...An Analysis on Seasonal Affective Disorder and the effects of Climate and Lighting on Emotion Brain, Mind & Behavior "Seasonal affective disorder also known as winter depression, winter blues, summer depression, summer blues, or seasonal depression, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or summer, spring or autumn year after year." In the DSM-IV, it is not characterized as a unique mood disorder but considered a 'specifier of major depression'. (Stephen, 2007) Is it not more than a convenience that the year’s most joyous holidays occur on the onset of the winter solstice? The impact of light on emotion has been shown and linked by numerous surveys and tests in the past. Low or dark lighting has been shown to cause eye fatigue and headaches. Absence of natural daylight triggers depression and poor immune defenses. Insufficient lighting is linked to emotional stress and to physical ailments. Bright light stimulates emotions, while low levels of illumination quiet the senses. On the other hand, an excess of unnatural light does not replace the calming effects of natural daylight. Too much artificial light and overly-bright rooms hurt the eyes and make one feel jittery. (Fisher E. , 2004) The impact of lighting on mood and cognition has been difficult to demonstrate because people in industrialized countries, on average, spend 93 percent of their time indoors, making them largely...
Words: 1629 - Pages: 7
...Behavior and Mental Process of the Brain Ever wonder how the brain manages to function and processes information? It is a like a computer that is running the entire body. According to research, “the brain not only controls what we think and feel, how we learn and remember, and the way we move and talk, but also many things we are less aware of such as the amount of stress we feel.” Behavior can be defined as an evident response or activity by an organism (Lloyd 11). The mental processes on the other hand, are the thoughts, feelings, and wishes that accompany behavior (Lloyd 12). All of these facts contribute to how the brain produces behavior and mental processing. To fully understand the concept of the brain is not as easy as it sounds. The human brain is a complicated organ with many parts. When some part of the rest of the body is not functioning correctly, the brain is sometimes affected as well. Each part has a specific function to turn sounds into speech, to process color, to register fear or distinguish a flower from a tree. Not every brain is the same; each brain is one of a kind and constantly changing and growing with knowledge. But what are the brains activity controlled by exactly? The answer comes from many of its functions and its composition within. Different parts that make up the brain are the corpus callosum, the thalamus and hypothalamus, the cerebrum and cerebellum, the medulla, the pons, the pituitary gland, and the olfactory bulb to name a...
Words: 1630 - Pages: 7
...It was once believed that our thoughts and soul were housed in our hearts. As man began to understand and study the human body, these beliefs changed. We now know that every thought, emotion, belief, and impulse begins in the brain. The primary focus of biopsychology is to understand the mind versus brain relationship. Biological psychology is a sub-field and combination of two separate academic areas of scientific study. Biology literally means the study of life. Physiology is the study of how the body functions. Human psychology studies the mind and the resulting behavior of people (Pinel, 2009). The fields of psychology and physiology are studied together in order to achieve a better understanding of each area and their interdependent functioning and relationships. Biological psychology is also known as: biopsychology, neuroscience, neurobiology, and even behavioral science (Bickhard, 2009). Historically, biological psychology began with the ancient Greeks. Theorists and philosophers across time have added to biology and psychology. Plato, Socrates, Descartes, Galen, and Galvani have all given life to this field. Descartes thought that pineal gland of the brain is where the mind and body talk to each other. He also theorized that behaviors were merely a type of mechanical reflex. As time has gone on, scientist, psychologists, and theorists investigate the interdependent relationships between the physiological functioning of animals (including humans) and the psychological...
Words: 1022 - Pages: 5
...is defined as “the study of behavior and experience in terms of genetics, evolution, and physiology, especially the physiology of the nervous system” (American Heritage Dictionary). Biological psychology uses biology as an approach to understand human and animal behavior. Psychology has now developed into a wide-ranging discipline and is concerned with understanding behavior and mental processes from a variety of perspectives. Biological psychology is the branch of science that attempts to explain behavior in terms of biology, is therefore the study of the brain and how it causes or relates to behavior (Foundations of Biopsychology). The brain contains more cells than there are in the universe. There are over 100 billion cells and each parts works together to produce, direct, and choreograph what we think, feel, and do. The study of the brain is one of the most rapidly expanding areas in modern science today, and part of this development is a quest to understand how it’s physical and chemical structure gives rise to human behavior. Arguably, there is no other discipline that can give us greater insight into ourselves, as well as having the potential to change people’s lives for the better (Foundations of Biopsychology). The ancient Greeks were among the first to realize that the brain was the organ of the mind, Plato proposed that the brain was the organ of reasoning even though most disagreed with him. Many scientists after him studied the brain and its function. Galen who...
