Psychology Notes PDF

Hypothesis = Watching violence on TV is related to aggressive behaviors in 5th-grade boys. Test Hypothesis: 1) Measure variables in the hypothesis. Research method: 2) to gather measurements. Variable 1: How much violence do they watch? Variable 2: How aggressive they are. a) Gather measurements fo...

Hypothesis = Watching violence on TV is related to aggressive behaviors in 5th-grade boys. Test Hypothesis: 1) Measure variables in the hypothesis. Research method: 2) to gather measurements. Variable 1: How much violence do they watch? Variable 2: How aggressive they are. a) Gather measurements for sample (participates) —-> 5th grade boys. b) naturalistic descriptions (unobtrusive) c) survey (rely on reports from others) How much my kid watches TV weekly. Parental report Teachers report Aggressiveness rating scale. 1—--2—--3—--4—--5 Correlation: To see if variables are related to each other. Scatterplots! Positive correlation: O Parkinson's disease Serotonin —--> Mood and perspection Norepinephrine—-Emergency/ flight or fight inhibitory←—GABA Excitatory←—Gluetamte CNS + Brain+Spinal Cord PNS Nerves sending messages to / from CNS Somatic system: Sense organs—->CNS—>Muscles (Voluatory movement) Autonomic system—-> involuatory body functions Sympathic Branch—-->emergency situations Parasympathetic branch—>Returns to normal activity after the emergency is over Spinal Reflex The spinal reflex is a fast, automatic reaction that your body makes to certain stimuli without needing your brain's input first. Here's how it works in a simple way: 1. Detecting the stimulus: Let's say you touch something sharp. Special nerve cells in your skin sense pain. 2. Sending the signal: The nerves send this pain signal to your spinal cord, which is part of your nervous system. 3. Instant response: The spinal cord acts immediately. Without waiting for the brain to decide, it sends a signal straight back to the muscles in your hand. 4. Muscle reaction: Your muscles receive the signal and quickly pull your hand away from the sharp object. This quick response happens in a split second to protect you from injury, and your brain finds out after the reflex has already occurred. It’s a built-in safety system! BrainStem: The brainstem is the part of your brain that connects your brain to your spinal cord. It’s like a central hub that controls many of the basic functions your body needs to stay alive. Here’s what it does: 1. Controls automatic functions: The brainstem manages things you don’t have to think about, like breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. It keeps these vital processes running smoothly. 2. Relays signals: It acts as a bridge, sending messages between the brain and the rest of the body. This includes controlling movement and sensation. 3. Handles reflexes: Some of the reflexes, like blinking or swallowing, are controlled by the brainstem. The brainstem has three main parts: Midbrain: Helps control vision, hearing, and movement. Pons: Regulates sleep and breathing. Medulla oblongata: Manages heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion. Think of the brainstem as the control center for the basic, life-sustaining functions that keep you alive and alert. The cerebellum is a part of the brain located at the back, just below the larger part of the brain (the cerebrum). Its main job is to help with coordination, balance, and precise movements. Here’s an easy way to understand its role: 1. Movement control: The cerebellum makes sure your movements are smooth and coordinated. For example, when you pick up a glass of water, it helps your hand move in a steady way. 2. Balance: It helps you keep your balance, like when you're walking, riding a bike, or even standing still. 3. Learning motor skills: When you learn new physical activities, like playing a musical instrument or a sport, the cerebellum helps you get better at it by fine-tuning your movements. While the cerebellum doesn’t control thinking or emotions, it plays a critical role in how well you move and stay balanced. If the cerebellum is damaged, movements can become jerky, uncoordinated, or shaky. The reticular formation is a network of nerve cells and fibers located in the brainstem. It's like a control center that influences a lot of important functions, especially related to alertness and basic survival. Here's how it works: 1. Regulates alertness and sleep: The reticular formation helps you stay awake and alert. It acts like an alarm system for your brain, controlling when you feel awake or when you start to feel sleepy. It’s a big part of what helps you transition between being awake and falling asleep. 2. Controls arousal: It plays a role in keeping you aware of your surroundings and responding to stimuli, like a loud noise or sudden movement. If there's something important happening around you, the reticular formation helps your brain stay focused and ready to react. 3. Filters sensory information: Throughout the day, you're bombarded with sounds, sights, and sensations. The reticular formation filters these, allowing only the most important signals to reach your conscious brain. For example, it helps you ignore background noise while focusing on a conversation. 