Chapter 1 Flashcards
When did psychology separate as its own discipline
1879 when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psych lab in Germany
monism
the idea that the mind and body consist of the same substance - the mind and brain are one
dualist
the idea that the mind and brain are separate
who is Democritus
proposed that everything was made p of atoms, even the soul (including the mind)
plato - monist or dualist?
dualist
Aristotle - monist or dualist
monist
how did Rene Descartes propose the body and brain worked
a series of hydraulic like pipes in the body that animal spirits flowed through
sensations, memories and other mental functions were produced when animal spirits flowed through pores in brian
animal spirits pumped through the pineal gland
where did Rene Descartes say the animal spirits came from and why
the pineal gland as it was in the perfect spot: just below the two cerebral hemispheres.
what did Descartes call the pineal gland
the seat of the soul (as it was the place where the mind interacted with the body)
what determined the transition to actual science
empiricism: information gathered through observation rather than logic, intuition, other means
who showed that they could make a frogs leg twitch with electrical stimulation
Luigi Galvani
who produced movement in dogs by electrically stimulating their exposed brains
Fritsch and hitzig
why are nerves not like wires even though they both use electricity. who is the person that figured this out
speed of conduction of nerves: 90 ft per second
speed of conduction of wires 186 000 miles per second
the person was hermann von helmotz
what is the definition of localization
specific areas of the brain carry out specific functions
Phineas gage had no impairment to what
intelligence, memory, speech, or movement
autopsy of brain of man who had stroke revealed what
lost ability to speak - damage to what now is called brocas area
what is phrenology
the theory that each of teh 35 different faculties of emotion and intellect is located in a precise area of the brain
who is behind phrenology and how did they determine that
Franz Gall and his student Spurzheim determined the locations by feeling bumps on peoples skills and relating certain protubernaces to an individuals charactersistics
what is the opposite of phrenology? who came up with it and explain what it is
equipotentiality
Karl Lashley came up with this: the idea that the brain functions as a whole and its the extent of damage, and not location that determines how much function is lost
what do we know about how the brain functions and location of brain function today?
functions are as much distributed as they are localized. behvaiour results from the interaction of many areas of the brain
each body cell in a human has ___- chromosomes arranged as ________
46 chromosomes arranged as 23 pairs
what is special about the 23rd pair of chromosomes
they are the sex chromosomes and are referred to as X and Y instead of by number
whats different about the X and Y chromosomes
XX female
XY male
Y is much shorted than female and contains about 1/25th of the genes on the X chromosome
how many chromosomes do male and female reproductive cells have
23 (singular) chromosomes
zygote versus embryo versus fetus
zygote: the fertilized egg that undergoes rapid cell division
embryo: the first 8 weeks
fetus: 8 weeks till birth
who uncovered the mystery of genes and how do they work
James Watson and Francis Crick
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a double stand of chemical molecules
each rung of latter is composed of 2 of 4 nucleotides: A, T, G, C
what are the 4 nucleotides
adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine
how much do humans differ by
0.5% among humans that are non-related
what do genes do
provide directions for making proteins
alleles
different versions of a gene
paired genes have the same type of function but their effects differ
different kinds of alleles
a dominant allele will produce its effect regardless of which allele it paired with
recessive will produce its effect only when paired with another recessive allele
heterozygous versus homozygous
heterozygous: the two alleles are different
homozygous: when the two alleles are identical
what does x-linked mean?
bc the x in the sex chromosomes is longer, their genes are often alone. A recessive gene, therefore, is adequate to produce its effect since it’s not paired w anything. Therefore, a characteristic produced by an unpaired gene on an X chromosome is X-linked
many characteristics are determined by several genes. These characteristics are ____
polygenic
examples of polygenic characteristics
height, most behavioural characteristics (intelligence) and psychological disorders
the huamn genome
all the genes in our chromosomes
what was the goal of the human genome project
to map the location fo all genes of the human chromosomes and determien the genes codes –> the order of bases within each gene
this took 15 years total
human protein-encoding genes compared to roundworm protein-encoding genes?
what does this mean
21 000 versus 19 735
this means that the number of protein-encoding genes does correlate with organism complexity
what correlated with behavioural complexity?
the amount of noncoding DNA
what is junk DNA
noncoding DNA
what is the function of junk DNA/ noncoding DNA
some is nonfunctional and leftover from evolution
80% is biochemically active and controls the expression of other genes
what does controlling the expression of other genes mean
the translation of their encoded information into the production of proteins, thus controlling their functioning
Huntington’s disease was associated with genes identified on chromosome ___
4 and near these two marker genes
children only share ___ of their genes with their parents and __ part fo their genes with each other
half and half
why arent all children the same
a child receives a random half of a parent’s genes. A parent can produce 8 million different combinations of chromosomes. When the other parent is added in, you have 60-70 trillion different combinations of genetics that can be passed on
why are the effects of genes not rigid
they can be variable over time and circumstance
genes can be turned off and on
their activity can be up or down-regulated so that they produce more or less to their proteins
this is evident through our development
____ % of our DNA is the same as chimpanzees. So why are we so different?
95-98%
we are so different as we differ more dramatically in which genes are expressed in the brain (meaning which genes actually produce proteins)
____: the parts of genes that direct protein production
exons, make up the exome
180 000 in humans
constitute only 1% of the entire genome
contains 85% of all disease-causing mutations
the percentage of the variation in characteristics that can be attributed to genetic factors
heritability
heritability estimates for intelligence, schizophrenia, personality characteristics and occupational interests
50% for intelligenes
60-90% of schizophrenia
40-50% for personality characteristics and occupational interests
why may twin studies overestimate heritability rates
most adopting parents are from the middle class. as such the environments for the two children may be more similar than random and therefore some attribution for heritability may actually be the environment
_____ means that genes contribute a predisposition for a disorder which may or may not exceed the threshold required to produce the disorder
vulnerability
