SW 104: Introduction to

Psychology
By
Mr Njovu
 Introduction
• What is psychology?
• Psyche + science= psychology.
• Psyche is a term translated from Ancient
Greek which means “mind”.
• Logos is a Greek word which means “the study
of”.
• Therefore, psychology can be referred to as
the study of the mind.
 Cont…
• Psychology is defined as the scientific study of observable behaviour
and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism`s
physical , mental state, and external environment .
• This definition contains four key terms: science, behaviour, mental
processes and intervening factors.
• Psychology is considered a science because psychologists attempt to
understand people or other creatures by scientific thinking which is
characterised by careful, controlled observation or empirical
investigations. What is involved in scientific thinking?
• 1)It also involves critical thinking –claims are based on well supported
reasons and evidence –not on emotional or anecdotal reasoning.
• 2)Scientific thinking entails asking questions – one of the central is,
Why?
 Cont…
• 3)It involves defining terms-must be clear and concrete.
• 4)Involves examining evidence- “In my view or I think” doesn’t count.
• 5)Involves analysing assumptions and biases-scientific thinkers do not take
anything as proven fact and work hard to overcome their own biases in thinking.
• 6)Involves avoiding emotional reasoning-do not let gut feelings/instincts replace
clear thinking-emotional conviction does not settle arguments.
• 7)Involves avoiding oversimplification- the obvious answer is often wrong and
misleading-do not argue based on own anecdotal evidence.
• 8)It involves consideration of other interpretations-the best interpretations are
supported by the most evidence.
• 9)It involves tolerating uncertainty-sometimes evidence is unclear or does not
even exist.
• 10)Involves asking questions that can be tested in this world.
 Cont…
• Reliance on rigorous scientific methods of observation is
the basis of all sciences, including psychology.
• The term behaviour refers to all of a person`s or
creature`s overt actions that others can directly observe.
• The term mental processes refers to the private
thoughts, emotions, feelings, and motives that other
people cannot directly observe.
• Due to the idea that mental processes are private,
psychologists use observations of public behaviour to
draw inferences about mental processes.
 Cont…
• Examples of mental processes include
emotions, memory, motivation, cognitive
development.
• The basic principles of psychology are relevant
to social work interventions related to
significant human problems.
 Goals of psychology.
• There are FOUR basic goals of psychology.
• These are to: describe, predict, understand and
influence.
• Describe- information gathered in scientific
studies helps psychologists describe behaviour
and mental processes accurately.
• Predict- in some cases, research gives
psychologists the tools to predict future
behaviour reasonably well.
 Cont…
• Understand – we understand human behaviour and mental processes when
we can explain them.
• Due to the fact that there is always more to learn, our current explanations
are always tentative and not truths.
• They are THEORIES that might be improved, or even rejected, by future
studies.
• Influence- psychologists hope to go beyond description, understanding, and
prediction to influence behaviour in beneficial ways. Eg how can we motivate
people, how can we assist a person suffering from depression.
• Psychology completely fulfills its goals when there is the identification of
specific ways that behaviour is intentionally influenced for the betterment of
people.
• In psychology we are interested in studying differences between people as
well as similarities between people.
 The history of psychology
• The launch of the field of psychology is credited to
Wilhelm Wundt who established the first laboratory
of Psychology in Leipzig, Germany in 1879.
• Some historians believe that William James deserves
the honour for a less publicised laboratory that
opened in 1875 at Harvard University.
• Actually, no one person “founded” psychology.
• Psychology was found by many groups of scientists.
 Cont…
• The first topic studied by the early psychologists was private
conscious experience.
• Consciousness refers to the individual`s awareness of
thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations and environment.
• The first psychologists wanted to understand the basic
elements of consciousness and how they worked together.
• Wilhelm Wundt was fascinated by human consciousness.
• His work was expanded by his student Edward Titchener.
• The two, similar to chemistry wanted to identify the basic
elements of conscious experience.
 Cont…
• Because Wundt and Titchener were interested in the
basic elements of the conscious experience and how
those elements are organised, their viewpoint is
known as structuralism.
• Wundt and Titchener studied the elements of private
consciousness using introspection.
• This is a method of looking inwardly at one`s own
mind as accurately and unemotionally as possible in
an attempt to isolate the basic elements of the mind.
 Cont…
• Max Wertheimer, a professor of psychology at
the University of Frankfurt in the early 1900s,
was also interested in the nature of conscious
experience.
• However, his ideas about consciousness were
quite different from those of the structuralists.
• Wertheimer led a group of psychologists
known as Gestalt psychologists.
 Cont…
• Their approach to psychology was based on
the German concept of the Gestalt, or whole.
• The Gestalt psychologists thought that human
consciousness could not be meaningfully
broken down into raw elements, as the
structuralists tried to do.
• Their argument was that “the whole is
different from the sum of its parts”.
 Cont…
• While many of the early psychologists were studying
the nature of conscious experience, another group
was trying to understand the survival value of
consciousness.
• This focused on what useful functions does
consciousness serve that help us survive as a
species?
• William James emphasised on the survival functions
of consciousness, James` school of thought is known
as functionalism.
 Cont…
• James criticised the structuralists for creating a
barren approach to psychology.
• He compared human consciousness to a flowing
stream; we could study that stream by isolating
single molecules of water like structuralists, but we
could miss the nature and beauty of the whole
stream.
• Studying the water molecules in a stream would tell
us nothing about what the stream does-it erodes
riverbanks, provides a home for fish etc.
 Cont…
• On the same, studying the elements of the
mind tells nothing about how the mind helps
us adapt to the demands of life.
• The functions of the mind, not its raw
elements, were the subject matter of
psychology to the functionalists.
 Cont…
• Functionalism although still important in
modern psychology, it has changed
terminology.
• Rather than speaking about the functions of
human consciousness, psychologists now use
the term cognition.
• Cognition is a broad term that refers to all
intellectual processes-perceiving, believing,
thinking, remembering, knowing, deciding etc.
 Cont…
• The current cognitive psychology is a modern version of
functionalism-also strongly influenced by Gestalt
psychology and structuralism.
• Cognitive psychology cover areas such as sensation,
perception, learning, memory, emotion etc, making it the
heart of modern psychology in many ways.
• Behaviourism-Group presentation.
• Social learning theory-Group presentation
• Unconscious mind-psychoanalysis-Group presentation.
• Humanistic psychology and the unconscious mind.
 Psychometrics: Alfred Binet
• Alfred Binet was a founder of psychology who
took the study of mental processes in a very
different and highly practical direction.
• In the 1890s, the Paris Ministry of Education
were faced with a problem.
• They wanted to provide extensive education for
all “intelligent” children and more practical, less
academic kinds of schooling for less intelligent
children.
 Cont…
• They not only wanted to be fair about choosing
the children to be given advanced academic
training but also wanted to make the decision
when the children were still young.
• How could they measure something as
intangible as a young child`s intelligence.
• The Ministry of Education turned for advice to
Binet, who was a professor at the University of
the Sorbonne.
 Cont…
• Binet and his collaborators were able to find a
set of test questions (e.g. arithmetic problems,
word definitions, memory tasks) that could be
answered by most of the children of a given age
but not by most children who were younger.
• These questions were used to create an
intelligence test that was later revised and
translated in the United States to become the
still widely used Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.
 Cont…
• Binet`s work led to the modern branch of
psychology that specialises in the measurement
of intelligence, personality, and job aptitude.
• Binet`s approach to psychology is known as
psychometrics.
• This means the measurement (metric) of mental
functions (psycho).
• It continues to be an important and practical
viewpoint in modern psychology.
 Neuroscience Perspective.
• In 1894, Spanish scientist and physician Santiago Ramón y Cajal
published the first description of neurons- the cells that make up
the brain and the nervous system.

