The synapse is the junction between neurons; it is thought that an abnormality in a number of synapses in the brain may be the root of psychological disorders. Chemical transmitters pass messages across the synapse. The synapse like a switch operates in one of two states; excitation the message continues across the synapse to the next neuron, or inhibition the activity is suppressed and no message is passed. Schizophrenia may be associated with abnormalities within certain types of neuron transmitter. Parts of the brain may be abnormally active and people’s attention may be drawn to stimuli usually ignored.
Mood, behaviour and emotions all stem from the level of activity of neurons in the brain, resting with the synapse. A change in synaptic level will change the level of neural activity. Change could be orchestrated through many mediums such as Parkinson’s disease, caused by the loss of dopaminergic neurons. Prescription drugs like the depression countering Prozac, which target specific synapses. Non-prescriptive drugs, nicotine, heroin and cocaine, alter the activities of synapses. When a neurotransmitter is released across a synapse a corresponding transmitter takes it up. Excess neuro transmitters are cleared from the synapse junction after reception by receptors. Neurotransmitters are dismantled by enzymes or recycled back across the synapse into the presynaptic synapse by special re-uptake receptors.
Cocaine inhibits reuptake of dopamine in the neural system. The remaining excesses of dopamine, accentuates euphoria. The down side, as reuptake is blocked dopamine is not recycled, ultimately leading to depletion of the neuro-transmitter leading to dysphoria. Drugs don’t just work in isolation but need to be viewed in terms of the whole nervous system and conscious awareness. Different drugs will have different effects, the environment can also shape a persons interpretation of effects. Due to anxiety and environment they are experiencing, habitual users, taking a placebo may also feel an effect.
(Sperry 1969) pioneered a procedure that successfully absolved epilepsy, involving cutting through the corpus callosum. There were however consequences regarding the interpretation of information through the right hemisphere. (Penfield and Rasmussen 1968) studied conscious patients undergoing surgery they were asked to give reports on the sensations they received through electrical stimulation of the temporal lobe. Patients claim to recall vivid memories of incidents earlier on in their life. This evidence leads to the biological relationship of memories to a specific area of the brain.
One of the most famous cases was the evidence drawn between brain and behaviour (Phileas Gage 1848) a tamping iron passed through his skull piercing the left hand frontal lobe. In the aftermath Gage didn’t inhibit much impairment in his speech or his intellect. Later, he became obstinate, capricious and egocentric. These findings led to the conclusion that emotional expression was controlled by this part of the brain. Evidently the damage had released the inhibitions controlled by the frontal lobe.
The problem with this evidence is that it is isolated and uncontrolled and rarely limited to one specific part of the brain. In addition the damaged part of the brain may be superseded by another part of the brain.
To summarise biology and psychology have a reciprocal relationship, there are some hardliners like Crick, who state the brain is solely responsible for psychological activity. Conversely Bolton and Hill repudiate reductionism and claim that psychology can’t be just biology and physiology. Descartes claimed that there was a true distinction between brain and mind coined dualism and it was a stimulus that created a bodily reaction. Scientist have dispelled that theory but
hold firm the analogy of stimulus transposed through chemical/electrical action to create a response. We have made a clear discovery that it the synapses shape our behaviour and abnormalities in this neuro transmitter provide proof that they are responsible for psychological disorders like schizophrenia. Prescription drugs can provide chemical therapy in the shape of Prozac for depression or obsessional neurosis. Non-prescription drugs like Cocaine, block reuptake of dopamine in the neural system leading to drug dependency. Finally we have explored research carried out by Sperry, Penfield and Rasmussen and the after effects of Phileas Gage accidental brain lesion.
In conclusion Psychology and biology underlie all behaviour. What happens when a person witness’s a shocking image like a car crash? The physiological explanation would be the ambient light reflected forming an image on the retina that is converted into a neural signal and transmitted to the brain. Conversely a psychological explanation may draw on the personal and social relevance of the experience that many would argue is of greater value.
Phoenix, A. (2002) Evolutionary Psychology, in Meill, D., Phoenix, S. and Thomas, K. (eds) Mapping Psychology, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Part II SPSS exercises
Question 1
i) (a) Students with a high level of extraversion (IV) in their personality would drive faster (DV) when behind the wheel of a car.
- The hypothesis is one tailed.
© Because the researcher not only is making a prediction that the IV would affect the DV, level of extraversion against speed. But in what direction it would occur i.e., which group would drive faster introverts/extraverts.
- It is predicted that the personality trait (introvert/extravert) of the student is not related to the speed the student drives when behind the wheel of a car.
ii) Error Bar Chart to represent effects of trait personalities when driving
iii) The error bar chart tell us that the extravert students drive at a faster speed than the introvert students on the whole. There is also a considerable overlap of 95% CI’s of the two trait personalities.
This supported by using the central tendency of mean, the introvert students scored a mean of 26.8 but the extraverts scored a mean of 29.7. When we consider the values of the confidence levels the introvert’s range from 24.3 lower to 29.3 upper. Conversely the extraverts score 27.3 lower to 32.1 upper all from a sample mean of 28.3. As for the population mean with a standard deviation of 3.3 and 3.5 respectively, I don’t feel the 20 samples gives a true reflection of the population. As for interpretation of the error bar chart there is considerable overlap that may suggest there is no real difference between the traits because the population means may in fact be equal. With the CI’s we are saying 95% confident that the population means fall within the CI’s. Therefore the population means could be the same and the excess scores could be down to sample error.
Question 2
In the 30 samples that were taken UK, Japan and Chile the total mean was calculated at 9.1 correct. However when we analyse the means scores taken by each country we can see straight away that there may have been a sampling error p.
The UK mean was calculated at 10.7 with the confidence interval being quite small interestingly even with a small sample like this CI is quite a short range with a low 9.9422 and high 11.4578 respectively with a standard deviation of 1.05 and a standard error of .355 this sample is a true representation of the population considering the sample size.
The Japan mean was calculated at 9.2 correct once again the confidence level was quite small a slight increase from the UK statistics. The CI range ran from a low of 8.3 to a high of 10.1 with a standard deviation of 1.22 and a standard error of .388 this sample once again represents a reasonable population of the country.
Finally, Chile’s results did not portray a good sample with a standard deviation of almost double the other two. The overall mean was recorded at 7.4 with a low CI of 5.1 and a high of 9.6, with a standard deviation of 1.05 and a standard error of 1.01 our 95% CI is quite large considering the scores range from 3 to 12. The reason for our CI to so large is that we have a small sample size however the other two samples were small and the CI in comparison was quite a short range.
Error Bar Chart to represent correctly classified emotions on a TV programme
From the graph plotted you can see a fraction of overlap a miniscule amount which doesn’t lend itself to any explanation, concluding that the UK are more perceptive of interpretation emotion than the other two countries. However when we consider the Japan and Chile stats there is a in increase in overlap which leads itself to believe that there is not much difference when we consider the higher range of scores
This anomaly could be down to the samples taken from different
populations so the difference between the sample and the population means could be attributable to sampling error. However the larger the sample taken from the population the more likely that it will reflect the population accurately.