4. Regulates basic body functions: It also helps control things like heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure, especially during moments of stress or relaxation. In short, the reticular formation is like your brain’s internal alert system, keeping you awake, focused, and regulating key body processes to help you stay alive and responsive to your environment. ForeBrain/The emotional brain: The limbic system is a group of structures in the brain that plays a major role in controlling emotions, memory, and behavior. It’s sometimes called the “emotional brain” because it’s involved in how you feel, react, and remember. Here’s a breakdown of what the limbic system does: 1. Emotion control: The limbic system helps you experience emotions like happiness, fear, anger, and sadness. It’s what makes you feel things in response to different situations. 2. Memory formation: This system is important for creating and storing memories. It helps you remember emotional experiences, like a happy birthday party or a scary event. 3. Motivation and reward: The limbic system is linked to feelings of pleasure and reward, motivating you to seek out things that feel good, like eating or socializing, and avoid things that cause pain or discomfort.  4. Basic survival behaviors: It also controls instincts and behaviors necessary for survival, like feeding, fighting, fleeing from danger, and reproduction. Key parts of the limbic system include: Amygdala: Processes emotions, especially fear and anger. Hippocampus: Crucial for forming new memories and linking them to emotions. Hypothalamus: Regulates body functions like hunger, thirst, sleep, and temperature, and also controls hormones that influence emotions. Thalamus: Acts as a relay station, sending sensory information (like sights and sounds) to other parts of the brain. In simple terms, the limbic system is what makes you feel emotions, remember experiences, and react to the world around you. It's a critical part of your brain's emotional and memory-processing center. The cerebral cortex (sometimes just called the "cortex") is the outer layer of the brain, often referred to as "gray matter." It plays a key role in what makes us human, as it controls higher brain functions like thinking, perception, decision-making, and voluntary movements. Here's a simple breakdown: 1. Thinking and problem-solving: The cortex is responsible for complex thinking, reasoning, and decision-making. When you're solving a math problem, planning your day, or making a tough choice, your cerebral cortex is hard at work. 2. Sensation and perception: The cortex processes information from your senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell). For example, it helps you recognize a familiar face or enjoy the taste of your favorite food. 3. Voluntary movement: It controls your ability to move your body on purpose, like when you wave, walk, or pick up an object. Specific areas of the cortex are dedicated to different body parts, helping you make precise movements. 4. Language: The cortex is crucial for understanding and producing language. Certain areas, like Broca’s area (for speaking) and Wernicke’s area (for understanding language), are located here. 5. Memory and learning: The cortex helps store and retrieve memories, as well as learning new things, like a new language or skill. The cerebral cortex is divided into four main lobes, each with different functions:  Frontal lobe: Involved in decision-making, planning, and controlling voluntary movements. Parietal lobe: Processes sensory information like touch, temperature, and pain. Temporal lobe: Handles hearing, language, and memory. Occipital lobe: Primarily responsible for vision. In short, the cerebral cortex is like the brain’s command center for all the important processes that allow us to think, sense, move, and communicate. It’s essential for everything from solving problems to enjoying music! Hemisphere specialization, also known as lateralization, refers to the idea that the two halves of the brain (the left and right hemispheres) have different functions and areas of expertise. While both hemispheres work together to control most activities, they often excel in different tasks. Here’s a breakdown of how each hemisphere is specialized: Left Hemisphere Specialization: 1. Language: The left hemisphere is primarily responsible for language processing. It houses key areas like: ○ Broca’s area: Involved in speech production and language expression.  ○ Wernicke’s area: Important for understanding spoken and written language. 2. Analytical Thinking: The left hemisphere excels in logical reasoning, problem-solving, and analytical thinking. It’s often associated with: ○ Mathematics: Performing calculations and understanding numerical concepts. ○ Detailed tasks: Focusing on specifics and breaking down complex information. 3. Fine Motor Skills: It controls fine motor movements, particularly in the right side of the body (e.g., writing or using tools). 4. Sequential Processing: The left hemisphere processes information in a linear, step-by-step manner, which is useful for tasks requiring sequential reasoning. Right Hemisphere Specialization: 1. Spatial Awareness: The right hemisphere is better at visual-spatial tasks, which include: ○ Understanding maps: Navigating and perceiving spatial relationships. ○ Recognizing faces: Important for social interactions and emotional recognition. 