• His view that the brain was made up of a network of interacting

neural cells laid the foundation for our modern understanding of
the role of brain in psychology.

• Today, psychologists who approach the science from the

neuroscience perspective are interested in the structures of the
brain that play roles in emotion, reasoning, speaking, and other
psychological processes.
 Cont…
• They also seek to determine the extent to
which our psychological characteristics, such
as intelligence and emotional stability are
influenced by heredity.
 Modern Perspectives and Specialty Areas in
Psychology
• No single point of view from the early days has
emerged as the “correct” way of viewing
human behaviour and mental processes.
• The sociocultural perspective- is a recent
viewpoint that has profoundly influenced
modern psychology.
• The perspective view all the people as the same
in fundamentally important ways and yet
different in other equally important ways.
 Cont…
• We are the same in the sense that the principles of
psychology apply equally to all of us.
• The principles of perception, motivation, learning,
and personality also apply to all human beings.
• Even so, people also are different from one another.
• Their culture, age, sexual orientation, and unique
experiences all contribute to these differences.
 Cont…
• The sociocultural perspective in psychology
emphasises the importance of understanding
people in the context of their ethnicity and
culture.
• This has been an important perspective in
psychology since the 1980s.
• But the sociocultural perspective in psychology
is actually derived from one of the psychology`s
sister sciences-social anthropology.
 Cont…
• The modern sociocultural perspective in psychology also
was shaped by social learning theory within psychology.
• Similar to social learning theory, the sociocultural
approach states that our personalities, beliefs, attitudes,
and skills are learned from others.
• The sociocultural perspective encourages us to view
other cultures in relative and not judgmental terms.
• This perspective reminds that not all members of a given
culture, ethnic group , or gender are homogenous.
 Specialisation areas in psychology
• Psychology is a broad and diverse field.
• The early psychologists focused on varied aspects
of human behaviour and declared their own
theories and methods as correct approaches to
psychology.
• Modern psychologists can be divided into two
broad groups:
• Those who study basic topics and those who
work in applied areas of psychology.
 Basic psychology
• According to Lahey (2012:17) an estimated 20% of
all psychologists work in the basic areas of
psychology.
• They tend to specialise in the study of a single
psychological process.
• Most psychologists in the basic areas work in
colleges & universities, where they teach and
conduct research, but some work in research
institutions, government agencies, or other settings.
 Cont…
• Their domain is the basic knowledge of
psychology on which all applications are built.
• The basic areas of psychology are:
• Biological psychology- biological psychologists
study the nervous system as the basis for human
behaviour and mental processes.
• They also study animal behaviour, both to
compare it with human behaviour and to gain a
better understanding of other species.
 Cont…
• Sensation and perception-this specialty focuses on
how the sense organs operate and how we interpret
incoming sensory information.
• Learning and memory- the ways in which we learn
and remember new information and new skills are
studied in this specialty area.
• Cognition-cognitive psychologists study the thinking,
perceiving, planning, imagining, creating, dreaming,
speaking, listening ,and problem solving processes.
 Cont…
• Developmental psychology- this field of
psychology is concerned with changes that take
place in people during their life span, as we
grow from birth through old age.
• Motivation and emotion- in this specialty,
psychologists study the needs and states
(conditions) that activate and guide behaviour,
such as hunger, sex, the need for achievement,
and the need to have relationships with others.
 Cont…
• Personality- the field of personality focuses on the
relatively consistent ways of behaving that
characterise our individual personalities.
• Personality psychologists study how nature (genes or
biological makeup) and nurture (environment) shape
individual personalities.
• Social psychology- social psychologists concentrate
on the influence of other people on our behaviour;
interpersonal attraction and intimate relationships;
and attitudes and prejudice toward others.
 Cont…
• Sociocultural psychology-psychologists in this
field focus on ethnic and cultural factors,
gender identity, sexual orientation, and
related issues.
 Applied psychology
• About 80% of psychologists use basic psychological
knowledge to solve human problems.
• Some applied psychologists teach and do research,
but most work in mental health centres, industries,
school systems, medical centres, and other applied
settings.
• Clinical psychologists- these attempt to understand
and treat serious emotional and behavioural
problems.
 Cont…
• Counselling psychology- specialists in this field help people
with personal or school problems and career choices.
• Educational and school psychology- is concerned with the
ways children learn in the classroom and with the
construction and administration of psychological and
educational tests.
• School psychologists consult with teachers about children
who are experiencing learning or behavioural problems
and test children to determine whether they could benefit
from special educational programmes.
 Cont…
• Industrial and organisational psychology- this field
specialises on ways to match employees to jobs, to train
and motivate workers, and to promote job satisfaction and
good relationships among workers.
• Health psychology- health psychologists focus on the ways
in which stress and other factors influence our health.
• They seek to prevent health problems such as heart
disease by teaching people how to relax, exercise, control
their diets, and stop high-risk behaviours ,such as smoking.
• The distinction between basic and applied fields of
psychology is not always clear.
 The relationship between psychology and
psychiatry
• Some people are not clear about the
similarities and differences between
psychology and psychiatry.
• Psychiatrists are medical doctors, they
prescribe drugs and use other medical
treatment methods.
• However, psychologists do not prescribe
drugs.
 Cont…
• Psychology is a much broader field than
psychiatry.
• The specialty within psychology that is similar
to psychiatry is clinical psychology.
 Biological bases of behaviour
• Psychological life depends on biological life for
its very existence.
• The brain is the part of the body most
intimately linked to psychological life.
• In similar fashion as electronic machines
which are built from wires, transistors and
other components, the nervous system is built
from specialised cells called neurons.
 Cont…
• Billions of neurons in our nervous system transmit
messages to one another in complex ways that
makes the nervous system both the “computer”
and the communication network of the body.
• The biological control centre of the nervous
system is the brain.
• Although its many different parts carry out
different functions, these parts operate together
