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The Biological Level of Analysis

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Title: The Biological Level of Analysis


1
The Biological Level of Analysis
2
Levels of Analysis
3
BIO LOA First lessons
  • Examine the essential focus of the biological
    psychology.
  • Understand the IB Syllabus for the bio topic and
    consider the emphasis on learning outcomes
  • Understand how case studies and technological
    advances have contributed to the development of
    the biological LOA
  • Outline the principles that define the biological
    level of analysis
  • Explain the effects of neurotransmitters on human
    behavior
  • Discuss how the biological LOA can be seen as
    reductionist

4
Topics
  • The background, principles of the Biological LOA
    reductionism
  • Neurons Neurotransmission
  • Localization of function in the brain
  • The stress response system (effects of hormones
    on behavior, environmental effects on
    physiological processes the interaction between
    cognition physiology)
  • Genetics behavior the influence of genetic
    inheritance, evolutionary explanations ethical
    considerations

5
The IB syllabus
6
Questions to check your understanding
  1. Why could the biological LOA be called the most
    basic LOA?
  2. Name two discoveries that demonstrate that all
    that is psychological is first physical
  3. What has the development of brain imaging
    technologies allowed biological psychologists to
    do?
  4. What has advancements in pharmacology allowed the
    medical profession to do?
  5. What is the human genome project? What will it
    allow biological psychologists to do?
  6. What do behavioral geneticists study?

7
The IB syllabus
8
(No Transcript)
9
  • The Biological LOA
  • Focus 1
  •  
  • The mind has a physiological basis
  • All that is psychological is first physical
  • Different views of this assumption include
  • The view that the brain IS the mind (Watson and
    Domasio)
  • Conscious awareness is not located in a
    particular area of the brain so the mind cannot
    be purely physical. (Penfield and Eccles)
  • The mind is a sense of self made up of a product
    of physiological processes.
  • Focus 2
  • Heredity is the means through which
    characteristics are passed down.
  • Main questions asked in the perspective
  • What is the relationship between mind and body?
  • What is the EXTENT of the influence of genes on
    humans?

10
Understanding the physiological basis of behavior
  • One of the most perplexing issues in psychology
    is understanding the relationship between the
    mind and the brain.
  • We are all have conscious awareness of our
    surroundings, and also of ourselves this is the
    experience normally described as the mind
  • But what is the basis of the mind? Is it the
    expression of a non-physical soul, or is it a
    product of physical processes within our body?
  • Psychologists and philosophers have been
    pondering this for centuries
  • William James regarded explaining the nature of
    consciousness as one of the most challenging
    questions for psychology to answer. Today more
    than 100 years later, the challenge still exists
  • Key question for biological psychologists
  • What is the relationship between structure and
    function?
  • What influence do genes have on human behavior
    and thought?

11
3, 2, 1- The Mind
  • 3 important ideas you have learned about the
    mind since August.
  • 2 things you would like to know more about
  • 1 thing that really frustrates about looking for
    the mind

12
Looking for the mind.
  • One of the most perplexing issues in psychology
    is the relationship between mind and the body
  • What is the basis of the mind?
  • Think about this question and write some
    responses below
  • The mind is
  • The body is
  • Are the mind and body separate or are they united?

13
Looking for the mind.
  • The mind is inner subjective experience of
    awareness
  • The body is a physical being including what
    many people feel is the basis of the mind the
    brain
  • Are the mind and body separate or are they
    united?
  • Phantom limb - http//www.youtube.com/watch?vhlQZ
    mNlPdHQ

14
Case studies to show mind body connection
  • Develop an understanding of the development of
    the Biological LOA
  • Examine two case studies from the biological LOA
    Sacks Phineas Gage- Brain teaching modules 25


15
Phineas Gage and his tamping iron,his "constant
companion during the remainder of his life."
Damasio (1994)
16
The case of Phineas Gage
A controversial case much debate ad many
different interpretations often inaccurate and
exaggerated
Harlow (1868)
"the American crowbar case"
  • One of the best known clinical cases involved the
    dramatic injury to an unfortunate railroad
    worker.
  • Whilst placing an explosive charge, a spark of
    metal on a rock set off the charge, sending a
    long tamping rod flying upwards.
  • The rod entered Gages head just below the left
    eye and exited from the top of his scull (1848).
  • Remarkably Gage survived and his behavior
    apparently changed dramatically he used to be
    likeable and responsible, then he was prone to
    terrible fits of temper.
  • Sadly he spent his remaining years wondering
    around the US, displaying the hole in his scull
    that had brought him such grief
  • although recent images show him proudly holding
    the tamping iron which inflicted the
    controversial injury - consistent with the
    social recovery hypothesis (Macmillan, 1998)
    perhaps the severest mental changes where
    short-lived evidence of neural plasticity
  • His story has been a source of endless
    fascination it appears that the rod extensively
    damaged the association areas (which produce a
    meaningful perceptual experience of the world)
    of the left frontal lobe
  • Activity Write a few sentences to reflect on
    the video (cog neuro 4.15) and explain how these
    case study may indicate that behavior and thought
    have a physiological basis.