2. Creative and Artistic Skills: This hemisphere is often linked to creativity, imagination, and artistic abilities. It helps with: ○ Music and art: Understanding rhythm, melody, and visual arts. ○ Holistic thinking: Seeing the big picture rather than focusing solely on details. 3. Emotional Processing: The right hemisphere plays a crucial role in recognizing and processing emotions, both in oneself and in others. It helps interpret non-verbal cues and body language. 4. Intuitive Thinking: It processes information in a more intuitive and holistic way, allowing for insight and creative problem-solving. Communication Between Hemispheres: Despite these specializations, the two hemispheres constantly communicate through the corpus callosum, a thick band of nerve fibers that connects them. This communication allows for integrated functioning, meaning both sides can work together when needed. Practical Implications: Understanding hemisphere specialization can help in various fields, such as education, psychology, and neuroscience: Education: Tailoring teaching methods to engage both hemispheres can enhance learning. Rehabilitation: After brain injuries or strokes, understanding which hemisphere is affected can inform targeted therapies and recovery strategies. Conclusion: While each hemisphere has its strengths, they both contribute to the full range of human abilities. Hemisphere specialization allows for efficiency in processing different types of information, enabling us to think, act, and respond to our environment in complex ways. The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for many important functions, especially related to language, logic, analytical thinking, and fine motor skills. Here’s a detailed explanation of the key parts of the left hemisphere and their functions: 1. Frontal Lobe The frontal lobe is involved in higher-level thinking, decision-making, and controlling voluntary movements. The left frontal lobe plays an essential role in:  Language production: The Broca’s area, located in the left frontal lobe, is crucial for speech production. Damage to this area can result in difficulty speaking, known as Broca's aphasia. Problem-solving and reasoning: It helps you analyze problems and think logically to solve them. Motor control: The primary motor cortex, located in the back of the frontal lobe, controls voluntary movements on the right side of the body. Executive functions: Planning, organizing, and controlling impulses are handled by this part of the brain. 2. Parietal Lobe The parietal lobe processes sensory information, particularly related to touch and spatial awareness. In the left hemisphere: Mathematical reasoning: The left parietal lobe is key for understanding math, numbers, and calculations. Language comprehension: It helps in understanding written language, including reading and spelling. Sensory processing: The primary somatosensory cortex, located here, processes touch sensations from the right side of the body, including temperature, pain, and pressure. Right-left coordination: It helps in distinguishing between the right and left sides of objects or body parts, important for tasks like writing or using tools. 3. Temporal Lobe: The temporal lobe is involved in processing sound, language, and memory. The left temporal lobe has specific roles: Language understanding: The Wernicke’s area, located in the left temporal lobe, is critical for understanding spoken and written language. Damage here causes Wernicke’s aphasia, where speech sounds fluent but doesn't make sense. Auditory processing: It helps interpret sounds, especially speech and language from others. Memory formation: The left side of the hippocampus, located within the temporal lobe, helps in forming verbal memories (like remembering what someone said). 4. Occipital Lobe The occipital lobe is primarily responsible for vision. Though the occipital lobe is located at the back of the brain, its left hemisphere controls vision from the right visual field: Visual processing: It helps interpret images from the right half of your field of view. Visual recognition: It plays a role in recognizing letters and words, important for reading and writing. 5. Cerebellum (Left Hemisphere) Although most people associate the cerebellum with balance and coordination, the left cerebellar hemisphere plays a role in controlling movement on the right side of the body: Fine motor control: It helps with precise movements, such as writing, typing, or playing an instrument. Coordination and balance: It works alongside the frontal lobe to help keep your movements smooth and coordinated. 6. Corpus Callosum (Connecting Both Hemispheres) While the corpus callosum isn't strictly in the left hemisphere, it’s a bridge that connects both the left and right hemispheres, allowing them to share information. This structure is crucial because it lets the left hemisphere’s functions (like language and logic) work with the right hemisphere’s functions (like creativity and spatial skills). 7. Basal Ganglia The basal ganglia are a group of structures deep within the brain, responsible for motor control, movement coordination, and procedural learning. In the left hemisphere, they help: Initiate and control movements on the right side of the body. Inhibit unnecessary movements, ensuring smooth, purposeful motion. 