in an integrated manner.
 Central Nervous System
• The human nervous system consists of two
large parts.
• One part is the brain and the bundle of nerves
that run through the spinal column.
• Due to the fact that it is located within the
skull and the spine at the centre of the body,
this part is called the central nervous system.
 Peripheral Nervous System
• The many nerves that lie outside the skull and
the spine make the second part of the nervous
system.
• These nerves reach even the periphery of the
body, this part is called the peripheral nervous
system.
• The brain communicates with the body through
the network of neurons that fan out to every
part of the body.
 Cont…
• The brain also uses the endocrine glands (eg
hypothalamus, pituitary gland, pancreas, ovaries and
testes) to communicate with the body.
• These glands secrete chemical messengers, called,
hormones (eg progesterone, testosterone cortisol,
epinephrine, dopamine) , that travel through the
bloodstream.
• Hormones regulate the functions of many parts of
the body and influence our behaviour and
experience.
 Cont…
• The nervous system is both a powerful computer
and a complex communication network.
• However, the brain not only thinks and calculates
but also feels and controls motivation which is not
the case with computers.
• The brain is connected to the spinal cord and
individual nerves exit or enter the spinal cord and
brain, linking the brain to every part of the body.
 Cont…
• Some of the nerves carry messages from the body to
the brain to inform the brain about what is going on
in the body.
• Other nerves carry messages from the brain to
regulate the body `s functions and the person`s
behaviour.
• Without the nervous system the body would be a
mass of uncoordinated parts that could not act,
reason, or experience emotions. Therefore, there
would be no psychological life.
 Neurons
• The most important unit of the nervous
system is the individual nerve cell, or neuron.
• The neurons are the building blocks of the
nervous system.
 Cont…
• Neurons range in length from less than a
millimetre to more than a metre in length.
• But all neurons are made up of essentially
three parts; cell body, dendrites and axons.
Structure of a neuron
 Cont…
• The cell body-contains the cell`s nucleus nd other
components necessary for the cell`s preservation
and nourishment.
• Dendrites-are branches that extend out from the
cell body and receive messages from other neurons.
• Axons-are branches at the other end of the neuron
that mostly carry neural messages away from the
cell body and transmit them to the next neuron.
 Cont…
• The human nervous system is composed of 100
billion neurons.
• Each neuron can receive messages from or transmit
messages to 1,000 to 10,000 other neural cells.
• The human body contains trillions of neural
connections, most of them in the brain.
• Neuron is different from a nerve, which is a bundle of
many long neurons-sometimes thousands of them-
outside the brain and spinal cord.
 Neural transmission
• Neurons are the “wires” of the nervous
system-messages are transmitted over the
neuron much as electricity is transmitted
through the copper wires.
• Neurons are living wires, with their own built-
in supplies of electrical power.
• They are also the batteries that power the
nervous system.
 Cont…
• Neurons can take on the functions of wires and
batteries, because, like all living cells, they are
wet.
• Neurons are sacs filled with one type of fluid on
the inside and bathed in a different type of fluid
on the outside.
• These fluids are dissolved chemicals, including
ions, the particles that carry either positive or a
negative electrical charge.
 Cont…
• Most of the ions inside the neuron are negatively
charged, making the overall charge of the cell,
negative.
• This negative charge attracts positively charged
ions to the outside of the neuron, just as the
negative pole of a magnet attracts the positive
pole of another magnet.
• The outside of the cell membrane becomes
cloaked in positive ions, particularly sodium (Na+).
 Cont…
• When neurons are in a resting state, there are
10 times as many positively charged sodium
ions outside the membrane of the neurons than
inside.
• This is the source of the neuron`s electrical
power.
• Many ions are able to move freely through the
cell membrane of the neuron, but other ions,
such as sodium ions, cannot.
 Cont…
• For this reason, the membrane is said to be
semipermeable in its normal resting state-only
some chemicals can permeate, or pass through,
“holes” in the membrane.
• Therefore, a balance exists between the mostly
negative ions on the inside and the mostly
positive ions on the outside.
• When neurons are in a resting state they are
said to be electrically polarised.
 Cont…
• When the membrane is stimulated by an
adjacent neuron, however, the
semipermeability of the neural membrane is
lost for an instant.
• Positively charged ions, including the important
sodium ions, rush into the neuron.
• This process is called depolarisation, because
the neuron is no longer mostly negative inside.
 Cont…
• The depolarisation creates a chain of events known as
action potential.
• During an action potential, a small section of the axon
adjacent to the cell body becomes more permeable to
the positive sodium ions.
• Sodium ions rush in, producing a depolarisation in that
part of the axon.
• However, the membrane quickly regains its
semipermebility and “pumps” the positive sodium
ions back out, reestablishing its polarisation.
 Cont…
• But this tiny electrical storm of sodium ions
flowing in and out of the neuron-which lasts
approximately one-thousandth of a second-
does not stop there.
• It disturbs the adjacent section of the
membrane of the axon, so that it depolarises,
which in turn disturbs the next section of the
membrane, and so on.
 Cont…
• The action potential travels the length of the
axon.
• This is the process that transmit messages in the
human nervous system.
• Ramón y Cajal believed that neural transmission
operated according to the all-or-none principle.
• This is the law that states that once a neural
action potential is produced, its magnitude is
always the same.
 Cont…
• This means that he thought that neurons
transmitted signals to other neurons only
when depolarisation was strong enough to
trigger an action potential.
• Neurons often transmit messages through
graded electrical potentials that vary in
magnitude.
 Myelin sheath and neural transmission
• Many axons are encased in a white fatty coating called
the myelin sheath.
• This sheath insulates the axon and greatly increases
the speed at which the axon conducts neural
impulses.
• The myelin sheath continues to grow in thickness into
late adulthood.
• Interestingly, from early childhood to late adulthood,
the average thickness of myelin is greater in females
than males in some areas of the brain.
 Cont…
• This may indicate some more efficient neural
processing of some kinds of information by
females.
• The importance of the myelin sheath in neural
transmission can be seen in victims of multiple
sclerosis.
• This disease destroys the myelin sheath of many
neurons, leaving them unable to operate at
normal efficiency.
 Cont…
• As a result, individuals with multiple sclerosis
have severe difficulties controlling their
muscles; experience fatigue, dizziness, and
pain; and suffer serious cognitive and vision
problems.
Neurotransmitters and synaptic transmission.

