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Daryl Bambic

11.4 Two Fundamental Human Motivations: Eating and Mating | Introduction to Psychology ... - 1 views

  • orexin, ghrelin, and leptin
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      This is the key idea behind the KETO diet; eat very little sugar and carbs so the insulin levels drop and the body burns fat for energy.
  • interaction of the various systems that determine hunger creates a balance or homeostasis in which we eat when we are hungry and stop eating when we feel full.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Remember this is the DRIVE REDUCTION theory.
  • Western societies are based on a very thin body ideal,
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Meanwhile, in most African countries, women with larger bodies are desired and the thinner ones are seen as unhealthy.
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  • Obesity is a leading cause of death worldwide.
  • Exercise increases cardiovascular capacity, lowers blood pressure, and helps improve diabetes, joint flexibility, and muscle strength (American Heart Association, 1998). Exercise also slows the cognitive impairments that are associated with aging (Kramer, Erickson, & Colcombe, 2006).
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      The book does not mention the important benefits of exercise for the brain at all ages,not just as we age.
  • Between 3% and 4% of men are gay, and between 1% and 2% of women are lesbian
  • The Canadian Psychological Association issued a policy statement in February 1982 endorsing the principle that there be no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for (a) recruitment; (b) hiring; (c) salary; (d) promotion rate; (e) fringe benefits; or (f) assignment of duties. The American Psychiatric Association no longer considers homosexuality to be a mental illness, although it did so until 1973.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      This is a good example of sociological influences on the diagnosis and understanding of mental illness. This 'mental illness' was ousted from the DSM in 1973. You can read more here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4695779/
  • Areas of the hypothalamus are different in homosexual men, as well as in animals with homosexual tendencies
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      It's the hypothalamus again!
  • Among male identical twins, 52% of those with a gay brother also reported homosexuality, whereas the rate in fraternal twins was just 22%
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      This is an important fact that supports the role of biology in homosexuality.
  • In sum, while less than half of Canadian teens report having intercourse before age 18,
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      This has changed - 55% of males and females have had sex by 18 yrs old. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2017/201706_NSFG.htm
  • Healthy Lives
  •  
    "sex"
Daryl Bambic

Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures | BioScience | Oxford Academic - 1 views

  • because emotions have evolved in specific contexts.
  • Categorically denying emotions to animals because they cannot be studied directly does not constitute a reasonable argument against their existence.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      To deny that something is real without first investigating its existence is not good science.
  • Field research
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      meaning in nature and not in a lab
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  • phenotypes
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      This means a type of behaviour related to a species, like mating behaviour for example.
  • My goal is to convince skeptics that a combination of “hard” and “soft” interdisciplinary research is necessary to advance the study of animal emotions.
  • broadly defined as psychological phenomena that help in behavioral management and control
  • Likewise, no single theory of emotions captures the complexity of the phenomena called emotions
  • It is important to extend our research beyond the underlying physiological mechanisms that mask the richness of the emotional lives of many animals and learn more about how emotions serve them as they go about their daily activities
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Ignore the previous sentence because this one explains it: the study of emotions needs to focus more on how they help us in life and less on the biology of them.
  • emotions are real and that they are extremely important,
  • René Descartes
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      The philosopher who said, "I think therefore I am". He divided humans into mind/body.
  • B. F. Skinner
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Skinner was a pioneer in behaviour conditioning. He taught that emotions, because we can't measure them, are not important to understanding behaviour.
  • Why then are there competing views on the nature of animal emotions? In part, this is because some people view humans as unique animals, created in the image of God
  • researchers studying animal behavior came to realize that there was too little in studies of animal emotions and minds that was directly observable, measurable, and verifiable, and chose instead to concentrate on behavior because overt actions could be seen, measured objectively, and verified
  • Most researchers now believe that emotions are not simply the result of some bodily state that leads to an action
  • William James and Carl Lange
  • James and Lange argued that fear, for example, results from an awareness of the bodily changes (heart rate, temperature) that were stimulated by a fearful stimulus.
  • Walter Cannon's criticisms
  • there is a mental component that does not have to follow a bodily reaction
  • drugs producing bodily changes like those accompanying an emotional experience
  • do not produce the same type of conscious experience of fear
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      The textbook spoke of this.
  • Primary emotions, considered to be basic inborn emotions
  • Natural selection has resulted in innate reactions that are crucial to individual survival.
  • are wired into the evolutionary old limbic system (especially the amygdala), the “emotional” part of the brain
  • substrate
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Substitue 'circuit' for this word
  • . Each is connected to the other two but each also has its own capacities
  • current research (LeDoux 1996) indicates that all emotions are not necessarily packaged into a single system, and there may be more than one emotional system in the brain.
  • Secondary emotions are those that are experienced or felt, evaluated, and reflected on. Secondary emotions involve higher brain centers in the cerebral cortex.
  • ethologists
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Ethology is the study of animal behaviour and mind
  • cognitive ethologists want to know what it is like to be another animal.
  • concerns how emotions and cognition are linked
  • A sense of self in the act of knowing is created,
  • various brain structures map both the organism and external objects
  • I am inclined merely to delete it [the mental realm] from biological explanation, because it is an entirely private phenomenon, and biology must deal with the publicly demonstrable.”
  • abanac postulated that the first mental event to emerge into consciousness was the ability of an individual to experience the sensations of pleasure and displeasure
  • Examples of animal emotions
  • Social play
  • Studies of the chemistry of play support the idea that play is enjoyable.
  • dopamine (and perhaps serotonin and norepinephrine)
  • rats enjoy being playfully tickled.
  • grief in geese
  • grief and depression in orphan elephants is a real phenomeno
  • It is unlikely that romantic love (or any emotion) first appeared in humans with no evolutionary precursors in animals
  • common brain systems and homologous chemicals underlying love that are shared among humans and animals
  • No one discipline will be able to answer all of the important questions that still need to be dealt with in the study of animal emotions
  • However, research that reduces and minimizes animal behavior and animal emotions to neural firings, muscle movements, and hormonal effects will not likely lead us significantly closer to an understanding of animal emotions.
  • All research involves leaps of faith from available data to the conclusions
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      What do you think about this sentence?
  • studies of the behavior of captive animals
  • Field work also can be problematic. It can be too uncontrolled to allow for reliable conclusions to be drawn.
  • behavior is primary; neural systems subserve behavior
  • Emotions are an integral part of human life, so why not for other animals?
  • in many instances, differences in degree rather than differences in kind.
Daryl Bambic

