BLOA studies Flashcards
Martinez and Kesner 1991
Neurotransmission and behaviour
Acetylcholide (ACh) and memory functions.
-Rats were taught to run a maze
Three groups
1) Injected Scopolamine, which blocks the ACh receptor sites leading into less ACh.
2) Injected Physostigmine, which blocks the production of the enzyme that cleans the ACh from synapses. Leads to more ACh.
3) Control.
Results:
Group 1) had problems running through the maze. More mistakes.
Group 2) ran faster than the control group. Less mistakes.
Evaluation:
Important, shows the effect of ACh on memory.
However, it’s a complex process and it’s not the only thing that affects.
Schachter and Singer, 1962
Adrenaline and emotion
Challenging the theories on the origins of emotion.
Whether, especially with fear, the body first releases adrenaline automatically for the fight or flight response, which is followed by the emotion of fear.
OR that the emotion of fear and the release of adrenaline are independent of each other, happening at the same time.
Schachter and Singer proposed that: Adrenaline can cause emotional response, but the type of emotion it is depends on the contextual factors. Also, the body goes through same physiological changes with different emotions, that the brain the labels according to the context.
184 male participants were told they would receive vitamin injections to test vision.
- Three groups received an actual adrenaline injection
- -One of the groups was told the actual side effects: increased heart rate, shaky hands
- -One was told fake side effects: Itching of feet, headache.
- One wasn’t told anything.
- One group received placebo saline solution.
Two contexts:
Euphoria- participants played games in an office.
Anger- confederate filled out a questionnaire at the same pace as participants, getting increasingly angry because of the personal nature of questions.
Observational data and personal self-reports by participants on their mood.
In euphoria condition the groups that received no correct side effect info showed more happiness and reported to be happier.
Anger condition did not show similar patterns. Researchers reasoned that this might be because of the discomfort in reporting anger.
Observational data showed that participants who knew adrenaline’s real side effects showed less angry behaviour.
Conclusion: Emotions come from cognitive labelling.
Physiological cues combined with contextual factors create specific emotions.
Avery et al. 2001
Melatonin and seasonal affective disorder
-95 SAD patients in three dif. groups:
1. Received dawn simulation
2. Received traditional bright-light therapy
3. Received placebo red light at dawn
Structured interviews afterwards showed that those in placebo or traditional light therapy groups showed less improvements and more side-effects than dawn simulation.
-Placebo group had more insomnia
Shift in sleeping pattern caused symptoms.
In winter with no light to wake up participants slept too little.
Lewy et al. 2006
SAD
Those who received melatonin in the evening showed improved mood and sleep patterns.
However, those who received dawn simulation still reported better mood and sleep pattern.
Brefzcynski-Lewis et al. 2007
Effects of meditation on the brain.
Purpose: to examine whether experienced meditators show more activity in attention-related networks of the brain than novice meditators.
12 meditators with 10 000 to 50 000 hours of meditation practice. Caucasian novices; on group was promised money if they showed most activity in the brain region associated with concentration to ensure they would try.
fMRI scanning used.
Participants’ concentrated on a dot on a screen. Distracting noises such as baby cooing and woman screaming were played. They also did this with no concentration on anything.
Attention related networks and visual cortex were more active during meditation than during relaxing. Also, novices found it harder to sustain concentration which showed in the fMRI.
Experienced meditators showed less activity in areas linked to daydreaming, emotional processing and other thoughts.
Experienced meditators also showed a response to stimuli, but not in terms of a change in concentration, but rather an adjustment to the concentration, like active resistance.
Differences related to neuroplasticity, changes have occurred in the physiology of the brain due to cognitive processes.
Lazarus 1975
The appraisal theory
Speisman et al 1964
Manipulation of emotions through cognitive appraisal
Participants were shown anxiety evoking films, for example one where aboriginal boys were subject to genital cutting.
There were three conditions with different soundtracks:
1) “Trauma condition” where the soundtrack had an emphasis on mutilation and pain
2) “intellectualization condition” where emphasis was on the anthropological interpretation of the situation
3) “Denial condition” where the boys seemed willing and happy with the ceremony.
Heart rate and galvanic skin response and other physiological measures were taken during.
Results showed that in “trauma condition” participants reacted with more physiological effects.
