Assignment Biopsychology Factors Essay

Assignment Biopsychology Factors

Assignment Biopsychology Factors

For this assignment, you will begin by reviewing Applying Psychology to Everyday Life: Paying Attention to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on pp. 87–88 of the eTextbook.

Now, imagine that you are a university psychology professor. One of your students, John Doe, was recently diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), combined presentation. He has e-mailed you and requested your advice and assistance with better understanding his circumstances, diagnosis, and prognosis. You will reply to John by writing an e-mail in which you will offer him advice in the following areas.

Indicate structures of the brain that are involved and biopsychology factors that could impact his emotions, learning, memory, and motivation related to your class.
Describe ways in which his brain can perceive information from the outside world that could in turn impact his performance in your class.
Identify suggestions that you have for John to increase his chances for success in your class as well his other courses.
Your e-mail must be a minimum of 500 words in the body of the e-mail. You must use at least two sources, one of which may be your eTextbook, to support your advice. All sources used must be properly cited. Include the references at the bottom of the e-mail for your student’s reference. Please include a title page for the homework. The title page, citations, and references must be formatted in APA style.

biological psychology, also called physiological psychology or behavioral neuroscience, the study of the physiological bases of behaviour. Biological psychology is concerned primarily with the relationship between psychological processes and the underlying physiological events—or, in other words, the mind-body phenomenon. Its focus is the function of the brain and the rest of the nervous system in activities (e.g., thinking, learning, feeling, sensing, and perceiving) recognized as characteristic of humans and other animals. Biological psychology has continually been involved in studying the physical basis for the reception of internal and external stimuli by the nervous system, particularly the visual and auditory systems. Other areas of study have included the physiological bases for motivated behaviour, emotion, learning, memory, cognition, and mental disorders. Also considered are physical factors that directly affect the nervous system, including heredity, metabolism, hormones, disease, drug ingestion, and diet.

Assignment Biopsychology FactorsTheories of the relationship between body and mind date back at least to Aristotle, who conjectured that the two exist as aspects of the same entity, the mind being merely one of the body’s functions. In the dualism of French philosopher René Descartes, both the mind and the soul are spiritual entities existing separately from the mechanical operations of the human body. Related to this is the psychological parallelism theory of German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Leibniz believed that mind and body are separate but that their activities directly parallel each other. In recent times behaviourists such as American psychologist John B. Watson moved away from consideration of the spiritual or mental and focused on observable human and animal behaviours and their relationship to the nervous system. See behavioral science.

applied psychology, the use of methods and findings of scientific psychology to solve practical problems of human and animal behaviour and experience. A more precise definition is impossible because the activities of applied psychology range from laboratory experimentation through field studies to direct services for troubled persons.

The same intellectual streams whose confluence produced psychology as an independent discipline toward the end of the 19th century led to the later development of applied psychology. In 1883 the publication of Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development by Francis Galton foreshadowed the measurement of individual psychological differences. In 1896 at the University of Pennsylvania, Lightner Witmer established the world’s first psychological clinic and in so doing originated the field of clinical psychology. Intelligence testing began with the work of French psychologists Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon in the Paris schools in the early 1900s. Group testing, legal problems, industrial efficiency, motivation, and delinquency were among other early areas of application. At the Carnegie Institute of Technology, a division of applied psychology was established as a teaching and research department in 1915. The Journal of Applied Psychology appeared in 1917, along with Applied Psychology, the first textbook in the field, coauthored by Harry L. Hollingworth and Albert T. Poffenberger.

Early emphases in applied psychology included vocational testing, teaching methods, evaluation of attitudes and morale, performance under stress, propaganda and psychological warfare, rehabilitation, and counseling. Educational psychologists began directing their efforts toward the early identification and discovery of talented persons. Their research complemented the work of counseling psychologists, who sought to help persons clarify and attain their educational, vocational, and personal goals. Concern for the optimum utilization of human resources contributed to the development of industrial-organizational psychology. The development of aviation and space exploration fostered rapid growth in the field of engineering psychology.

In response to society’s concern for treatment of the mentally ill and for development of preventive measures against mental illness, clinical psychology has shown tremendous growth within the broader field of psychology. Psychologists have studied the application and effects of automation, and in developing countries they have helped with the problems of rapid industrialization and human resources planning.

Regardless of applied psychologists’ professional focus, their job description is likely to overlap with those of other areas. The applied psychologist may or may not teach or engage in original research. In addition to drawing on experimental findings gleaned from psychological research, the applied psychologist uses information from many disciplines. The scope of the field is continually broadening as new types of problems arise. Other branches of applied psychology include consumer, school, and community psychology. Prevention and treatment of emotional problems have received a great deal of attention, as have medically related areas such as sports psychology and the psychology of chronic illness.