Kids Do Better on the Marshmallow Test When They… - 8 views

  • better academically, handled frustration better, and managed their stress more effectively as adolescents. They also had healthier relationships and better health 30 years later.
  • reliability of the adults
  • suggesting that children can delay gratification longer when they are working together toward a common goal.
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  • 207 five- to six-year-old children from two very different cultures—Western, industrialized Germany and a small-scale farming community in Kenya (the Kikuyu)
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Why do you think the different cultures are important in the population sample?
  • (who was in another room)
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Why do you think the other child was put in a different room? Do you think that the results would have been the same if the children were in the same room?
  • and, in the cooperative version, their partner also didn’t receive an extra cookie—even if the partner had resisted themselves.
  • even though they had a lower chance of receiving an extra cookie.
  • knowing others rely on them boosts their motivation
  • fun and engaging
  • opportunity to help someone else motivated kids to hold out
  • feeling responsible
  • mattered most.
  • Cooperation is not just about material benefits; it has social value,
Daryl Bambic

1.1 Psychology as a Science | Introduction to Psychology - 1st Canadian Edition - 1 views

  • Because values cannot be considered to be either true or false, science cannot prove or disprove them.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Falsifiability + Popper
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      See Popper and why it is important to be able to prove something false.
  • This factual information can and should be made available to help people formulate their values about abortion and incarceration, as well as to enable governments to articulate appropriate policies
  • Although scientists use research to help establish facts, the distinction between values and facts is not always clear-cut. Sometimes statements that scientists consider to be factual turn out later, on the basis of further research, to be partially or even entirely incorrect
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  • A major goal of psychology is to predict behaviour by understanding its causes. Making predictions is difficult, in part because people vary and respond differently in different situations.
  • differences in extraversion, intelligence, self-esteem, anxiety, aggression, and conformity.
  • we cannot always predict who will become aggressive or who will perform best in graduate school or on the job.
  • predictions made by psychologists (and most other scientists) are only probabilistic.
  • behaviour is that almost all behaviour is multiply determined, or produced by many factors.
  • depression is caused by lower-level genetic factors, by medium-level personal factors, and by higher-level social and cultural factors.
  • single cause.
  • are not independent of one another
  • much human behaviour is caused by factors that are outside our conscious awareness,
  • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who argued that many psychological disorders were caused by memories that we have repressed and thus remain outside our consciousness.
  • Research demonstrates that individuals who are exposed to highly stressful situations over long periods of time develop more health problems than those who are not
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      "Research demonstrates"...what is wrong with this? Can we know how this study was conducted? What were the variables? Was it correlation or causation?
  • Although science is not perfect, the requirements of empiricism and objectivity result in a much greater chance of producing an accurate understanding of human behaviour than is available through other approaches.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Great psychologists have not used the scientific method and contributed important insights into human behaviour. What role does the unconscious mind play in behaviour?
  • biological influences
  • abilities and characteristics of individual people
  • social groups,
  • cognitive and motivational biases
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Leave a sticky note for yourself or others with whom you share this page.
  • Research psychologists use scientific methods to create new knowledge about the causes of behaviour, whereas psychologist-practitioners, such as clinical, counselling, industrial-organizational, and school psychologists, use existing research to enhance the everyday life of others.
  • collect and interpret data in their everyday lives
  • accepting explanations for events without testing them thoroughly may lead us to think that we know the causes of things when we really do not.
  • Empirical methods include the processes of collecting and organizing data and drawing conclusions about those data
  • scientific method as the set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to conduct empirical research.
  • Statements that cannot be objectively measured or objectively determined to be true or false are not within the domain of scientific inquiry
  • Values are personal statements such as “Abortion should not be permitted in this country,” “I will go to heaven when I die,”
Daryl Bambic

