PSY101 Workbook

Module C

The biological basis to behaviour
(Week 4)
 
   
Task 1: Basics Task 3: Making a brain
Task 2: Phineas Gage Task 4: Doing the essay
 
 

Task 1: Basics

To many of you the reading and associated study you will be undertaking this week we still appear to be involved in orienting material. To a certain extent that is true - where is the psychology? Nevertheless an overview of the anatomy, physiology and biology of the living organism and their related functions and processes is a very important background to our study and it is correct that we emphasise that here and that we require that a reasonable level of knowledge be in place. Some people would argue that is really all that psychology should be doing - that is locating brain processes that drive consciousness and behaviour.

At one level this is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of psychology because it is here that information is accumulating that addresses the interface between the body and the mind. How is it that the structure (bones, blood, muscles, neural apparatus, musculature) with all its associated plumbing, gurgling, waste disposal, replacement, storage etc. link to conscious experience (language, memory, ideals etc. etc)? This body/mind issue provides a continuous source of awe to the many that think about it. As Lyall Watson has said "If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't".

An equally fascinating aspect of our being is the interface between the individual organism and the environment that surrounds us all. How accurately do we know the world outside? How does information out there get in here? Many of the facts of existence we take pretty much for granted on a day-to-day basis are exceedingly complex. And it is some of these we touch in the second week of this module.

So in a very real sense this section of our study is an initial scrutiny of at the mechanisms that underlie the complexity of human behaviour. Although we can only locate a few landmarks in a very complex and developed area in the time at our disposal we can set out to establish a useful vocabulary and set of concepts that will enable you to make sense of material further into your course of study. It should be feasible to expect you to be as precise as you can with psycho-biological terminology both in your reading and writing.

One last point - setting (at this stage) a focus on genetic replication, neural and physical structure and related issues enables us to gain some insights into the significant part they play in a myriad of psychological issues. A clinical psychologist encountering chronic depression (for example) in a client would be very unwise not to consider at some point in her examination that there might be a physiological component and seek to establish to what extent (if any) this might play in the presenting condition. Broca located a neurophysiological basis to aphasias. Neuro-chemistry may underlie schizophrenia. Sperry located many subtle effects following destruction of the corpus callosum. The accuracy of our insights into and knowledge of the structure of the organism, together with that of their related processes and functions, enables us to comment more usefully on what humans do. If we are wrong in our understanding of underpinning essentials that we are most likely to fall into error with higher order elaborations. The biology is thus a background that needs to be considered as we proceed further in our study.
 

Now read Chapter 3 in Weiten and use your study guide to reinforce your understanding of facts and processes.
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Task 2: Phineas Gage

For interest only
 
 

In 1848, Phineas Gage worked for a railroad company. One day he and his crew were placing explosives in a rocky region, and Gage was using an iron bar to tamp the explosives into place. Suddenly the gunpowder exploded, hurling the four-foot-long, fourteen-pound bar upward. The bar entered Gage's head over his left eye, passing through his frontal lobe; the entire bar exited by making a hole through the top of his head and extirpating the entire anterior portion of his frontal lobe.  

Phineas Gage fell down.  

But, amazingly, he stood up. A bit stunned, but otherwise unharmed, Gage went to his room to rest a while. And the next morning, to everyone's surprise, he woke up.  

In the years following the accident, Gage drifted from Chile to the American west coast, and for a time he joined the side show of the Barnum Circus. Medically he seemed quite healthy. Furthermore, he had not lost any intellectual or physical abilities. But still, Phineas was different now. No longer outgoing and friendly, he became unpleasant and short-tempered. Harlow (1869) described him as follows:  
 

    He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference to his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times perniciously obstinate yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans for future operation which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. (pp.13-14) 
Gage lived for 13 years until he died in a fit of convulsions. His skull and the tamping iron are on permanent exhibit at the Watten Museum at Harvard Medical School. 
 
 
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Task 3: Making a brain

Daniels (1975) has developed a technique to motivate students to learn about brain structures and organisation. He suggests having students "build" a brain from clay. Students locate a set of adhesive mailing labels. Make labels for areas now listed below.

Locate 1.5lb of clay or plasticine and brain diagrams similar to Figures 3.16 and 3.20 in the textbook (although the figures should be modified to be on the same scale). Students should construct the cerebral cortex first, attaching a cerebellum and creating fissures and convolutions with a pencil or pen. After the cortex is completed, they can turn the brain over to the flattened side and complete the cross-sectioned structures within the brain (for example, corpus callosum, thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala and pituitary). These structures could be made from leftover clay or simply etched on the flat surface with the pen or pencil. After completing a brain, students can attach the labels for the various structures and areas. Daniels recommends that students wrap their brains in plastic and keep the creations as a permanent reminder of the brain and its components. The clay will dry in a day or so.

Daniels reported that "more than 90% of the students who made a clay brain indicated that it was 'very helpful' or 'helpful' and virtually 100% recommend that it be used the next semester" (p.175). Davis, Wann, Richard and Kixmiller (1987) have also reported using this activity successfully in a laboratory section for Introductory Psychology.
 

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Task 4: Doing the essay

Doing the essay.

For assistance in writing up your assignment consult the Study skills program content page on the Division of Student Services page. Remember though for references Psychology use the American Psychological Society method shown in O'Shea.
 

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