17
The man who mistook his wife for a hat
  • Visual agnosia
  • Cant name, but can describe objects
  • Cant make sense of what he his seeing
  • Able to adapt and compensate
  • Mind and brain interlinked

18
The man who mistook his wife for a hat (Sacks,
1985)
  • P, a music teacher, whose associates have
    questioned his perception, is referred by his
    ophthalmologist to the neurologist Oliver Sacks.
    During the first office visit, Sacks notices that
    P. faces him with his ears, not his eyes. His
    gaze seems unnatural, darting and fixating on the
    doctor's features one at a time. At the end of
    the interview, at which his wife is present, P.
    appears to grasp his wife's head and try to lift
    it off and put it on his own head. "He had . . .
    mistaken his wife for a hat!" She gave no sign
    that anything odd had happened.
  • During the second interview, at P.'s home,
    P. is unable to recognize the rose in Sacks'
    lapel, describing it as "a convoluted red form
    with a linear green attachment." He is encouraged
    to speculate on what it might be, and guesses it
    could be a flower. When he smells it, he comes to
    life and knows it. The wife explains that P.
    functions by making little songs about what he is
    doing--dressing, washing or eating. If the song
    is interrupted he simply stops, till he finds a
    sensory clue on how to proceed. This singing
    method of compensating allows P. to function
    undetected in his professional and personal life.
    He remains unaware that he has a problem.
    Sacks chooses not to disturb his ignorant
    bliss with a diagnosis. Though his disease (never
    diagnosed but hypothesized as a tumor or
    degeneration of the visual cortex) advances, P.
    lives and works in apparent normalcy to the end
    of his days.

Explain the mans condition, how is our awareness
related to what our senses tell us?
19
Two philosophical traditions of thought Dualism
and Materialism
  • Dualism
  • Dualists claim that mind and matter are two
    separate categories. In particular, mind-body
    dualism claims that neither the mind nor matter
    can be reduced to each other in any way.
  • Materialism
  • The philosophy of materialism holds that the
    only thing that can be truly proven to exist is
    matter. Fundamentally, all things are composed of
    material and all phenomena (including
    consciousness) are the result of material
    interactions therefore, matter is the only
    substance.
  • Monism
  • Views mind and matter as being ultimately the
    same kind of thing.
  • Which school of thought do you think that
    psychologists from the biological LOA come from?
    Explain your answer

20
The background of the Biological LOA
  • Reading History of the Bio LOA
  • Worksheet BIO LOA
  • Read Crane 43

21
The Principles that define the biological LOA
22
The Principles that define the biological LOA
  • Cognitions, emotions and behaviours are products
    of the anatomy and physiology of our nervous and
    endocrine systems
  • 2) Patterns of behaviour can be inherited
  • 3) Animal research may inform our understanding
    of human behaviour

23
The principles of the biological LOA
  • Write three bullet points on each of the key
    principles of the Biological LOA
  • Use Crane 38 39

24
The Principles that define the biological LOA
  • 1) Cognitions, emotions and behaviours are
    products of the anatomy and physiology of our
    nervous and endocrine systems
  • All behavior that is psychological is at first
    physiological since the mind appears to reside
    in the brain, all thoughts, feelings and
    behaviors ultimately have a physical/biological
    cause (there is a biological basis to behavior).
    However, this relationship can be seen as
    bi-directional i.e. biology can affect cognition
    and cognition can affect biology. There is a
    localization of function specific functions are
    associated with specific areas of the brain.
    There are also biological correlates of
    behavior which suggests that its possible to
    find a link between a specific biological factor
    (e.g. a hormone) and a behavior.
  • 2) Patterns of behaviour can be inherited
  • Human genes have evolved over millions of years
    to adapt physiology and behavior to the
    environment. Therefore much behavior will have a
    genetic basis. (This is reflected in the
    structure of the brain we share a number of
    behaviors with lower organisms e.g. the
    primitive brain or limbic system regulates
    behavior associated with hunger, thirst, sex and
    other basic drives, and some psychological
    disorders appear to have a genetic basis)
  • 3) Animal research may inform our understanding
    of human behaviour
  • Psychology should investigate the brain, nervous
    system, endocrine system, neurochemistry and
    genes and it is also useful to study why human
    behavior has evolved the way it has this is
    evolutionary psychology. We can also learn about
    human behavior from studying animals, since we
    are evolutionary related to them.

25
Questions to review your learning
  • 1) Before Darwins seminal work The origin of the
    species (1859) how did people view the
    differences between humans and animals?
  • 2) According to the biological LOA, what is the
    basis of the mind?
  • 5) In your opinion, are mind and body separate or
    are they united? Explain your answer.
  • 6) Do you believe that the mind resides inside
    the brain? Is your view the same or different to
    biological psychologists?
  • 7) Explain the key principle of the biological
    LOA that all behavior that is psychological is
    first physiological
  • 8) Explain the principle of localization of
    function
  • 9) What does the biological LOA assume about the
    role of genes in determining behavior?
  • 10) What does the biological LOA assume should be
    studied by psychologists?
  • 11) What research methodologies are used by
    researchers from the biological LOA?