• Neurons work in complex chains, but they are

not connected to one another.
• Rather, one neuron influences the next neuron
through the synapse.
• The small space between two neurons is
known as the synaptic gap.
• Neural action potentials cannot jump across
this gap.
Cont…
 Cont…
• Instead, the neural message is carried across the
gap by chemical substances called
neurotransmitters.
• The capacity of the brain to process information
is multiplied many times by the fact that not all
neurotransmitters are excitatory.
• Some axons transmit inhibitory substances
across synapses, which makes it more difficult
for the next neuron to fire.
 Cont…
• Thus, the brain is composed of a staggering network
of digital “yes” or “no” circuits that process and
create our conscious experiences.
• Neurotransmitters are mostly stored in tiny pockets
called synaptic vesicles located in the synaptic
terminals, which are knoblike ends of the axons.
• When an action potential reaches the axon
terminal, it stimulates the vesicles to release the
neurotransmitter into the gap.
 Cont…
• The neurotransmitter floats across the gap
and “fits” into receptor sites on the adjacent
neuron`s membrane like fitting into locks.
• This changes the polarity of the receiving
neuron, which either causes an action
potential that continues the neural message
on its way or inhibits the receiving neuron
from firing.
 Cont…
• Hundreds of neurotransmitter substances
operate in different parts of the brain, carrying
out different functions.
• Examples of neurotransmitters- serotonin,
norepinephrine, glutamate, neuropeptides.
• The process of synaptic transmission in a
particular portion of the brain can be altered
through the use of drugs that chemically alter
the function of one of these neurotransmitters.
 Cont…
• Our growing knowledge about neurotransmitters has
made possible the use of psychiatric drugs to control
anxiety, depression, and other psychological
problems.
• Some of these drugs have a chemical structure
similar enough to a neurotransmitter to fit the
receptor sites on the receiving neuron and cause
action potentials.
• Other drugs block the receptor site and reduce the
likelihood of neural transmission.
 Cont…
• Another class of drugs reduces the amount of
neurotransmitter that is reabsorbed by the
axon, keeping it active in the synapse longer
and increasing the likelihood of neural
transmission.
• Eg Prozac, a drug widely used for depression,
operates by reducing the reabsorption of a
neurotransmitter.
 Glial cells
• Neurons are not the only living cells in the
nervous system.
• They are in fact, greatly outnumbered by a
second class of cells called glial cells.
• Glial cells help the neurons carry out their
functions in three ways:
• New neurons grow from glial cells throughout
life.
Cont…
 Cont…
• Glial cells support neurons and transport nutrients
from blood vessels to neurons.
• Some glial cells produce the myelin sheath that
surrounds and insulates axons.
• Glial cells also influence the transmission of
messages from one neuron to another across
synaptic gaps.
• Some glial cells surround synapses and can increase
or decrease chances of synaptic transmission.
 Cont…
• They do this by absorbing the
neurotransmitter from the synaptic gap,
releasing more of the neurotransmitter into
the synaptic gap, or by chemically preparing
the synapse for transmission.
 Divisions of the nervous system
• The complex nervous systems have many different
parts, or divisions.
• The two major divisions are the CNS and PNS.
• The CNS= BRAIN + the SPINAL CORD.
• The brain controls the functions of the nervous system.
• The spinal cord`s primary function is to relay messages
between the brain and the body.
• But it also does some rudimentary processing of
information on its own e.g reflexes.
 Cont…
• Any behaviour more complex than a simple
reflex, however, usually involves processing in
the brain.
 Peripheral Nervous System
• The PNS is composed of the nerves that
branch from the brain and the spinal cord to
the body.
• The PNS also transmit messages from the CNS
to the muscles, glands, and organs that put
messages into action.
• Messages can travel across the synapse in only
one direction (unidirectional).
 Cont…
• So messages coming from the body into the
CNS are carried by one set of neurons, the
afferent neurons.
• Messages coming from the CNS to the body
are carried by a separate set of efferent
neurons.
 Divisions of the PNS
• The PNS is further divided into two systems.
• The somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous
system.
• The somatic nervous system carries messages from the
CNS to the skeletal muscles that control movements of the
body.
• These include voluntary movements, such as typing words
on a computer keyboard, and involuntary movements, such
as when eyes maintain fixation on the computer screen in
spite of small but frequent changes in the position of the
head.
 Cont...
• The somatic nervous system also receives
incoming messages from sensory receptors and
transmits them to the CNS.
• The autonomic nervous system is composed of
nerves that carry messages to the glands and the
visceral organs (heart, stomach and intestines).
• The autonomic nervous system affects the
skeletal muscles only by influencing general
muscle tension.
 Cont…
• The autonomic nervous system plays a key
role in two primary functions.
• 1) Essential body functions-the autonomic
nervous system automatically regulates many
essential functions of many organs.
• These include: heartbeat, breathing, digestion,
sweating, and sexual arousal.
 Cont…
