wicpsycho

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).

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.

Areas of the hypothalamus are different in homosexual men, as well as in animals with homosexual tendencies

Among male identical twins, 52% of those with a gay brother also reported homosexuality, whereas the rate in fraternal twins was just 22%

In sum, while less than half of Canadian teens report having intercourse before age 18,

phenotypes

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

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

emotions are real and that they are extremely important,

René Descartes

B. F. Skinner

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

Walter Cannon's criticisms

drugs producing bodily changes like those accompanying an emotional experience

do not produce the same type of conscious experience of fear

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

. 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

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

Studies of the chemistry of play support the idea that play is enjoyable.

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

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.

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.

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.

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)

(who was in another 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.

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,

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.

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.

biological influences

abilities and characteristics of individual people

social groups,

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,”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.