Psychology of almost everything

Parts of the nervous system

• Nervous system

• Central nervous system

• Peripheral nervous system

• Brain

• Spinal cord

What are sulci and gyri

• The sulci are the grooves of the brain

• The gyri are the humps of the brain

• Longitudinal fissure, central sulcus, lateral fissure

Parts of the brain

• Cerebral cortex

• Frontal lobe

• Temporal lobe

• Parietal lobe

• Occipital lobe

• Cerebellum

• Brain stem

What was found about split brain patients

• Visual input from one side is processed in the other sides hemisphere (left visual information, right hemisphere)

• The left hemisphere can do verbal processing so words flashed to the right side of the view can say what they see

• The right hemisphere means they can draw what they see but not say it

Parts of the neurone

• Dendrites

• Terminal bulb

• Cell body

• Axon

Potentials of a neurone

• Resting potential -70mv

• Action potential 40mv

• Hyperpolarisation -75mv

What is the all or none law

• An action potential occurs or doesn’t

What is rate law

• The strength of a stimulus is represented by the firing rate of an axon

What is depolarisation

• Activation opens membrane channels

• Sodium is moved in - depolarisation

What is action potential

• Membrane potential is rapidly reversed and becomes strongly positive compared to the outside

• Action potential converted into chemical signals

What is Hyperpolarisation

• Potassium flows out of the cell and the membrane potential briefly drops, eventually sodium flows out of cell and potassium is recovered

What is the absolute refractory period

• After AP occurred, no further APs can be triggered for a short time

• AP travels in only on direction

• Limit to possible APs 300/s

What did paul broca 1861 find

• Patient tan

• Left frontal lobe, lateral sulcus

• Able to understand spoken language

• But difficult or impossibilities formulating speech

• Broca aphasia

What did Carl wernicke 1874 find

• Wernicke aphasia

• Left posterior, superior temporal gyrus

• language comprehension impaired - meaningless speech

• Speech retains a natural sounding rhythm and a relatively normal syntax

What are lesion studies

• To draw conclusions about normal, intact cognitive processes from the patterns of impaired and intact capabilities seen in brain injured patients

• Ellis and Young 1988

What is a double dissociation

• When there are issues with the broca area and wernicke area

• Causing impaired language production and impaired comprehension

Orientations/directions of the brain

• Anterior (rostral) - front towards the nose

• Posterior (caudal) - back towards the tail

• Dorsal - towards the back

• Ventral - towards the stomach

• Medial - towards the middle

• Lateral - towards the side

• Superior - above/towards the top

• Inferior - below/towards the bottom

What is atypical development

• An enduring pattern of behaviour that is unusual compared to the behaviour of others of the child’s age, and that if interferes with the child’s development in some significant way - Bee & Boyd 2007

• No simple way to define atypical behaviour

• Norms help to distinguish typical and atypical

• Atypical: violation of norms

Mental illness prevalence

• 10% of children & adolescents experience a mental disorder worldwide but the majority don’t seek help or receive care

• Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15-19 year olds

• Many psychological disorders continue into adulthood

What is a risk

• Child characteristics or experiences that increase the likelihood of negative development outcomes

• Some children are more at risk

• Acute and chronic risk factors

Examples of risk factors

• Biological - genetic vulnerabilities, low birth weight, prenatal stress, prenatal exposure to toxins, parental psychopathology

• Psychological - temperament difficulties, poor emotional regulation

• Social/environmental - family conflict, neglect, low social support, socioeconomic disadvantage, poverty, homelessness, community disaster

What is resilience

• Protective factors that help children adapt positively despite risk

• Used to describe children who - avoid negative outcomes despite being at risk, display sustained competence under stress, show recovery from trauma

Examples of resilience factors

• Individual - emotional competence, self regulation, cognitive abilities, easy temperament, high intelligence and scholastic competence, effective communication skills, positive self esteem and emotions, high self efficacy

• Family - warm, consistent parenting, secure attachment, parental support

• Social/community - positive peer relationships, school support, extracurricular engagement, religion