• 2) Emotion- the autonomic nervous system also plays a
role in emotion.
• For instance, a stomachache, diarrhea, a pounding
heart, or headache when you feel anxious.
• This is a result of the autonomic nervous system which
is activated during emotional states.
• When a person becomes very emotional, the
autonomic system throws the internal organs that it
regulates out of balance in ways that create
discomfort.
 Cont…
• Prolonged emotional arousal can adversely
affect the health of the organs controlled by
the ANS.
• We do not consciously control the actions of
the ANS.
• It carries its functions in an automatic way
that does not require our awareness or
intentional control.
 Divisions of the ANS
• The ANS is composed of two parts: the
sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous
systems.
• The sympathetic nervous system- prepares the
body to respond to psychological or physical
stress.
• The SNS activates organs to improve our ability to
respond to stress, but in other cases, it inhibits
organs that are not needed during times of stress.
 Cont…
• The SNS- dilates (opens) the pupils of the eyes to let in light.
• Decreases salivation.
• Speeds the beating of the heart.
• Dilates the passageways (bronchi) of the lungs to increase air
flow.
• Inhibits the digestive tract (stomach, pancreas, intestines).
• Releases sugar (glycogen) from the liver.
• Stimulates the secretion of epinephrine from the adrenal
glands.
• Inhibits contraction of the urinary bladder.
• Increases blood flow and muscle tension in the large muscles.
 Parasympathetic nervous system
• It acts in tandem with the SNS to maintain
balanced regulation of the internal organs and
the large body muscles.
• When levels of physical and emotional stress
are low, it stimulates maintenance activities
and energy conservation.
• The parasympathetic nervous system:
 Cont…
• Constricts (closes) the pupils of the eyes.
• Increases salivation to facilitate digestion.
• Slows the beating of the heart.
• Constricts the bronchi of the lungs.
• Activates the digestive tract.
• Releases bile from the liver to aid digestion of fats.
• Inhibits secretion of epinephrine from the adrenal glands.
• Contracts the urinary bladder.
• Reduces blood flow and muscle tension in the large
muscles.
 Cont..
• The functions of SNS and parasympathetic
nervous system explain why many people
experience dry mouths and feel their hearts
pound when stressed –and have digestive
problems under prolonged stress.
• Read more about ganglia in the context of SNS
and parasympathetic nervous system.
Endocrine System: Chemical Messengers of
the Body
• The endocrine system is another biological
system that plays an important role in
communication and regulation of bodily
processes.
• This system consists of a number of glands that
secrete two kinds of chemical messengers:
neuropeptides and hormones.
• Neuropeptides-many endocrine glands secrete
neuropeptides into the bloodstream.
 Cont…
• When these neuropeptides reach other
endocrine glands, they influence their
functions.
• Neuropeptides allow the endocrine glands to
communicate with one another.
• In addition, some neuropeptides secreted by
these glands play important roles in stress
regulation, social bonding, emotion, and
memory.
 Cont…
• Hormones- the endocrine glands also secrete
hormones into the bloodstream, through
which they are carried throughout the body
and influence many organ systems, including
the brain.
• The release of neuropeptides and hormones
by the endocrine glands is regulated by several
systems of the brain through the
hypothalamus.
 Cont…
• The endocrine glands gives the brain
additional ways to control the body`s organs.
• This is particularly true during physical stress
or emotional arousal.
• At these times, neuropeptides and hormones
influence such things as metabolism, blood
pressure, blood-sugar level, and sexual
functioning.
Cont…
 Cont…
• Pituitary gland- is located near the hypothalamus,
which directly controls its functioning.
• The pituitary is sometimes thought of as the
body`s master gland, because its secretions help
regulate the activity of the other endocrine
glands.
• Perhaps its most important function is regulating
the body`s reactions to stress and resistance to
disease.
 Cont…
• The pituitary glands secretes hormones that control
blood pressure, thirst, and body growth.
• Too little or too much of the pituitary`s growth hormone
make a person develop into a ‘dwarf’ or a ‘giant’.
• E.g. of how the pituitary gland functions-when an infant
suck the mother`s nipples, a neural message is sent to
the mother`s hypothalamus, which sends a message to
the pituitary gland through a neuropeptide.
• This causes the pituitary to secrete a hormone that
releases breast milk for the baby.
 Cont…
• Adrenal glands- epinephrine and norepinephrine
(which also function as neurotransmitters in the brain).
• The adrenal glands also secrete the hormone-cortisol-
stress and regulation of immunity to disease.
• The autonomic nervous system has two ways of
activating the internal organs.
• By directly affecting the organs and by stimulating the
adrenals and other endocrine glands that then
influence the organs with their hormones.
 Cont…
• Gonads- there are two sex glands-the ovaries in
females, and the testes in males.
• The gonads produce the sex cells-ova in females,
sperm in males.
• The most important sex hormones are estrogen in
females and testosterone in males.
• There is emerging evidence that sex hormones play
a role in guiding the development of the brain and
changes in social behaviour during adolescence.
 Cont…

