Assumptions Flashcards
What is the medical model?
The treatment of psychological disorders should be based on the same principles used to treat physical diseases.
What is the physiological approach?
Behaviour is due to the functioning of internal body parts, nervous system, hormones etc.
What is the nativist approach?
All behaviour is inherited and passed on through genes.
What are the three assumptions of the approach?
Evolutionary influences and EEA.
Localisation of brain function.
Neurotransmitters.
What are the key points of the evolutionary influences and EEA assumption?
To evolve is to change with time.
The human mind has changed over millions of years so that we can adapt to our individual environments.
What is altruism?
Parents risking their life to save their offspring.
Natural selection would say that altruism is inherited and an adaptive trait because by saving offspring, it is increasing the survival rate of that individual’s gene pool.
What are the three main assumptions of Darwin’s theory of natural selection?
Darwin argues that evolution happens through natural selection which has three main assumptions:
Only a small proportion of each generation survives to reproduce.
Offspring are not identical to their parents.
So, each generation has a degree of variation and that, at least some of the variation is heritable.
Some characteristics give the animal an advantage over others in the ability to survive and reproduce. These characteristics are therefore adaptive and are passed on through genes.
What is the definition of EEA?
Environment of Evolutionary Adaptiveness
What are the key points of EEA?
The environment to which any species is adapted and the selective pressures that existed at the time.
Evolutionary psychology argues that to properly understand the functions of the brain, we must understand the environment in which the brain evolved.
Not all behaviours are adaptive. It’s only behaviours that ensure survival in our environment.
What is the example from psychology for evolutionary influences and EEA?
The human brain has adapted and grown in size over generations.
As our cultural and linguistic complexity, dietary needs and technological prowess took a leap forward, our brains grew to accommodate the changes.
The shapes changes we see, highlight the regions of the brain related to advanced cognitive functions.
Those who had larger brains to cope with social situations were more likely to survive and reproduce and pass on this adaptive trait to the next generation.
What is the role of the left hemisphere?
Logic, science, sense of time, language.
What is the role of the right hemisphere?
Creativity, art, imagination, intuition.
What is the role of the cerebral cortex?
Responsible for higher order cognitive functions.
What is the role of the frontal lobe?
Higher cognitive functions such as decision making.
Contains Broca’s area.
Linked to our personalities.
Motor cortex:
Responsible for planning and coordinating
movements.
Prefrontal cortex: Responsible for initiating higher-level cognitive functions.
What is the role of the temporal lobe?
Auditory, memory and speech processing.
In both hemispheres:
Left:
Usually most dominant. Contains Wernicke’s area. Associated with:
Language, learning, memorising, forming words, remembering verbal information.
Right:
Associated with:
Learning and memorising non-verbal information, determining facial expressions.
What is the role of the parietal lobe?
Receives sensory information:
Temperature, touch and pain.
Visuospatial processing.
Reading.
Number representation.(Maths)
What is the role of the occipital lobe?
Visual processing:
Receives information directly from the eyes.
Assess size, depth and distance, determine colour information, object and facial recognition and mapping the visual world.
Primary visual cortex: Receives sensory information from the retinas, transmitting the information relating to location, spatial data, motion, and the colours of objects in the field of vision.
What is the example from psychology for the localisation of brain function assumption?
Damage to the neurons or tissue of the frontal lobe can lead to personality changes, difficulty concentrating and planning and impulsivity.
What is aphasia?
Impact of damage to specific areas of the brain common in strokes.
What is brain damage?
An injury that causes the destruction or deterioration of brain cells.
What is a concussion?
Temporary bruising to the brain.
It can have an impact on balance, vision etc.
What are neurons?
Long, thin cells that convey messages from one place to another.
They can be smaller than 1mm or longer than a meter.
The brain contains billions of these neurons.
Neurons pass messages from one neuron to the next.
What are synapses and neurotransmitters?
Synapse = small gaps between neurons where neurons pass messages.
Neurotransmitters = chemical messengers that act between neurons within the brain.
Neurotransmitters allow the brain to process thoughts and memories.
How do neurotransmitters link to mental health?
High levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine is associated with schizophrenia symptoms.
Low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin is seen to be associated with depression and OCD.
What is the schizophrenia example from psychology for the neurotransmitter assumption?
Dopamine is linked to the positive symptom of hallucinations in schizophrenia.
Research has identified that some schizophrenics have increased levels of dopamine and present with both visual and auditory hallucinations.
Supported by findings that when patients with Parkinson’s disease have increased levels of L - Dopa (a form of dopamine) they are affected by hallucinations.
What is the depression example from psychology for the neurotransmitter assumption?
Serotonin plays a role in our sleep, mood and appetite.
Too little serotonin has been found in people suffering with depression.
