaps with genetics, psychology, and ethology (the scientific study of human and animal behavior).
  • Classical, or Mendelian genetics - examines how genes are passed from one generation to the next
  • Law of Mendelian Inheritance - certain traits follow particular patterns.