• Masten & Coatsworth 1998 - protective triad - individual, family, extrafamilial context

Benefits of identifying risk and resilience factors

• Early identification of risk and promotion of resilience can improve developmental outcomes

• Interventions can target emotional skills, parenting practices, and social support to decrease risk of negative outcomes and atypical development

Gender differences of development

• Developmental disorders more common on boys - minus depression

• Girls protected from inherited disorder

• Hormonal differences

• Different treatment by parents

What are the three types of atypical development

• Attentional problems - ADHD

• Externalising problems - conduct disorder

• Internalising problems - depression, anxiety, ED

(Also extreme IQ, falling behind in school, social impairments)

Diagnosis of ADHD

• Attentional deficit hyperactivity disorder

• Inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity

• Sections for attention and hyperactivity/impulsivity:

  • must be evident for at least six of five symptoms in either the inattention section or in the hyperactivity/impulsivity section

• Difficult to measure prevalence

• Estimate of 2-7% of children diagnosed worldwide

• Boys more vulnerable

• ADHD children are no different to typical children on a number of attention tasks - Lawrence 2004

Evidence for biological origin of ADHD

• Successful treatment with methylphenidate

• Parents with hyperactivity + twin studies - Thapar 2003

• Brain structure and function is different - Kagan & Herschkowitz 2005

Diagnosis of externalising problems/conduct disorder

• a pattern of behaviour that includes high levels of aggression, argumentativeness, bullying, disobedience, irritability and threatening and loud behaviour

• Aggression against people and animals

• Destruction of property

• Theft or other violations of trust

• Breaking major rules

What are the two types of externalising problems

• Found by Hinshaw et al 1993

• Childhood onset conduct disorders - severe aggression, more risk factors and vulnerability - Kochman 2005, behaviour can worsen

• Adolescent onset conduct disorder - behaviour milder, hanging with bad company

Consequences of internalising problems

• Interference with learning - Calhoun & Dickerson Mayes 2005

• Drug use - Rey, Sawyer, Raphael, Patton & Lynsey 2002

• Suicide - Fenning et al 2005

Causes for internalising problems/depression

• Depressed parents - Marikangas & Angst 1995

• Genetic factor or parent child interaction

• Child depression a function of number of stresses

• Any combination of stresses increases likelihood of depression in children - Chang 2001

What are the stages of physical development

• Fertilisation of a female egg, genetic makeup is determined

• 1 month after conception - major organs begin to develop

  • around 25 days - beginning of a nervous system

• At birth - brain reached 25% of adult weight

  • the brain mature and adapts, density of neural networks increase rapidly

• 6 months - brain reaches 50% of adult weight

• 5 years - brain reaches 90% of adult weight

  • neurons become better insulated, synapses form, association areas of the cortex mature and hemispheres become specialised

What are Piagets stages of development

• Sensorimotor

• Preoperational

• Concrete

• Formal operational

What is the sensorimotor stage

• Birth to 2 years

• Understands world through sensory and motor experience

• Exhibits emergence of symbolic thought - starts acquiring language words to represent object

• Object permanence

What is the preoperational stage

• 2-7 years

• Language develops - uses symbolic thinking in the form of words and images to represent objects and experiences

• Centration - focusing on the situation - conservation impaired

• Egocentrism - children believe people perceive things the same way they do

What is the concrete operational stage

• 7-12 years

• Thinks logically about concrete events

• Grasps concepts of conversation and serial ordering

What is the formal operational stage

• 12+ years

• Thinks more logically, abstractly, and flexible

• Can form hypotheses and systematically test then

Evaluation of piagets model

• Order of general cognitive ability development observed around the world

• Children acquire some cognitive skills at an earlier stage

• Cognitive development within each stage seems to proceed inconsistently

• Cultural influence

• Cognitive development is more complex and variable

What is the theory of mind (TOM)

• Interpreting other people’s behaviours in terms of: beliefs, desires, intentions, imagination, emotions, perspective taking