• Thyroid gland- metabolism by releasing a

hormone thyroxin.
• In children, proper functioning of the thyroid is
necessary for proper mental development.
• A serious thyroid deficiency in childhood
produces sluggishness, poor muscle tone, and a
rare type of mental retardation called cretinism.
• In adults, people with low thyroxin levels tend to
be inactive and overweight.
 Cont…
• Parathyroid glands-the four small glands embedded
in the thyroid gland are the parathyroid glands.
• They secrete parathormone, which is important in
the functioning of the nervous system.
• Parathormone controls excitability of the nervous
system by regulating ion levels in the neurons.
• Too much parathormone inhibits nervous activity
and leads to lethargy; too little of it may lead to
excessive nervous activity and tension.
 Cont…
• Pineal gland- is located between the cerebral
hemispheres, attached to the top of the thalamus.
• Its primary secretion is melatonin.
• Melatonin is important in the regulation of biological
rhythms, including menstrual cycles in females and
the daily regulation of sleep and wakefulness.
• Melatonin also appears to be affected by the amount
of exposure to sunlight and, hence, “clock” the time
of day partly in that fashion.
 Cont…
• Melatonin also appears to play a role in
regulating moods.
• Seasonal affective disorder, a type of
depression that occurs most frequently in the
winter months, is thought to occur because of
the influence of the light on melatonin.
 Structures and Functions of the Brain

• The brain is the fundamental basis for

psychological life.
• All mental functions require the integrated
functioning of multiple parts of the brain.
• The brain can be viewed as having three major
parts: the hindbrain, the midbrain and the
forebrain.
The Hindbrain
 Cont…
• The hindbrain is the lowest part of the brain,
located at the rear base of the skull.
• Its primary responsibility is to perform routine
‘housekeeping’ functions that keep the body
working properly.
• The hindbrain has three principal parts: the
medulla, the pons, and the cerebellum.
• Medulla- is a swelling just above the top of the
spinal cord, where the cord enters the brain.
 Cont…
• It controls breathing and a variety of reflexes, including those
that enable you to maintain an upright posture.
• The pons- is concerned with balance, hearing, and some
parasympathetic functions.
• It is located just above the medulla.
• The cerebellum-consists of two rounded structures located
to the rear of the pons.
• The cerebellum plays a key role in the coordination of
complex muscle movements and plays an important role in
types of learning and memory that involve coordinated
sequences of information.
 Cont…
• The reticular formation is a set of neurons that
spans the medulla and pons.
• Neurons project from the reticular formation
down the spinal cord and play a role in
maintaining muscle tone and cardiac
responsiveness to changing circumstances.
• More interesting to psychologists, rich networks
of neurons arise in the reticular formation and
end throughout the cerebral cortex.
 Cont…
• The reticular formation is composed of many
neural systems that use different
neurotransmitters, including serotonin,
norepinephrine, and acetycholine.
• These different parts of the reticular formation
influence somewhat different areas of the
brain.
 The Midbrain
• The midbrain- is a small area at the top of the
hindbrain that helps to control important
postural systems, particularly those associated
with the senses.
• For instance, the midbrain controls the
automatic movement of the eyes that keeps
them fixed on an object as the head moves
and controls automatic movements of the
head that orient the ears to sources of sound.
The Forebrain
 Cont…
• By far the most interesting part of the brain to
psychologists is the forebrain.
• Structurally, the forebrain consists of two distinct
areas.
• One area, which contains the thalamus, the
hypothalamus, and most of the limbic system, rests at
the top of the hindbrain and midbrain.
• The other area, made up of the cerebral cortex, sits
over the lower parts of the brain.
• These two areas control very different functions.
 Cont…
• The thalamus- routes incoming stimuli from the
sense organs to the appropriate parts of the
brain and links the upper and lower centres of
the brain.
• The thalamus plays a key role in processing
incoming sensory information along the upper
brain structures.
• Hypothalamus- is a small, but virtually
important, part of the brain.
 Cont…
• It lies underneath the thalamus, just in front of the
midbrain.
• The hypothalamus is intimately involved in our
motives and emotions.
• It also plays a key role in regulating body temperature,
sleep, endocrine gland activity, and resistance to
disease; controlling glandular secretions of the
stomach and intestines; and maintaining the normal
pace and rhythm of such body functions such as blood
pressure and heartbeat.
 Cont…
• The hypothalamus is the brain centre most
directly linked to the functions of the
autonomic nervous system.
• It works in close harmony with the limbic
system.
• The limbic system is composed of three
important parts: amygdala, hippocampus and
cingulate cortex.
Structures of the limbic system
 Cont…
• The amygdala- plays a key role in emotion and aggression.
• It also plays a key role in the formation of memories about
emotionally charged events.
• The hippocampus- brings important cognitive elements to the
processing of emotion-related information.
• It also plays a major role in the formation of new memories.
Memory loss experienced by patients suffering from
Alzheimer`s disease results in part from damage to the
hippocampus.
• It ‘ties together’ the sights, sounds, and meanings of
memories stored in various parts of the cerebral cortex.
 Cont…
• The cingulate cortex- works with the
hippocampus to process cognitive information
related to emotion.
• Both structures play a role in comparing
current emotion-related information to
information stored in memory.
• The largest structure in the forebrain is the
cerebral cortex.
 Cont…
• It is involved in conscious experience, voluntary
actions, language, and intelligence-many things
that make us human.
• As such, it is the primary brain structure related
to the somatic nervous system.
• The word cortex means ‘bark,’ referring to the
fact that the thin outer surface of the cerebrum
is a densely packed mass of billions of cell
bodies of neurons.
 Cont…
• The cortex has a gray appearance owing to
these cell bodies and often is called the gray
matter of the brain.
• The area of the cerebrum beneath the quarter
inch of cortex is referred to as the white matter,
because it is composed primarily of the axons of
the cortical neurons.
• The fatty myelin coating of these neurons gives
them their white appearance.
 Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex
• The cerebral cortex is of importance to our
psychological functioning.
• The cerebral cortex has four sections, or lobes:
• Frontal
• Parietal
• Temporal
• Occipital
Diagram showing the lobes