8. Thalamus The thalamus acts as a relay station, sending sensory information from the body to the correct areas of the brain. In the left hemisphere:  It helps relay sensory input related to the right side of the body to the correct processing centers, like the somatosensory cortex. It’s involved in processing verbal information. 9. Hypothalamus The hypothalamus regulates many essential body functions, like temperature, hunger, thirst, and sleep. While it’s part of both hemispheres, the left hypothalamus interacts more with the left hemisphere’s language and analytical centers, influencing behavior and reactions related to logical thinking and communication. 10. Limbic System (Left Hemisphere) The limbic system includes parts like the amygdala and hippocampus, which are involved in emotions and memory. In the left hemisphere: Amygdala: The left amygdala is more involved in processing positive emotions and emotional aspects of language. Hippocampus: The left hippocampus helps with forming and recalling verbal memories and logical connections. Summary of Functions in the Left Hemisphere: Language: Speech production (Broca’s area) and understanding (Wernicke’s area). Logic: Problem-solving, reasoning, and math. Right-side movement and sensation: Motor and sensory control for the right side of the body. Verbal memory: Remembering spoken and written words. Reading and writing: Processing written language, grammar, and spelling. The left hemisphere is often called the "logical" or "analytical" side of the brain because of its critical role in language, reasoning, and detail-oriented tasks. The somatosensory cortex is a part of the brain responsible for processing sensory information from the body, particularly related to touch, temperature, pain, and body position (proprioception). It helps you feel and understand sensations from different parts of your body. Here’s how it works: Location:  The somatosensory cortex is located in the parietal lobe of the brain, just behind the central sulcus, which separates it from the motor cortex. This region is often called the postcentral gyrus. Function: The somatosensory cortex receives signals from the body’s skin, muscles, and joints and processes these sensations, allowing you to: 1. Feel touch: Whether you're holding an object, feeling a surface, or touching your skin, the somatosensory cortex interprets these signals. 2. Detect pain: If you injure yourself, like stubbing your toe, the pain signals are processed here. 3. Sense temperature: It helps you recognize if something is hot or cold when you touch it. 4. Recognize body position: Known as proprioception, the somatosensory cortex lets you know where your body parts are in space, even if you're not looking at them (for example, knowing your hand is above your head without seeing it). Somatotopic Organization: The somatosensory cortex is organized in a way that corresponds to different body parts. This is represented by the sensory homunculus, a map-like figure that shows how different areas of the cortex are devoted to specific parts of the body. ○ Larger areas of the somatosensory cortex are dedicated to parts of the body with more sensory nerves, like the hands, face, and lips, which need fine-tuned sensation. ○ Smaller areas correspond to less sensitive body parts, like the back or legs. Left and Right Sides: The left somatosensory cortex processes sensory information from the right side of the body, and the right somatosensory cortex processes information from the left side. So, if you touch something with your right hand, the left somatosensory cortex processes that touch. Importance: The somatosensory cortex helps you interact with the world by allowing you to feel and respond to your environment. For example, it helps you: Feel the texture of an object when you touch it. Know when something is too hot or cold to hold. Coordinate movements by understanding where your limbs are without having to look. In summary, the somatosensory cortex is a critical brain region that enables you to sense and interpret physical sensations from all over your body, playing a vital role in touch perception, pain recognition, and bodily awareness. The motor cortex is the part of the brain that controls voluntary movements, meaning the movements you decide to make, like walking, talking, or picking something up. It sends signals to your muscles, telling them how and when to move. Location: The motor cortex is located in the frontal lobe of the brain, just in front of the central sulcus, separating it from the somatosensory cortex. This area is also called the precentral gyrus. Function: The motor cortex is responsible for: 1. Controlling voluntary movements: It sends instructions to different muscles in your body to make coordinated, intentional movements like lifting your arm or moving your legs. 2. Planning movements: Parts of the motor cortex are involved in planning movements before they happen, such as deciding the order in which muscles should move. 3. Coordinating fine motor skills: The motor cortex is especially important for precise, detailed movements like typing on a keyboard or playing a musical instrument.