Psychometrics, or the measurement and evaluation of psychological variables such as personality, aptitude, or performance, is an integral part of applied psychology fields. For example, the clinical psychologist may be interested in measuring the traits of aggressiveness or obsessiveness; the industrial psychologist, work effectiveness under certain conditions of lighting or office design; or the community psychologist, the psychological effects of living in a high crime area. See also clinical psychology; educational psychology; industrial psychology.

analytic psychology, the psychoanalytic method of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung as he distinguished it from that of Sigmund Freud. Jung attached less importance than did Freud to the role of sexuality in the neuroses and stressed the analysis of patients’ immediate conflicts as being more useful in understanding their problems than the uncovering of childhood conflicts. According to Jung’s definition, the unconscious includes individuals’ personal unconscious and that which they have inherited from their ancestors (the “collective unconscious”). He classified people into introverted and extraverted types and further distinguished them according to four primary functions of the mind—thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition—one or more of which Jung believed predominates in any given person.

hematology, also spelled haematology, branch of medical science concerned with the nature, function, and diseases of the blood. In the 17th century, Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, using a primitive, single-lens microscope, observed red blood cells (erythrocytes) and compared their size with that of a grain of sand. In the 18th century English physiologist William Hewson amplified the description of red cells and demonstrated the role of fibrin in the clotting (coagulation) of blood. Bone marrow was recognized as the site of blood-cell formation in the 19th century, along with the first clinical descriptions of pernicious anemia, leukemia, and a number of other disorders of the blood.

The discovery of the ABO blood group system in the first quarter of the 20th century made possible the transfusion of blood from one person to another without the serious ill effects that ensue when incompatible blood is given. The study of the blood disease anemia gained impetus from the introduction of the hematocrit, an apparatus for determining the volume of red blood cells as compared with the volume of plasma, and the introduction in 1932 of a simple method of measuring the volume and hemoglobin (the substance that transports oxygen to the tissues) content of these cells. About 1920 the investigation of the role of food substances in the production of red blood cells led to discovery of the beneficial effects of liver extract in treating pernicious anemia and ultimately to the discovery of vitamin B12, the anti-anemic principle of liver. Parallel discoveries in nutrition, biochemistry, and the use of heavy and radioactive isotopes helped elucidate how hemoglobin is produced and aided in the recognition of changes that take place in disease.

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After World War II the field of hematology broadened. Hematological studies of sickle cell anemia revealed that a variation in hemoglobin at the molecular level can be the underlying cause of disease. Simultaneous advances in techniques of protein and enzyme chemistry permitted recognition of a large number of other genetic disorders of hemoglobin synthesis (hemoglobinopathies).

The advent of molecular biology and molecular genetics has allowed researchers to study the mechanisms of diseases of platelet function, coagulation, and hematologic cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma.

psychophysics, study of quantitative relations between psychological events and physical events or, more specifically, between sensations and the stimuli that produce them.

Physical science permits, at least for some of the senses, accurate measurement on a physical scale of the magnitude of a stimulus. By determining the stimulus magnitude that is just sufficient to produce a sensation (or a response), it is possible to specify the minimum perceptible stimulus, or the absolute stimulus threshold (stimulus limen), for the various senses. The central inquiry of psychophysics pertains to the search for a lawful, quantitative relation between stimulus and sensation for the range of stimuli between these limits.

Assignment Biopsychology FactorsPsychophysics was established by German scientist and philosopher Gustav Theodor Fechner. He coined the word, developed the fundamental methods, conducted elaborate psychophysical experiments, and began a line of investigation that still persists in experimental psychology. Fechner’s classic book Elemente der Psychophysik (1860) may be looked upon as the beginning not only of psychophysics but also of experimental psychology.

Trained in physics, Fechner in his later life became interested in metaphysics and searched for a way of relating the spiritual to the physical world. He hit upon the notion of measuring sensation in relation to its stimulus. German physiologist Ernst Heinrich Weber had discovered that the amount of change in magnitude of a given stimulus necessary to produce a just-noticeable change in sensation always bore an approximately constant ratio to the total stimulus magnitude. This fact, properly speaking, is Weber’s law: if two weights differ by a just-noticeable amount when separated by a given increment, then, when the weights are increased, the increment must be proportionally increased for the difference to remain noticeable. Fechner applied Weber’s law to the measurement of sensation in relation to a stimulus. The resulting formula Fechner named Weber’s law (often called the Fechner-Weber law). It expresses the simple relation that the magnitude of a stimulus must be increased geometrically if the magnitude of sensation is to increase arithmetically. For physiologists and for many philosophers, this allowed the measurement of sensation in relation to a measured stimulus and thereby created the possibility of a scientific quantitative psychology.

More recently, psychophysicists have suggested that psychic magnitudes be assessed by direct scaling experiments rather than by deriving a sensation scale based on discrimination judgments. Psychophysical methods are used today in studies of sensation and in practical areas such as product comparisons and evaluations (e.g., tobacco, perfume, and liquor) and in psychological and personnel testing.

experimental psychology, a method of studying psychological phenomena and processes. The experimental method in psychology attempts to account for the activities of animals (including humans) and the functional organization of mental processes by manipulating variables that may give rise to behaviour; it is primarily concerned with discovering laws that describe manipulable relationships. The term generally connotes all areas of psychology that use the experimental method.