This image shows the lobes of the brain:

frontal lobes (blue), the parietal lobes (green),
occipital lobes (yellow) and the temporal lobes
(purple). 
Cont…
 Cont….
• Learning the names and locations of these
lobes assist in understanding the major
functions of the cerebral cortex.
• Each of the lobes is involved in different
psychological functions.
• Frontal lobe- it occupies the part of the skull
behind the forehead, extending back to the
middle of the head.
 Cont…
• It plays key roles in thinking, remembering, making
decisions, speaking, predicting the future
consequences of actions, controlling movement, and
regulating emotions.
• The frontal lobe of the left hemisphere also contains
Broca`s area, which is involved in our ability to speak
language.
• Damage to the Broca`s area result in expressive
aphasia-impairment of the ability to generate spoken
language but not to comprehend language.
 Cont…
• The frontal lobes are also involved in the
control of voluntary movements of the body.
• Near the middle of the top of the head, a strip
called the motor area runs across the back
portion of the frontal lobes.
• Damage to this area can result in paralysis or
loss of motor control.
 Cont…
• Parietal lobes- these are just behind the frontal lobes at the
top of the skull.
• The strip of the parietal cortex running parallel to the
motor area of the frontal lobs is termed the somatosensory
area.
• This area is important to the sense of touch and other body
senses that tell us, among other things, where our hands
and feet are and what they are doing.
• It is not surprising, then, that the somatosensory area is
located next to the motor area, because their functions are
clearly related.
 Cont…
• Temporal lobes- the temporal lobes extend backward
from the area of temples, occupying the middle area
at the base of the brain beneath the frontal and
parietal lobes.
• In both hemispheres, the temporal lobes contain the
auditory areas.
• These areas are located just inside the skull near the
ears, immediately below the somatosensory area of
the parietal lobes, and are involved in the sense of
hearing.
 Cont…
• Wernicke`s area is located just behind the
auditory area in the left hemisphere.
• This is the part of the cortex that plays a role in
understanding spoken language.
• Wernicke`s area further processes the messages
arriving from the ears, which are first processed
in the auditory area.
• Damage from strokes or injuries to this area of
the cortex result in Wernicke`s aphasia.
 Cont…
• Persons with this kind of aphasia cannot make
sense out of the language that is spoken to
them by others.
• In addition, although they can make normal
speech sounds, what they say typically makes
little sense.
• Occipital lobes- the lobes are at the base of
the back of the head.
 Cont…
• Although it is the part of the brain located farthest from the eyes,
the most important part of the occipital lobes is the visual area.
• The visual area plays an essential role in the processing of sensory
information from the eyes.
• Damage to the visual area of the occipital lobes can result in
partial or complete blindness, even through the eyes are able to
function normally.
• The unlabeled parts of the cerebral cortex are known as the
association areas.
• The association areas play less specific roles in cerebral activities
but often work closely with one of the nearby specific ability
areas.
Methods of understanding brain functions