• Ability for empathy and understand if others

• Developed around the age of 3-4 years

• Premack & Woodruff 1978

What influences TOM

• Understanding eye gaze and joint attention

  • humans rely on eye direction rather than head direction - Tomasello et al 2007

• Recognising themselves in the mirror

  • Self awareness - Amsterdam 1972

• Use mental state verbs

• Acts of altruism

• Desires are easier to represent than beliefs

What is the function of TOM

• One of the major milestones in our evolution

• Innate module for he mind evolved to understand other people - Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith 1985

• Social groups

  • cooperation

  • empathy

  • prevent being taken advantage of

What are modules

• Modules are evolved components of the mind that have specific functions

• If something is a module it can be impaired leaving other functions intact

What is the sally anne task

• False belief test - Wimmer & Perner 1983

• Infants must understand that another’s beliefs can be different from their own - and can be incorrect

• At 3 children find it hard to understand a belief is false

• By 4 years old children can pass the test

  • understand perceptual contact importance

Evaluation of the false belief task

• Is it too difficult

  • attentional demands

  • multiple participants in the scenario

• TOM is more than false belief

  • 2 year olds more likely to point to a toy they cannot reach for an adult who wasn’t present when the toy was placed on the shelf - O’Neill 1996

  • Children under 4 show many examples of understand others minds

What is autism described as

• Characterised by persistent deficits in the ability to initiate and to sustain reciprocal social interaction and social communication and by a range of restricted, repetitive and inflexible patterns of behaviour, interests or activities that are clearly atypical or excessive for the individuals age and sociocultural context - ICD11

What is the prevalence of autism

• 1.1% in the UK, 1.85% in the US

• 1/160 children worldwide - 0.63%

• 4:1 male to female ratio

• Women less likely to be diagnosed than males - Dworzynski et al 2012

• There may be under or mis diagnosis of females, particularly those with higher IQs

Can those with autism pass the false belief test

• Many autistic children cannot

• Autism and TOM capabilities are very closely associated

  • accounts well for social interaction and some social communication

• Does not explain all autism signs/symptoms and some children with autism have developed a TOM

What word does hormones come from

• Greek word hormon

• Which means to excite

What is a hormone

• Chemicals which are stored and secreted by specialised glands in the body named endocrine glands

• Travel through the bloodstream to their target region where they exert an effect

• Act on the brain and the body very early development and during puberty to shape physiology and behaviour

• As adults they continue to influence physiology and behaviour

What are the main endocrine glands

• Pineal

• Pituitary

• Thyroid

• Parathyroids

• Adrenal

What did Berthold 1849 find

• First endocrinological experiment

• Castrated young roosters noted changes in behaviour and physiology

• When testes were reimplanted the birds regained their normal behaviour and physiological development

Which two key structures control hormone release

• Hypothalamus activated

• Pituitary gland activated

What is the hypothalamus

• Part of the diencephalon belonging to the forebrain

• Nuclei synthesise releasing hormones that either stimulate or inhibit the release of hormones from the pituitary

What is the pituitary gland

• The master gland

• Produces at least 10 hormones which influence other endocrine glands

• 2 regions: anterior, posterior

What happens when there is a stimulus from sensory neurones

• Sensory information from parts of the body travel to hypothalamus

• Triggers secretion of hormones

• Duration of 2-3 seconds

What happens in the process of feedback

• Hypothalamus monitors hormone levels in the blood

• Inhibits or secreted hormones as appropriate

What is testosterone

• An androgen which is a class of hormones produced primarily in males

• Regulate male sexual development and function

• Sculpts the male genitals prenatally and maintains male secondary sexual characteristics

• Promotes courtship, dominance and sexual behaviour

Name 2 other androgens

• Dihydrotestosterone

• Androstenedione

Research evidence for testosterone

• Decreasing testosterone levels results in a decline in sexual interest and fantasy, and intercourse frequently in young males - Bagatell et al 1994

• Injections of androgens significantly increase all aspects of sexual activity - Davidson et al 1982

• Sexual activity increases levels of circulating testosterone - Hellhammer et al 1985