The study supports the appraisal theory, as the cognitive appraisal changed the physiological response of emotion.
Evaluation:
Lacks ecological validity, but results seem to be the same in real-life situations.
Bouchard et al. 1990
Twin-study on the inheritance of intelligence
Monozygotic twins reared together and mz twins reared apart.
they’re intelligence was measured.
The concordance rate between mz together twins was 88%.
For the apart grown it was 69%.
The study shows that environmental factors play a role in intelligence, but that it’s mainly still inherited.
-researchers claim that in a sample like the one in the study (white, middle class, industrialized country) 2/3 of the IQ is caused by inheritance.
Evaluation:
- Correlational data cannot establish cause effect relationship
- Concordance rates were high but not 100%.
- Self selected sample make it hard to generalize.
- The environmental variables were not controlled.
Heston 1966
Genetics and schizophrenia
Adoption study, where the rate of schizophrenia in adopted children of healthy parents and adopted children of schizophrenic mothers was measured.
-If there is correlation between ill mothers and ill children, it seems that genetics affect.
If nurture is more important, the number of children with schizophrenic mothers who live in foster homes is expected to be smaller.
-General incidence in population is about 1%.
-Of those adopted children with schizophrenic mothers, the incidence was 10% (later diagnosed)
This suggest that there is a genetic correlation.
Bailey and Pilliard 1991
Genetics and homosexuality
In MZ twins the concordance rate for homosexuality was 52%.
In DZ twins it was 22%
This shows that there could be a genetic factor that affects homosexuality.
Santtila et al. 2008
Homosexuality and the potential for homosexual behaviour in MZ and DZ twins
Enormous twin study in Finland: 6001 females and 3152 males and their twins.
Questionnaires used: first one asked about homosexual behaviour from last year to see their sexual orientation.
Other one asked about the potential to engage in homosexual behaviour if an attractive person would suggest it, no one would know and the person would be in charge.
Reported homosexual behaviour was much smaller, around 3% for men and 1% for women.
The potential was bigger, around 32% for men and 65% for women.
The concordance rates showed that MZ twins had a much higher rate for potential and overt homosexual behaviour than DZ twins, in both men and woman.
For DZ twins the overt homosexual behaviour concordace rate was 0. Potential was around 23 and 26% for females and males.
For MZ the potential was over 50% for both males and females.
Fessler et al. 2005
Nausea and loss of appetite in pregnant women has been linked to evolutionary explanations of behaviour: it protects the baby from potential harm, if the mother perceives food as bad and doesn’t eat possibly threatening foods.
Especially during the first trimester the baby is vulnerable to food related poisonings.
Web-based survey on 691 pregnant women recruited through pregnancy-related webpages.
The mean age was 28.1.
They were asked to indicate their current level of nausea using a 16-point scale.
They were also asked to tell about their disgust-sensitivity in eight different areas (eg. food, dead animals, body products, hygiene)
Overall the sensitivity to food and body products of women in first trimester was higher than in women of second and third semester.
Particulary food elevated disgust.
This suggest that it is an evolutionary trait that pregnant women are more careful with food to ensure the survival of their offspring.
Evaluation:
-Data collected through questionnaires, might be untrue. Not an effective way of measuring disgust.
Curtis et al. 2004
Evolution and disgust
Studying the patterns of disgust responses
-77 000 participants from 165 countries.
-online survey with 20 images.
-participants were asked to rank their level of disgust on the images.
-7 of the 20 images had a potentially infectious or dangerous thing to the immune system.
-Results showed that disgust was strongest for the images that could threaten the immune system.
-Reaction decreases with age.
-Women had a higher disgust.
Supports the idea of disgust being a mechanism of protecting and helping in reproduction.
Evaluation:
+Lots of participants
-ecological validity questionable
-not very controlled, not confirmed info about participants
-Social desirability effect if answers given in a group
-effect of culture
Zietsch et al.
Evolution and homosexuality:
Researchers mailed questionnaires to 4904 identical twins, asking about sexual orientation, number of opposite-sex partners and gender identity.
It was found that men who felt more like women had more heterosexual sex partners than others.
Also, when another twin was homosexual the heterosexual twin had a large number of sex partners.
This indicates that when inheriting genetic disposition for homosexuality it is beneficial for reproduction as it makes person more attractive to opposite sex.
