Intro Flashcards
4 biological explanations of behavior.
Physiological explanation
Ontogenetic explanation
Evolutionary explanation
Functional explanation
Physiological explanation
Relates a behavior to the activity of the brain and other organs. It deals with the machinery of the body.
Ontogenetic explanation
Describes how a structure or behavior develops, including the influences of genes, nutrition, experiences, and their interactions.
Evolutionary explanation
Reconstructs the evolutionary history of a structure or behavior. The characteristic features of an animal are almost always modification of something found in ancestral species.
Functional explanation
Describes why a structure or behavior evolved as it did.
Mind-body problem
The question of how mind relates to brain activities.
Dualism
The idea that minds are one type of substance and matter is another.
Rene Descartes
I think therefor I am.
Cogito ergo sum.
Pineal gland- seat of the soul
Monism
The ideal that universe consist only one type of being.
3 forms of monism.
Materialism
Mentalist
Identity position
Materialism
Everything that exists is material or physical.
Primary claim, that people’s common sense understanding of the mind is false and that certain classes of mental states that most people believe in do not exist.
Our mind is a figment or our imagination.
Mentalism
The view that only the mind really exists and the physical world could not exist unless some mind were aware of it.
Identity position
The view that mental processes are the same thing as certain kinds of brain processes but are described in different terms.
Every mental experience is a mental activity, even though descriptions of thoughts around very different from descriptions of brain activity.
The mind is brain activity, mental activity is what happens in the brain.
Phrenology
The detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental ability.
Franz Gall
Localization of function
Gregor Mendel
Mendelian Genetics
Mendel demonstrated that inheritance occurs through genes.
Genes
Units of heredity that maintain their structural indenture from one generation to another. As a rule, genes come in pairs because they are aligned along chromosomes that also come in pair.
Chromosome
A threadlike structure of nucleus acids and protein found in the nucleus of most living cells, carrying genetic information in the form of genes.
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
A molecule that carries the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning, and reproduction of all known living organisms and many viruses.
Ribonucleic acid
RNA is polymeric molecule implicated in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes.
RNA and DNA are nucleic acid, and, along with proteins and carbohydrates, constitute the 4 major macromolecules essential for all known form of life.
Genotype
An organism’s genotype is the set of genes that it carries.
Phenotype
An organism’s phenotype is all the observable characteristics – which influenced both by its genotype and environment.
Homozygous
Anyone with an identical pair of genes on the two chromosomes is homozygous for that gene.
Heterozygous
Any one with an unmatched pair of genes I’d heterozygous for that gene.
Dominant genes
Dominate gene show a strong effect in either monozygous or heterozygous condition.
Recessive genes
Recessive gene only show its effect in homozygous condition.
Sex- linked genes
Genetic linkage has to do with the X and Y chromosomes. These not only carry the genes that determine male and female traits but also those for other characteristics as well. Genes that are carried by either Sex chromosome are said to be sex linked.
Autosomal genes
Other than sex-liked gene, all the other chromosomes are autosomal genes.
Sex- limited genes
Present in both sex but active mainly in one sex.
Chest hair, breast size…
Heritability
Heritability is a statistic used in breeding and genetic works that estimates how much variation Ina phenotypic trait in a population is due to genetic variation among individuals in that population.
Is the variation in some characteristic depend largely on genetic differences, the characteristic has high heritability.
Monozygotic twins
Identical twins
From one egg
Dizygotic twins
Fraternal twins
From two eggs
Evolution
Evolution is a change over generations in the frequencies of various genes in a population.
Lamarckism revolution
Evolution through the inheritance of acquired characteristics
WRONG
Epigenetic
Epic emetic deal with changes in gene expression.
Caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence.
Various experiences can turn a gene on or off.
Even when individuals have virtually the same genes and apparently the same environment, they can turn out differently, and the mechanism is epigenetic.
Charles Darwin
Survival of the fittest
We did not evolve better
We evolve differently
Evolutionary (sociobiology) Psychology
Evolutionary psychology concerns how behaviors evolved.
Why do biological psychologists and neuroscientists study on humans?
- The underlying mechanisms of behavior are similar cross species and are easier to study in nonhuman species.
- We are interested in animals for their won sake.
- What we learn about animal sheds light on human evolution.
- Certain experiments cannot use human subjects because legal or ethical restrictions.
IACUC
Institutional animal care and use committee
The three R rules
Reduction- of animal number
Replacement- using computer models or other substitutes for animal, when possible
Refinement- modifying the procedures to reduce pain and discomfort.