These areas include the study of sensation and perception, learning and memory, motivation, and biological psychology. There are experimental branches in many other areas, however, including child psychology, clinical psychology, educational psychology, and social psychology. Usually the experimental psychologist deals with normal, intact organisms; in biological psychology, however, studies are often conducted with organisms modified by surgery, radiation, drug treatment, or long-standing deprivations of various kinds or with organisms that naturally present organic abnormalities or emotional disorders. See also psychophysics.

forensic psychology, Application of psychology to legal issues, often for the purpose of offering expert testimony in a courtroom. In civil and criminal cases, forensic psychologists may evaluate individuals to determine questions such as competency to stand trial, relationship of a mental disorder to an accident or crime, and potential for future dangerous behaviour. In addition to conducting interviews and administering psychological tests, they usually gather a forensic history, which includes information such as hospital records, police reports, and statements of witnesses. They are also expected to have a grasp of relevant legal questions. In a child-custody case, a forensic psychologist may be asked to evaluate home environments, parents, and the character of the child in order to recommend a custody decision in the child’s best interests.

differential psychology, branch of psychology that deals with individual and group differences in behaviour. Charles Darwin’s studies of the survival capabilities of different species and Sir Francis Galton’s researches on individual visual and auditory skills, as well as more recent experiments, have shown that both individual and group differences are quantitative rather than qualitative. Persons do not fall into sharply separated types, such as bright and dull, maladjusted and normal, introvert and extravert. On the contrary, in all psychological characteristics, individuals vary by degree along a continuous scale. For most traits, the distribution approximates the bell-shaped normal probability curve, with the greatest clustering of cases near the centre of the range and a gradual decrease in numbers as the extremes are approached. Individual differences in behavioral characteristics are not limited to the human species; they occur throughout the animal scale. Investigations of animal behaviour, from unicellular organisms to anthropoid apes, reveal wide individual differences in learning, motivation, emotionality, and other traits. So large are these differences that the distributions overlap even when widely separated species are compared. See also comparative psychology.

James Ward, (born Jan. 27, 1843, Hull, Yorkshire, Eng.—died March 4, 1925, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire), philosopher and psychologist who exerted a major influence on the development of psychology in Great Britain.

After completing his theological studies at Spring Hill College, later Mansfield College, Oxford (1869), he obtained a one-year scholarship at the University of Göttingen and began studying under Rudolf Hermann Lotze, champion of the emerging science of physiological psychology.

Returning to England, Ward proved unpopular as a Congregational preacher because of his unconventional views. He resigned to continue studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow (1875–1925). He established a laboratory for research in physiological psychology in 1891.

Ward’s outlook was also influenced by the German philosopher-psychologist Franz Brentano and by the theory of evolution. Like Brentano, he conceived of the mind as a principle that is active in perceiving and judging. Further, he regarded mental processes as evolving toward a state of increasing differentiation. Ward was opposed to associationism, a theory prevalent at that time, and together with G.F. Stout introduced a functionalistic approach that was later developed in the United States by William James. He advanced his system in a celebrated article, “Psychology” (1886), in the 9th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, and he revised and further refined it for the 11th edition (1911). He completed the elaboration of his system in Psychological Principles (1918).

William McDougall, (born June 22, 1871, Chadderton, Lancashire, Eng.—died Nov. 28, 1938, Durham, N.C., U.S.), British-born U.S. psychologist influential in establishing experimental and physiological psychology and author of An Introduction to Social Psychology (1908; 30th ed. 1960), which did much to stimulate widespread study of the basis of social behaviour.

Soon after becoming a fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, McDougall joined the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait, between Australia and New Guinea, and there administered psychological tests to the native inhabitants. He then went to Germany, where, at the University of Göttingen, he conducted research on colour vision. His interest in psychical research also dates from that period. An assistant at the experimental laboratory, University College, London (1901), he was appointed reader in mental philosophy at the University of Oxford (1904), where he wrote Physiological Psychology (1905), demonstrating the value of a thoroughgoing biological approach in place of the traditional philosophical approach.

McDougall’s well-known Introduction to Social Psychology developed a Darwinian theory of human behaviour based on the assumption of inherited instinct, or tendency, to note particular stimuli and to respond to them for the purpose of attaining some goal. Should response be delayed, an emotional reaction follows. Diversification and stabilization of response result from learning. A classic work, Body and Mind (1911), subtitled A History and Defense of Animism represented the kind of espousal of unpopular causes that increasingly tended to isolate McDougall from colleagues.

Opposed to mechanistic interpretations of human behaviour, he wrote The Group Mind (1920), a speculative attempt to interpret national life and character that was intended as a sequel to his Social Psychology. Its poor reception was partly responsible for his move that year to the United States and a professorship at Harvard University. Maintaining that the basic human activity is searching for goals, he generally alienated himself from the dominant U.S. behaviourists, who confined psychology to observable evidence of organismic activity. In an attempt to demonstrate inheritance of acquired characteristics, he published Outline of Psychology (1923) and Outline of Abnormal Psychology (1926). Finding his situation at Harvard unsatisfactory, in 1927 he moved to Duke University, Durham, N.C. There he developed a psychology department and continued various research, including work in parapsychology.

Assignment Biopsychology Factors Essay

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