• Positive association between testosterone levels in 18 year olds and number of sexual partners - Stulhofer et al 2019

What did Hirschenhauser et al 2002 find about testosterone

• They found a relationship between high morning testosterone levels and sexual activity that night

• Testosterone levels peaked at the weekend across their sample

• Fathers and prospective fathers observed a 28 day cycle of testosterone levels, while unattached males and males not wanting to impregnate their current girlfriend did not

Testosterone and aggression

• Certain species demonstrate a clear relationship between testosterone and aggression

• Relationship is more complex in humans

• Short term administration influences aggressive behaviour in high dominance men and those with lower cortisol levels - carre and archer 2018

• Fluctuations in testosterone during competitive interactions are associated with aggressive responses - carre et al 2017

• Effects may be modulated by context and social desirability factors - pante et al 2022

Testosterone, dominance, and competition

• Testosterone is linked with dominance and competitiveness in humans - Mazur & Booth 1998

• Winners show raised levels of testosterone from approximately 1-2 hours following competition

• There is evidence that fans of a winning team can exhibit increased levels of testosterone

• Evidence for a link between testosterone and the home advantage - Neave & Wolfson 2003

• Increasing testosterone is associated with competitive endurance in males gaining enhanced status - Casto et al 2020

What is Estrogen

• Sex steroid hormone

• Regulate female sexual development and function

• Estrogen hormones include estradiol, estrone and estriol

• Promotes female secondary sexual characteristics

• Involved in water retention, calcium metabolism and sexual and maternal behaviours

• Fluctuates throughout the menstral cycle

Estrogen and emotional cognition

• Estrogen has been linked to dopamine regulation and may play a role in female experiences of psychosis - Caroline & Kulkarni 2004

• Higher levels of Estrogen may be associated with emotional coding and facial expression recognition - Chen et al 2011

• Estrogen may play an important role in working memory in women - Hampson 2018

• Salivary Estrogen has been associated with psychological outcomes, somatic distress during hormonal transitions, decision making and health compromising behaviours - Reider et al 2020

What is oxytocin

• Labelled as the love hormone

• Released during life experiences that involve emotional attachment

• Located in several dopamine rich areas of the brain

• Implicated in a variety of behaviours, including social bonding, parental care, and stress reduction

• Associated with maternal bonding behaviours such as affectionate touch and vocalisations - Olazabal 2018

• Administration of oxytocin can improve emotional recognition - Simplicio & Harmer 2016

What is cortisol

• Increases glucose in the blood stream and helps to regulate metabolism, also impacts cardiovascular function

• Diurnal - rises in the morning and decreases at night

• Prolonged elevated cortisol levels have been associated with poorer performance in memory tasks and neuronal connectivity in the hippocampus - Ddonse et al 2023, Kim, Pellman & Kim 2015

What is leptin

• May shed light on appetite control

• Mice with a particular genetic defect, a defective ob gene, are unable to produce leptin and overeat

• Injection of leptin reduce food intake in mice however such techniques have failed in obese humans

What are organisational effects of hormones

• Occur during sensitive periods of development and permanently organise the brain and body in ways that influence later behaviour

What are activational effects of hormones

• Occur throughout life when fluctuating hormone levels temporarily activate behavioural and physiological response

components of social identity theory

• social categorisation - we sort people into groups

• social identification - groups become part of self concept

• social comparison - group memberships provide meaning and value

social support

• emotional/informational/instrumental/companionship

• shared identity increases trust and help seeking

collective self efficacy

• groups enhance belief that we can cope, improving coping and problem solving

meaning, purpose & identity continuity

• groups supply roles, narratives and life purpose that reduce existential stress

social norms & behaviour regulation

• group norms shape healthy behaviour

cognitive appraisal & threat reframing

• salient identities change how stressors are appraised

prototypicality and acceptance

• feeling like a real member increases access to support and status within the group

mechanisms of social identity theory

• social support

• collective

• meaning, purpose & identity continuity

• social norm & behaviour regulation

• cognitive appraisal & threat reframing

• prototypicality and acceptance

the social cure framework - jetten 2017

• proposition 1 - belonging to valued groups enhances psychological and physical health