This Is Your Brain on Metaphors - The New York Times - 1 views

  • viscera and emotion often drive our decisionmaking, with conscious cognition mopping up afterward, trying to come up with rationalizations for that gut decision.
  • Get someone to the point where his insula activates at the mention of an entire people, and he’s primed to join the bloodletting.
  • brain confusing reality and literalness with metaphor and symbol can have adverse consequences, the opposite can occur as well.
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  • This neural confusion about the literal versus the metaphorical gives symbols enormous power, including the power to make peace.
  • “mutual symbolic concessions” of no material benefit will ultimately make all the difference.
  • but when black South Africa embraced rugby and Afrikaans rugby jocks sang the A.N.C. national anthem.
  • He meant talk to their insulas and cingulate cortices and all those other confused brain regions, because that confusion could help make for a better world.
Daryl Bambic

Embracing stress is more important than reducing stress, Stanford psychologist says - 0 views

  • Psychologists have found that the ability to embrace stress requires a high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. You have to be able to understand that two seemingly opposite things can be true at the same time.
  • People who had experienced the highest number of stressful life events in the past were most likely to consider their lives meaningful.
  • basic biology of the stress response
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  • Stress leaves an imprint on your brain that prepares you to handle similar stress the next time you encounter it.
  • stress inoculation
  • Going through the experience gives your brain and body a stress vaccine.
  • how you think about stress matters is because it changes how you respond to stress.
Daryl Bambic

Take The ACE Quiz - And Learn What It Does And Doesn't Mean : Shots - Health News : NPR - 0 views

  • Remember this, too: ACE scores don't tally the positive experiences in early life that can help build resilience and protect a child from the effects of trauma. Having a grandparent who loves you, a teacher who understands and believes in you, or a trusted friend you can confide in may mitigate the long-term effects of early trauma, psychologists say
  • Resilience, he says, builds throughout life, and close relationships are key
  • nightmares
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  • recurring thoughts
  • re-enact the trauma
  • distracted or withdrawn.
  • ometimes misdiagnosed as symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
  • difficulty in regulating emotions and behavior,"
  • secure attachments with caring adults.
Daryl Bambic

The teenage brain | Science News for Students - 1 views

  • dopamine.
  • Dopamine levels in general peak during adolescence.
  • increased activity in the ventral striatum
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  • prefrontal cortex’s ability to boss the brain increases with age.
  • reward system can outmuscle the master planner.
  • adolescent brain specifically evolved to respond to rewards so teens would leave behind the protection provided by their parents and start exploring their environment — a necessary step toward the independence they will need in adulthood.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Evolutionary reward...the teen phase of development is what has pushed us forward with the new discoveries
  • So that’s why you have parents to act as your prefrontal cortex,” Frank jokes. Then, all too often, he says, “you reach adolescence and you don’t listen to your parents anymore.”
  • brain acts as the sculptor and chops away excess synapses. Scientists refer to this process as synaptic pruning.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Great image of pruning as sculpting
  • If you have ever thought that the choices teenagers make are all about exploring and pushing limits, you are on to something
  • necessary phase in teen development
  • exploratory period.
  • Even laboratory mice experience a similar phase during their development.
  • Young mice that explore most tend to live longest
  • magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. The scanner relies on a powerful magnet and radio waves to create detailed images of the brains
  • Teens also can play games that require them to make choices,
  • observing and measuring which parts of the teens’ brains are most active
  • During the risk-taking and rewards-based tests, one region deep inside the brain shows more activity in adolescents than it does in children or adults, Crone says. This region, known as the ventral striatum, is often referred to as the “reward center”
  • Adolescents are particularly sensitive and responsive to influence by friends, desires and emotions, researchers say. It’s one of the hallmarks of this stage in life.
  • eel good” response helps explain why they often give in to impulsive desires.
  • to be shouting louder” between the ages of 13 and 17 than at any other time during human development.
  • prefrontal cortex, it’s the brain’s master planner.
  • brain is locked in a tug-of-war between the logical pull of the prefrontal cortex and the impulsive pull of the ventral striatum.
  • toward years of serious risk-taking
  • prefrontal cortex seems to lag in developing. It turns out this delay serves an important evolutionary function,
  • So it’s important that the master planner not be too rigid or restrictive during adolescence. Instead, it stays open to learning.
  • One of the processes involves axons, or fibers that connect nerve cells. From infancy, these fibers allow one nerve cell to talk to another. Throughout the teen years, fatty tissue starts to insulate the axons from interfering signals — it is a bit like the plastic that coats electrical cables.
  • In axons, the insulating tissue allows information to zip back and forth between brain cells much more quickly. It also helps build networks that link the prefrontal cortex with other brain regions, allowing them to work together more efficiently.
  • The second key process involves synapses. A synapse is like a dock between nerve cells. Nerve cells communicate by transmitting chemical and electrical signals. Those signals move through the synapses.
  • brain starts discarding many of these connections
  • So the brain strengthens the synapses it really needs and eliminates those that either slow things down or aren’t useful.
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