26
What about genes ???
  • Weve focused on case studies showing the brain
    as a physiological correlate to certain
    behaviors.
  • Weve NOT examined principles 2 3.
  • Homework reading touches on this BUT
  • well closely examine genes when we study
    genetics.

27
Two important concepts to consider in the BIO LOA
  • Reductionism
  • Free Will
  • Determinism

This is key evaluation which can be brought into
any questions from this section
28
Reductionism
  • Definition Reductionism is an approach to
    understanding the nature of complex things by
    reducing them to the interactions of their parts,
    or to simpler or more fundamental things (e.g.
    depression is caused buy low serotonin)
  • Think of an analogy in your daily school life
    which would explain reductionist thinking

29
Read the next slide..
  • From the slide draw three symbols which would
    explain reductionism.
  • Label each symbol with a characteristic of
    reductionism

30
  • Reductionism is based on Occam's razor or
    Morgans law of parsimony (parsimony means
    less is better) This principle states that
    when explaining any phenomenon (e.g. behavior)
    the simplest level of explanation is the best -
    "All other things being equal, the simplest
    solution is the best. E.g. if the cause of
    eating disorders can be attributed to genes
    then it should be explained in this way
  • The biological LOA emphasizes the role of genes,
    neurotransmitters and brain structures in
    determining behavior.
  • This means that the biological LOA is a
    reductionist one because it concentrates on the
    part biological factors play in psychological
    conditions
  • Has this approach been valuable? Yes -for
    example Its enables the use of the scientific
    method, and has lead to researchers from the
    Biological LOA to identify the role of
    neurotransmitters and genes in mental disorders,
    (e.g. serotonin levels and depression, and the
    role genes in the development of eating
    disorders) as well as the functions of specific
    structures in the brain.
  • Is taking a reductionist approach always a
    problem? Not always, but it often is a problem
    most human behaviors involve a higher level
    cognitive functions (thinking) and social
    cultural factors also play an important role in
    the way we behave, and these are not usually
    considered by the biological LOA
  • For a full explanation of behavior we need to
    study all these different levels (cognitive,
    social cultural and biological) - this means
    taking a holistic approach so the reductionist
    nature of the biological LOA limits it as a LOA

31
Read the next 3 slides
  • Work in triads
  • What is free will? What is determinism?
  • List 3 examples..
  • Which one does the bio LOA reflect and why?

32
Free will vs. Determinism
33
Free will Determinism and the biological LOA
  • There is a debate about whether we has human
    beings have free will and we are able to make
    choices which will influence who we are and how
    we behave, and a determinist view which
    proposes that everything that happens has a
    definite cause, and it is that cause that
    determines what happens.
  • Determinism is the view that, for everything that
    happens, there is a condition or set of
    conditions which are the cause for that thing
    happening. (Oakley, 2001) and in order to
    study human behavior scientifically, we must
    study these causes
  • Free will proposes that we have an ability to
    chose the actions that we take, so we cannot
    explain everything by simply studying the causes
    of processes
  • Determinism involves the denial of free will
    Hard determinism denies free will altogether
    (free will is the sense that we exercise control
    over our decisions) there is also Soft
    Determinism which proposes that in some
    situations we do have some free will to make
    decisions (we will look at this when we study the
    cognitive LOA)
  • The philosopher David Hume (1734) argued that if
    an event is determined by something else, then
    the two events should be highly correlated and
    should appear in a chronological order (e.g. low
    serotonin leads to depression)
  • The discussion of free will and determinism
    involves moral accountability (ethics) if we
    dont have free will then are we still
    responsible for our actions?
  • The biological LOA takes the view that behavior
    is determined by internal, biological processes
    or systems. This is biological determinism.

34
  • The biological approach takes the view that
    behaviour is determined by internal,
  • biological processes or systems. This is
    biological determinism. Up to a point
  • physiological determinism may be a valid argument
    because physiological
  • factors provide explanations of behaviour but do
    they offer a complete
  • explanation? They may be more applicable to
    non-human animals where
  • learning has less influence on behaviour.
    Non-human animals also lack selfawareness,
  • which is associated with the concept of will.
    Without selfawareness
  • and consciousness, can you say about an organism
    that it has a
  • will? One line within the biological approach is
    genetic determinism
  • claiming that your genetic make-up (e.g.
    intelligence) is given from birth
  • and cannot be altered. Within socio-biology the
    genetic make-up of
  • organisms determines natural behaviour, e.g.
    related to biological sex. The
  • natural selection is seen as the result of
    inherited characteristics that has
  • been naturally selected and passed on to the next
    generation

35
Questions to check your understanding of free
will determinism
  • 1) Define free will and determinism
  • 2) What does David Hume propose is needed in
    order for one event to be determined by another?
  • 3) How does ethics come into the discussion of
    free will and determinism?
  • 4) What is biological determinism? Why might this
    apply to non human animals more than humans?
  • 5) What is genetic determinism?
  • 6) How is the biological perspective a
    deterministic one?
  • 7) Explain what biological determinism is
  • 8) Explain what genetic determinism is
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