• proposition 2 - multiple group memberships provide additive resilience

• proposition 3 - group processes mediate between identity and health - support, norms, efficacy

negatives for potential social identifications/social aids

• not all identities are health enhancing - gangs, extremist groups can cause harm

• identity conflict - competing group memberships can increase stress

• stigma and marginalisation - belonging to a stigmatised group can undermine health

• context matters - group support only helps if identity is shared and meaningful

What is the study of genetics

• The study of the structure and function of genes and the way in which genes are passed from one generation to another - Russell 1992

What are the essential amino acids

• Arginine

• Histidine

• Isoleucine

• Leucine

• Lysine

• Methionine

• Phenylalanine

• Threonine

• Tryptophan

• Valine

What are amino acids

• Building blocks of life

• Genes code for proteins

• Amino acids - poly peptides - proteins

• Maintain shape of cells

• Tissues

• Enzymes

• Neurotransmitters

Who is the father of genetics

• Gregor Mendel - 1822-1884

• Looked into related organisms

• 8 years he planted 30,000 plants, set out to examine and quantify the physical traits in pea plants

• Certain factors transmitted from parent to offspring

• Mendel suggested that these factors were directly responsible for physical traits

• Each individual had not one but two factors for each trait

What is Mendelian genetics

• Hereditary transmission is a single pair of genes, one from each parent determines a particular inherited characteristic

• Genes that control a particular trait can have alternative forms called alleles

• When the corresponding genes inherited from the parents are the same, then the individual is homozygous for the trait

• When the alleles are different, the individual is said to be heterozygous, for dichotomous traits they will display the characteristic described by the dominant allele

Mono hybrid cross

What are polygenic traits

• There is no singular height or skin colour gene, there are many genes

• Expression can depend on the precise compliment of different genes

• Poly = many genes coding for one trait

• Environmental factors can also contribute to phenotypic differences

• The effects of gene may only be seen following some kind of trigger

What are chromosomes

• Threat like structures in the nucleus of each cell - Brenner 2012

• 46 chromosomes - 23 pairs

• Contained in the nucleus of every cell - minus gametes which only have 23 chromosomes

• 44 autosomal chromosomes, and 2 gender linked chromosomes

What is DNA

• Deoxyribonucleic acid

• Super folded molecule

• Nucleotides: adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine

• Bases are linked as A-T and C-G

What is a codon

• Combination of 3 nucleotides that code for one amino acid

What is behavioural genetics

• “I do not know a single psychological trait that does not show genetic influence” - Plomin 2018

• Heritability - the extent to which differences between individuals can be explained by inherited dna differences

• Heritability estimates can differ depending in the particular population studies at a particular time

How are adoption studies used

• Exploring correlations for psychical, psychological and behavioural traits between adoptive parents and children

• Comparing correlation with those for biological parents

• Comparing correlations with non adoptive children and parents

• Similar process used with adoptive and non adoptive siblings

How are twin studies used

• Monozygotic twins - identical twins - share 100% of genes

• Dizygotic twins - share 50% of their genes

• Comparing MZ twins reared apart and together

• Comparing MZ and Dz twins

Results from behavioural genetics

• Minnesota study of twins - MZ substantially more similar on all psychometric dimensions than DZ - didn’t matter if they were reared together or apart - Turkheimer 2000

• Schizophrenia, mood disorders and anxiety - Plomin et al 2001, McGuffin et al 2019

• Normal variations in personality and cognitive abilities - Loehlin 1992, Briley & Tucker-Drob 2017, Plomin & Defries 1998

• Television watching, antisocial behaviour, social attitudes, loneliness, coffee drinking

Plomin genetics table

What are genome wide association studies - GWAS

• Scans entire genome to find genetic variations associated with specific traits

• Uses large datasets to identify genetic markers across the population

• Genetic markers have been associated with risk factors for depression - Howard et al 2019

• Genetic variants linked to academic success - Lee et al 2018