Understanding Human Behaviour

Question 1

What are the Biological Bases of Behaviour

Answer 1

These include:
The Nervous System
The Brain
The Peripheral Nervous System
The Endocrine System

Question 2

What are the Social Bases of Behaviour

Answer 2

These are:
Conformity
Obedience
Peer Pressure
Altruism
Prejudice and Discrimination
Attraction

Question 3

The Nervous System is divided into two parts, what are they?

Answer 3

1. The Central Nervous System
2. Peripheral Nervous System

Question 4

The Central Nervous System is made up of two parts, what are they?

Answer 4

The brain and spinal cord

Question 5

The Peripheral Nervous System has two parts, what are they?

Answer 5

Autonomic Nervous System which communicates with internal organs and glands

and

Somatic Nervous System which communicates with sense organs and voluntary muscles

Question 6

What are the major regions of the brain?

Answer 6

These include:
Frontal lobe
Parietal lobe
Temporal lobe
Occipital lobe and the Limbic system

Question 7

What is the Frontal lobe responsible for?

Answer 7

Planning, reasoning, problem solving, morality, personality, social skills, recognising and regulating emotions, motor functions and motor speech area of Broca

Question 8

What is the Temporal lobe responsible for?

Answer 8

Understanding, Language, hearing, speech, memory, learning, sensory speech area of Wernicke

Question 9

What is the Parietal lobe responsible for?

Answer 9

Recognising sensation, body position and objects, sense of time and space, reading and comprehension area, association between functions of other lobes

Question 10

What is the Occipital lobe responsible for?

Answer 10

Vision and integrating visual information (colour, shape and distance)

Question 11

What is the brain stem response for?

Answer 11

Regulation of heart beats, respiration, body temperature and other essential body functions

Question 12

What is the Cerebellum responsible for?

Answer 12

Balance and muscular co-ordination

Question 13

What are the four main brain structures that make up the Limbic system?

Answer 13

Thalamus - relays information from the sense receptors. Involved in alertness and consciousness

Hypothalamus - regulates autonomic functions such as hunger, thirst, body temperature and sleep-wake cycles.

Amygdala - involved in the processing of emotions, particularly fear and the formation of emotional memories.

Hippocampus - responsible for the formation and consolidation of new memories

Question 14

What is the brain’s role in controlling behaviour and bodily functions?

Answer 14

These include:
- Coordination of voluntary and involuntary movements
- processing sensory information and interpreting the environment
- memory formation and storage
- emotion regulation and experience
- thought processes, problem solving and decision making

Question 15

What is Brain Plasticity?

Answer 15

This refers to the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt, reorganize and change thoughout a person’s life in response to various experiences, learning and environmental influences.

This concept challenges the notion that the brain’s structure and functions were relatively fixed after a certain developmental period.

Question 16

The brain reorganizes itself in three ways through learning and skill acquisition, adaptive responses to injury and recovery from sensory deprivation, discuss each method.

Answer 16

Learning and Skill Acquisition - when individuals learn new skills or acquire knowledge, the brain undergoes changes to support these activities. For example, in the case of learning to play a musical instrument and learning a new language, the brain area responsible may undergo structural and functional changes.

Adaptive responses to injury - following brain injury, the brain often attempts to reorganize and compensate for the damage. For example, after a stroke, healthy brain regions may take over some functions that were previously performed by the damaged area.

Recovery from Sensory Deprivation - sensory deprivation or loss can trigger brain plasticity as well. For example, people who loose their sight may experience enhanced sensory perception in their remaining senses, such as hearing and touch, due to brain regions responsible for these senses becoming more active and interconnected.