Dr.

Shazia Khan
•Psychology studies human behavior which
involves both body & the mind.
•They are interrelated & interact upon each other.
•Mental functions & physical states affect each
other.
•Body & the mind are two aspects of the living,
dynamic & adjusting personality.
•Mind is regarded as a function of the body; it does
not exist apart from the body.
•It is some total of various mental process such as
observing, knowing, thinking, reasoning, feeling,
imagining, remembering, judging & others.
 Effectsof bodily conditions on mental
functioning
•Increased blood pressure causes mental
excitement.
•Severe pain reduces the concentration level
•Chronic illness causes depression
•Malfunctioning of the endocrine glands for
example, may exert a full influence on one‟s
personality, resulting in lethargy, nervous
tension, etc.
•Unpleasant emotions like fear, anger &
worry cause irritability, insomnia,
headache etc. mental processes are
intimately connected to brain or cortical
processes.
•Emotional conflicts are responsible for
peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis etc.
•Deep thinking & concentration can cause
physical strain.
 100 Billion neurons in the human body
• It would take you 3,171 years to count
all the neurons (1 per second)
 4-100 Microns wide (1 micron=1/1000th
of a millimeter)
 Dendrites
• Carry information to
the cell body from
other neurons
 Cell Body (Soma)
• Contains nucleus
 Axon
• Carries information
to the next cell
 Myelin Sheath
• Insulates the axon
and speeds up the
neural impulse
 Sensory Neurons (afferent) ~ 2 million
• Sends messages from sense organs  brain
 Motor Neurons (efferent) ~ 2-3 million
• Sends messages from brain  muscles, organs, glands
 Interneurons ~ Billions & Billions
• Relay messages between sensory & motor neurons
 Glial cells – “The forgotten cell”
• Glue cells which help connections, insulate, and
clean up
 Action potential: a neural impulse
 Threshold: minimum intensity needed to fire
impulse
 Neuron firings are all-or-none responses
 Synapse: gap between neurons (also called a
synaptic gap or cleft)
 Synaptic vesicles
• Sacs in terminal button
that release chemicals
into synaptic space
 Neurotransmitters
• Chemicals released by
synaptic vesicles
 Receptor sites
• Location on receptor
neuron for specific
neurotransmitter
 Ions
• Charged molecules
 Resting Potential
• When more negative
ions are inside the
neuron than outside
• Charge is
approximately -70mV
• Neuron is not
transmitting
information
 Action Potential
• Sudden, massive
change in charge in
the neuron
• Occurs when
depolarization reaches
the threshold of
excitation
• Ions flow across cell
membrane
 Neurotransmitters are a particularly important
link between the nervous system & behavior.
 •Deficiency or an excess of a neurotransmitter
can produce severe behavior disorders.
 •Some major neurotransmitters are:
 Acetylcholine
 Glutamate
 Gama-amino butyric acid (GABA)
 Dopamine
 Serotonin
 Endorphins
Each neurotransmitter has a specific effect on behavior &
emotions

