Positive Psychology: WJEC: Biological Approach

1. Bio-chemicals affect moods;

2. Traumas to the brain affect the way we think;

3. Behaviours such as drug taking or being stressed can change our biochemical responses

Traits in an animal that enables it to survive and hence increase its probability of reproducing (and raising offspring successfully)

An animal’s characteristics that make it more appealing to the opposite sex, and hence increase the probability of reproducing

1. Frontal (front);

2. Parietal (upper side);

3. Temporal (around the temples);

4. Occipital (at the back)

Higher functions,

E.g., thinking, speech, motor control, and co-ordinating information from other loads [like a CEO - chief executive officer or director of a company]

Receive and interpret sensory information

Process visual information

Process auditory information and also memory

Speech

Understanding speech

Synpases

That the neurotransmitter is more likely that the neuron will send a message on to other neurons

That a neuron is less likely to pass a chemical message on to the next nerve

• Dopamine plays a key role in driving behaviour related to pleasurable goals, such as food, sex and social interaction.

• Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure and its also part of our unique ability to think and plan, helping us to strive, focus, and find things interesting. (If you’ve switched off now, perhaps you’ve got low dopamine :))

• Dopamine is associated with:

• Learning

• Motivation

• Heart rate

• Blood vessel function

• Kidney function

• Lactation

• Sleep

• Mood

• Attention

• Control of nausea and vomiting

• Pain processing

• Movement

• Stabilising moods, and is associated with eating, arousal and sleep.

• It is linked with depression, aggression, OCD, and eating disorders

Also called norepinephrine (US English

• It is released predominantly from the ends of sympathetic nerve fibres and that acts to increase the force of skeletal muscle contraction and the rate and force of contraction of the heart

• Noradrenaline increases arousal and attentiveness and sexual behaviour.

It functions to reduce neuronal excitability by inhibiting nerve transmission and can help to regulate anxiety

1. It can be studied scientifically,

2. Behaviour can be explained and altered with neurochemistry,

3. Animals can be studied to further psychology and medicine

1. Cause and effect may be the wrong way round, and that behaviour may cause biological changes.

2. Reducing behaviour to biology may be too simplistic for humans as we have free will and cognitive abilities

3. And studying animals may not have strong ecological validity for understanding humans

Males and females seek to reproduce healthy offspring; hence they seek healthy partners, but males and females will look for different things: females seek males with attractive qualities and ability to fund pregnancy and childhood, while males seek as many partners as possible to pass their genes on.

Males value physical attractiveness more, while females valued earning potential and status more. (Critical comment: what age groups though?)

Men preferred women with low waist to hip ratio indicating higher conception probability. (Critical thought - what ages were ppts?)

Both sexes are interested in body parts predictive of health (e.g., healthy eyes, skin, complexion; hips in women, muscles in men)

Drug therapy either increases or decreases the effects of neurotransmitters in the brain

Schizophrenia

Depression

Anxiolytic antidepressants (SSRIs) and benzodiazepines (e.g. Valium)

Drugs are cheap quick and easy for managing symptoms, but they treat symptoms rather than causes and there may be side-effects.

Psychological therapy was just as effective as drugs and did not have side-effects.

Elkin conducted large-scale study and found that the use of drugs generally provided quicker effects especially for those people with severe cases of depression.
But for mild depression the drugs didn't work as well as a placebo or psychological therapy

All drug treatments can have side-effects e.g. drowsiness in voluntary movements and potential fatalities.
On the other hand some drugs have mild side-effects and they can also be used instead of surgery

The possibility that technology will allow authorities to predict who will commit crime and whether criminals are likely to recommit.
Defence lawyers though may use this as an excuse based on (apparent) diminished responsibility.

Temporal lobes are believed to play an important role in

1. processing emotions,

2. language,

3. and certain aspects of visual perception