• A number of exciting scientific tools have made the

study of brain functions much easier.
• These techniques create images of the activities of
living brain by using computers to compile and
interpret huge amounts of information from
electrical activity, magnetic waves and other forms of
radiation.
• These computer-enhanced images of the brain are
far more accurate and revealing than conventional X
rays.
 Cont…
• The advent of modern brain –imaging techniques
is as important to the development of
psychology`s understanding of the brain as the
invention of the telescope was to astronomy.
• To study the brain`s activity with an
electroencephalogram, or EEG, the technician
places electrodes on the surface of the person`s
scalp, and electrical activity from the brain is
recorded.
 Cont…
• The EEG is commonly used to study the sleep
cycle and to diagnose medical conditions, such
as seizure disorder.
• Sometimes multiple EEG recordings are used to
create computer-generated ‘maps’ of brain
activity.
• In this case, the person`s head is covered with
closely spaced electrodes to record brain
activity.
 Cont…
• The computer converts these recording into
colour image of the brain.
 Cont…
• Positron emission tomography (PET)-this is an imaging
technique that reveals the functions of the brain.
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)- this technique detects
magnetic activity from the nuclei of atoms in living cells
and creates visual images of the anatomy of the brain.
• The MRI also allows researchers not only to image the
anatomy of the brain but also to measure the activity of
specific parts of the brain.
• This technique is safer than PET, because it does not
involve exposure to radiation.
Functions of the Hemispheres of the Cerebral
Cortex
• Looking down at the cerebral cortex from the
top reveals that it is made up of two halves
called the cerebral hemispheres.
• These two separate hemispheres are linked by
the corpus callosum.
• Many functions of the cerebral cortex are
carried out jointly in both hemispheres, but the
two hemispheres sometimes work together in
surprising ways.
Cont…
 Cont…
• There are exceptions to this rule, but input from
the senses of vision and touch, for example,
generally goes to the opposite hemispheres.
• Stimulation of the skin on the left hand typically
goes to the right cerebral hemisphere, visual
stimulation falling on the right visual field of
each eye goes to the left hemisphere ,and
wiggling the toes on your left foot is controlled
by the right hemisphere.
 Cont…
• To accomplish this, the major sensory and motor
nerves entering and leaving the brain twist and almost
completely cross over each other.
• The right hemisphere plays a greater role in the
expression and perception of negative emotions (fear,
sadness, and anger), whereas the left cerebral
hemisphere plays a greater role in the perception and
expression of positive emotion.
• The brain continues to change in structure throughout
our lives.
 Cont…
• The total weight of the brain does not change much
after the early childhood, but the white matter
(myelinated neural fibres) increases in the cerebral
cortex (especially the frontal lobes and the corpus
callosum) from childhood through middle age.
• The increase in white matter is due to the continued
growth of myelin through adolescence and into early
adulthood.
• This growth in myelin insulates neurons and speeds
the transmission of neural impulses.
 Cont…
• In contrast, gray matter (neural cell bodies)
decreases in the cortex and some subcortical areas at
about the same rate from childhood through middle
age.
• Much of the decrease in gray matter during this age
span results from selective neural pruning, which is
thought to improve the efficiency of neural systems
by eliminating unnecessary neural cells.
• These processes appear to increase the efficiency of
the brain.
 Cont…
• The volumes of both gray and white matter
begin to decrease after the fifth decade of life,
however, which is associated with reductions
in working memory and cognitive speed.
• The decline in white matter as people age is
more rapid in men.
 Neurogenesis
• The brain also is a developing system in the sense
that new neurons grow in many key areas of the
brain well into adulthood, particularly the cortex and
hippocampus, a process called neurogenesis.
• These new neurons develop from a type of glial cells
in the brain that can be transformed into neurons.
• The growth of new neurons through neurogenesis
apparently plays an important role in learning and
the storing of new memories.
 Cont…
• For instance, it has been shown that learning a
new skill causes an average increase of 3% in
the number of neural cell bodies in areas of
the cortex related to visual attention.
• The brain`s amazing capacity for parallel
processing magnifies its ability to use its 100
billion neurons to process our complex
actions, emotions, and thoughts.
 Nature: Genetic Influences on Behaviour

• Do Genes Influence Our Behaviour and Mental

Processes?
• Inheritance is also important to psychology
because many aspects of our behaviour are
influenced by our genes.
• Humans do not inherit specific patterns of
behaviour; rather, inheritance seems to
influence broad dimensions of our behaviour,
such as general inheritance.
 Cont…
• Evidence from many studies strongly suggests
that heredity influences normal and abnormal
aspects of broad dimensions of our personalities,
including sociability, aggressiveness, alcohol and
drug use, kindness, depression, and anxiousness.
• In the past, it was believed that inherited
characteristics were transmitted through the
blood, hence old sayings such as : “He has his
family`s bad blood.”
 Cont…
• We now know that inheritance operates
through genetic material, called genes, found
in the nuclei of all human cells.
• All cells of the body contain microscopic
structures called chromosomes.
• Chromosomes are long strands of
deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA for short.
Cont…
 Cont…
• Segments of the DNA on chromosomes that
contain the information needed to influence
some aspects of the body are called genes.
• Genes are the basic biological units of
inheritance.
• Each of the chromosomes of a normal human
cell contains thousands of genes.
• Human chromosomes are arranged in 23 pairs.
 Cont…
• When cells divide in the normal process of
tissue growth and repair, they create exact
copies of themselves.
• But, when sex cells (sperm and oval) are formed,
the chromosome pairs split, so that the resulting
sex cell has only 23 unpaired chromosomes.
• When a sperm unites successfully with an ovum
in the process of fertilisation, the new cell that is
created is called a zygote.
 Cont…
• The zygote has a full complement of 23 pairs of
chromosomes, with one member of each pair of
chromosomes from the mother (ovum) and from the
father (sperm).
• The biological sex of each person is determined by
the chromosomes that are referred to as ‘X’ and ‘Y’
chromosomes because of their shapes.
• Males have one X chromosome (and one Y
chromosome), whereas females have two X
chromosomes.
 Cont…
• The genetic mechanisms of inheritance do not always
work properly.
• When chromosomes are damaged or malformed
abnormalities of body and behaviour often result.
• A common example is Down`s syndrome, which is
caused by the presence of an additional 21st
chromosome.
• The most serious aspect of Down`s syndrome as with
many chromosomal abnormalities, is mental
retardation.
Nurture: Environmental influences
• Although the influence of heredity on human
behaviour and mental processes is significant,
the event that we experience in our
environments play a profoundly important role
as well.
• We are far from being rigidly programmed by
our genes.
• Even highly heritable physical characteristics are
influenced by environmental factors.
 Cont…
• Eg improvements in nutrition and medical care can
influence physical height.
• Heredity and experience always work together to
influence our psychological characteristics.
• The role of environment in shaping our lives, refers to
both the physical and psychological environment.
• Eg There is stronger evidence that greater exposure to
alcohol during pregnancy has a causal impact on the
level of aggressive and rule-breaking behaviour later
in childhood.
 Cont…
• It is possible that our physical environment is
harming us in important ways.
• The sociocultural environment also influence
our behaviour.