 Acetylcholine: muscle action, learning, memory

 Dopamine: movement, learning, attention, emotion
 Serotonin: mood, hunger, sleep, arousal
 Nor epinephrine: alertness, arousal
 GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid): inhibitory neurotransmitter
 Glutamate: excitatory neurotransmitter, memory
 Endorphins: natural “opiates” released in
response to pain or vigorous exercise
 Why not flood the brain with artificial
opiates??
• Brain will stop producing natural ones
• Withdrawal symptoms
 Drugs affect communication at the synapse
• Agonist Molecule: excites, mimics neurotransmitter
• Antagonist Molecule: inhibits, blocks
neurotransmitter
 Acetylcholine (ACh)
• Released at the neuromuscular junction
• Plays an important role in arousal and attention
• Loss of ACh producing cells is linked to Alzheimer’s
Disease
 Dopamine
• Affects neurons associated with voluntary movement
• Plays a role in learning, memory, and emotions
• Loss of dopamine-producing cells causes symptoms
of Parkinson’s Disease
 Serotonin
• Found throughout the brain
• Appears to sets an “emotional tone”
• Low serotonin levels are implicated in
depression
 Endorphins
• Reduce pain by inhibiting or “turning down”
neurons that transmit pain information
 Curare
• Can stun or kill prey quickly
• Blocks ACh receptors causing paralysis
 Antipsychotic medications
• Block dopamine receptors
• Reduces schizophrenic hallucinations
 Caffeine
• Increases the release of excitatory neurotransmitters
by blocking the inhibitory neurotransmitter
adenosine
 Most psychoactive drugs (and toxins)
work by blocking or enhancing synaptic
transmission
 Botulism
• Blocks release of ACh at the neuromuscular
junction, causing paralysis
• “Botox” is botulism toxin used to prevent facial
muscles from making wrinkles
 Cocaine
• Prevents reabsorption of dopamine
• Leads to heightened arousal of entire nervous
system
 The brain can be changed, both
structurally and chemically, by
experience
 Rat studies show that an “enriched”
environment leads to larger neurons with
more connections
 Has also been shown in humans
 Recent research has uncovered evidence
of neurogenesis, or the production of new
brain cells, in human brains
 The human nervous system can be
divided into two parts
 Central Nervous System
It constitutes of the brain & spinal cord
 Peripheral Nervous System
It constitutes of the somatic system &
autonomic system
 Centralnervous
system (CNS)
• Consists of the
brain and spinal
cord
 Peripheral
nervous system
• Connects the CNS
to the rest of the
body
 Somatic nervous
system
 Autonomic nervous
system
 Forebrain
-Thalamus
-Hypothalamus
-Limbic system
-Cerebral cortex
 Midbrain
-Medulla
-Pons
-Cerebellum
 Hindbrain
 Thalamus
• Relays information from
sensory receptors to the
brain
 Hypothalamus
• Influences motivated
behavior
• Regulates hunger, thirst,
body temperature, and
sexual drive.
• Directly involved in
emotional behavior
 Reticular formation
• Network of neurons found throughout the brain
• Serves to alert and arouse higher brain in
response to incoming information
 Ring of structures located
between the central core
and the cerebral
hemispheres
 Important to learning
and emotional behavior
• Hippocampus essential in
formation of new memories
• Amygdala, together with
the hippocampus, is
important for regulating
emotions
 It consists of structures in
the thalamus, hypothalamus
& cerebrum which form a
ring around the lower part
of the forebrain.
 •The limbic system often
called the emotional brain,
functions in emotional
aspects of behavior related
to survival, memory, smell,
pleasure & pain, rage &
aggression, affections,
sexual desire etc.
 Occipital lobe
• Receives and processes
visual information
 Temporal lobe
• Complex visual tasks such
as face recognition
• Receives and processed
auditory information
• Involved in balance, some
emotions and motivations
• Some language processing
 Parietal lobe
• Receives sensory
information from body
• Involved in spatial abilities
 Frontal lobe
• Coordinated information
from other lobes
• Controls voluntary
movement, attention,
setting goals, and
expression of appropriate
emotions
 Itis composed of three structures, the
medulla, the pons & the cerebellum.
 •Medulla controls breathing & many
important reflexes & it also regulates the
digestion, respiration & circulation.
 •The pons assists in breathing, transmitting
impulses from the cerebellum to the higher
brain regions.
 •Cerebellum is responsible for body
balance & the coordination of body
movements like dancing, typing, playing,
etc.
 Medulla
• Controls breathing,
heart rate, and blood
pressure
 Pons
• Maintains the sleep-
wake cycle
 Cerebellum
• Coordinates body’s
movements
 Corpus Callosum
• Fibers that connect the
two hemispheres
• Allow close
communication
between left and right
hemishphere
 Each hemisphere
appears to specialize
in certain functions
 Much information about functions of each
hemisphere has come from studying
split-brain patients
 It works as a channel of communication
from & to the brain.
 It is a rope like structure made up of long
round nerve fibers.
 It also works as an organ for effective
reflex actions like withdrawal of the hand
when something is hot.
 These reflex actions are almost automatic
in nature.
 The individual functions at three levels:
1.Conscious level
2.Preconscious level
3.Unconscious level
 It constitutes all those experiences of which
an individual is immediately aware of at any
particular time.
 It consists of his current thoughts &
experiences.
 For example; attending to something,
observing, thinking, reasoning, judging,
imagining.
 Every conscious experience has three
aspects cognitive, affective & conativeor
knowing
 Pre-conscious thoughts are memories of which
an individual may not be aware of, but can recall
to mind when he wishes.
 Pre-conscious mental process are also called
subconscious mental process.
 For example; sometimes we forget a name in the
course of a conversation. We do not become
conscious of it, we make an effort & try to
recollect, after sometime, the name which we
were in search of, springs all at once into
consciousness.
 Experiences those which are not easily
reached by our conscious thoughts as the
pre-conscious experiences.
 We are not aware of our unconscious
functions & cannot understand them at any
one time.
 Unconscious experiences cannot become
conscious but must be inferred from our
behavior.
 For example; certain things make you very
angry but you cannot understand why you
become so angry
•Heredity is considered as “the sum total of
inborn individual traits”.
•Biologically, it has been defined as “the sum
total of traits potentially present in the
fertilized ovum”.
•According to Douglas & Holland “one‟s
heredity consists of all the structures,
physical characteristics, functions or
capacities derived from parents, other
ancestry or species”.
 Heredity is the basis for the development
of human personality.
 •Many aspects of human behavior &
development ranging from physical
characteristics such as height, weight,
eye & skin color, the complex patterns of
social & intellectual behavior are
influenced by person‟s genetic
endowment.
•The environment is every thing that
affects the individual except his genes.
-(Boring, Langfieldand Weld)
•Environment covers all the outside factors
that have acted on the individual since he
began life.
-(Woodworth)
•The child inherits the traits & characteristics
of his parents & forefathers through genes at
the time of conception.
•After conception, how he develops is the
outcome of the interaction between his
heredity & environment.
•Environment covers the social, moral,
economical, political, physical & intellectual
factors which influence the development of
the individual from time to time.
1.Intercellular environment: It relates to
embryonic development.
2.Intrauterine environment: It shelters the
baby during prenatal life.
3.External environment: It divided into
three kinds:
a)Physical environment
b)Biological environment
c)Psychosocial environment
 Emotion
 a response of the whole
organism
physiological arousal
expressive behaviors
conscious experience
 Does your heart pound
because you are afraid...
or are you afraid because you
feel your heart pounding?
 Experience of emotion is awareness of
physiological responses to emotion-
arousing stimuli
Sight of Pounding Fear
oncoming heart (emotion)
car (arousal)
(perception of
stimulus)
 Pounding
heart  Emotion-arousing
(arousal)
Sight of stimuli
oncoming
car simultaneously
(perception of
stimulus) trigger:
 physiological responses
Fear  subjective experience
(emotion) of emotion
 Pounding
heart  To experience
(arousal)
Sight of Fear emotion one
oncoming
car
(emotion)
must:
(perception of  be physically
stimulus)
aroused
 cognitively
Cognitive
label
label the arousal

