Chapter 1-2 Textbook

Question 1

What are the three categories of of the causes of behavior?

Answer 1

Mentalism, Dualism, and Materialism

Question 2

What did Aristotle argue about the Psyche?

Answer 2

He suggested that all intellectual human functions are produced by a humans psyche and that the psyche is responsible for for life and its departure from the body results in death

Question 3

What was the Psyche to Aristotle?

Answer 3

A non-material entity that was independent of the body but responsible for human consciousness, perceptions and emotions

Question 4

What is Mentalism?

Answer 4

The philosophical position that a persons mind is responsible for behavior

Question 5

Where did Descartes place the mind?

Answer 5

In the brain and linked the mind and body

Question 6

How did Descartes link the mind link the mind to mechanics of the body?

Answer 6

He hypothesized that the pineal gland in the brain directed fluids from them through nerves and into the muscles and when the fluid expanded muscles would move

Question 7

What is Dualism?

Answer 7

The idea that behavior is controlled by two entities, a mind and body

Question 8

What was dualism for Descartes?

Answer 8

The mind received information from the body through the brain. The mind also directs the body through the brain. The mind depended on the brain for information to control behavior

Question 9

What were the problems with Descartes theory?

Answer 9

People who have a damaged pineal body still still display typical intelligent behavior

Question 10

What is the Mind-Body Problem?

Answer 10

The inability of Descartes theory to explain how a Nonmaterial mind and a physical brain might interact

Question 11

What idea did Materialism advance?

Answer 11

It advanced the idea that the workings of the brain and the rest of the nervous system alone fully explain behavior

Question 12

What is Natural Selection?

Answer 12

The theory explaining how new species evolve and how existing species change overtime

Question 13

What is a Species?

Answer 13

A group of organisms that can breed among themselves

Question 14

What is a Phenotype?

Answer 14

The characteristics we can see or measure

Question 15

What does Epigenetics study?

Answer 15

How gene expression is turned on or off at different times and how our environment and experience influence our behavior through their effects on genes

Question 16

What are the 3 important implications of studying brain and behavior that Natural Selection, Inheritance, and Epigenetics have?

Answer 16

1) Because all animal species are related, their brains must be related
2) Because all animal species are related their behavior must be related
3) Brains and behaviors in complex animals such as humans evolved from simpler animals brains and behaviors

Question 17

How does Hebb claim the brain produces need behavior?

Answer 17

He suggests that learning is enable by small groups of neurons that form new connections with one another to form a cell assembly which is the substrate for memory

Question 18

What does Materialism argue for?

Answer 18

Objective, measurable descriptions of behavior that can be referenced to brain activity