“I’m afraid”
 The brain’s shortcut for emotions
 Positive
valence

pleasant
relaxation joy
Low High
arousal arousal
fear
sadness anger

Negative
valence
 Autonomic nervous system controls
physiological arousal
Sympathetic Parasympathetic
division (arousing) division (calming)
Pupils dilate EYES Pupils contract
Decreases SALIVATION Increases
Perspires SKIN Dries
Increases RESPIRATION Decreases
Accelerates HEART Slows
Inhibits DIGESTION Activates
Secrete stress ADRENAL Decreases
hormones GLANDS secretion of
stress
hormones
 Performance
peaks at
lower levels
of arousal for
difficult tasks,
and at higher
levels for
easy or well-
learned tasks
 Physical responses, like finger temperature and
movement of facial muscles, change during fear, rage,
and joy.

The amygdala shows differences in activation during the emotions of

anger and rage. Activity of the left hemisphere (happy) is different from the
right (depressed) for emotions.
 What is the connection
between how we think
(cognition) and how we
feel (emotion)?

Can we change our

emotions by changing our
thinking?
An arousal response to one event spills over
into our response to the next event.

Arousal from a soccer match can fuel anger, which may lead to
rioting.
 A subliminally presented happy face can
encourage subjects to drink more than when
presented with an angry face (Berridge &
Winkeilman, 2003).

Emotions are felt directly through the amygdala (a) or through the
cortex (b) for analysis.
 When fearful eyes were subliminally presented
to subjects, fMRI scans revealed higher levels of
activity in the amygdala (Whalen et al. 2004).
 Polygraph
 machine commonly used in attempts to
detect lies
 measures several of the physiological
responses accompanying emotion
perspiration
cardiovascular
breathing changes
 Control Question
 Up to age 18, did you ever physically
harm anyone?
 Relevant Question
 Did [the deceased] threaten to harm
you in any way?
 Relevant > Control --> Lie
Respiration

Perspiration

Heart rate

Control Relevant Control Relevant

question question (a) question question (b)
 People more speedily detect an angry
face than a happy one (Ohman, 2001a)
 Gender and expressiveness
16
Number 14
of Men Women
expressions 12

10

0
Sad Happy Scary
Film Type
 Culturally universal expressions
 The
ingredients
of emotion
 Infants’ naturally occurring emotions
 The
Amygdala--a
neural key to
fear learning
 Catharsis
 emotional release
 catharsis hypothesis
“releasing” aggressive energy (through
action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
 Feel-good, do-good phenomenon
 people’s tendency to be helpful when
already in a good mood
 Subjective Well-Being
 self-perceived happiness or
satisfaction with life
 used along with measures of
objective well-being
physical and economic indicators
to evaluate people’s quality of life
 Moods across the day
 Changing materialism
  Does money buy happiness?
$20,000
Average
$19,000
per-person
$18,000
after-tax income 100%
$17,000 Percentage
in 1995 dollars 90%
$16,000 describing
$15,000 80% themselves as
$14,000 very happy
$13,000 70%
Personal income
$12,000 60%
$11,000
50%
$10,000
Percentage very happy 40%
$9,000
$8,000 30%
$7,000 20%
$6,000 10%
$5,000
$4,000 0%
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year
Researchers Have Found That However, Happiness Seems Not Much
Happy People Tend to Related to Other Factors, Such as

Have high self-esteem Age

(in individualistic countries)

Be optimistic, outgoing, and Gender (women are more often

agreeable depressed, but also more often joyful)

Education levels
Have close friendships or a
satisfying
marriage

Have work and leisure that engage Parenthood (having children or not)
their skills

Have a meaningful religious faith Physical attractiveness

Sleep well and exercise