Words: 956 - Pages: 4
...psychology is a scientific investigation of humankind mind, body, and behavior. Psychology includes different departments of psychology to apprehend and supervise observations on the mental technique of a person mind and behavior. Psychology is regularly used to establish the secrecy of the human behavior. Observation was the way to study a person mind to become aware of the mental conscious and unconscious states. As time went by psychology was established, alone with some major schools of thoughts. The paper below will examine the foundation of psychology, identify the major schools of thought in psychology, and examine their major underlying assumptions such as, behaviorism, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, humanistic, and cognitive. In addition, it will identify the primary biological foundations of psychology linked to behavior such as, brain, central nervous system, peripheral nervous System, and genetics/evolution. Behavioral Theory Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a learning theory established on the notion that behaviors are gathered by conditioning. Conditioning develops from influenced of the environment. There are two major types of conditioning classical and operant. Classical conditioning is a procedure used in behavioral training where a naturally stimulus is paired with a response. Operant conditioning is a procedure of learning that happens through rewards and punishments for behavior. Behaviorists speculate that a person acknowledgement...
Words: 1341 - Pages: 6
...understand how the human brain works has been inherent in the human species since we became more advanced. And after all, the human brain is so advanced that it actually named itself. Within the field of psychology there are many different pillars of ideas on which the study stand upon. The following will discuss the major schools of thought in psychology and what they project. It will also delve into the primary biological foundations and how they are linked to behavior. Functionalism has the most influence of any theory. It is the theory of our mental states as humans. According to functionalism, “mental states are identified by what they do rather than by what they are made of ” (Polger, n.d.). In the words of Koening, “Psychological functionalism attempts to describe thoughts and what they do without asking how they do it. For functionalists, the mind resembles a computer, and to understand its processes, you need to look at the software -- what it does -- without having to understand the hardware -- the why and how underlying it” (Koenig, n.d.). The anaolgy of the mind as a central computer is the simipliest way to describe the theory and the assumtion is that the brain is in control of all actions and behaviors. Gestalt psychology is the next pillar of thought. The Gesstalt theory is that “the human mind works by interpreting data through various laws, rules or organizing principles, turning partial information into a whole” (Koenig, n.d.). For example, the mind might see three...
Words: 1047 - Pages: 5
...such psychotic crimes. It is important to analyze the negative effects of illegal drugs and how it predisposes it’s users to criminal behavior. Drug users are seen to be associated with violence and illegal activity. The use of illegal drugs can cause individuals to hallucinate and engage in criminal offenses that they would not have committed in a normal state of mind. (1) There is a correlation between drug usage and criminal behavior, predisposing individuals to commit social acts of crime due to the biological altercations that the drugs have on one’s brain. Abusing illegal drugs can definitely turn a normal individual into a criminal by socially impairing them and causing them to commit acts of crime that they would not have committed if they were sober. A study conducted by the US Department of Justice showed that 1 in 4 criminal offenders were on drugs when they committed their...
Words: 2429 - Pages: 10
...Cognitive psychology is the study of the mind. To be more specific, it is the study of how one thinks, remembers, learns, and perceives; the mental processes. It shows us how a group of people can view the same object and yet form different conclusions on what the object is. Cognitive is one of the newer fields of psychology. It is only 50 years old (Willingham, 2007). It was finalized as its own branch in response to the lack of information provided from previous branches psychology. No other branch truly dealt with how and why a person thought or was able to learn and remember. Two keys components of the workings of the human mind. Granted these two key components helped open the door for cognitive psychology, several key milestones helped get cognitive psychology’s feet through the door. These key milestones include the missteps of behaviorism, information processing and the computer metaphor, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience. The Missteps of Behaviorism Behaviorism came into the world of psychology and appeared to the solution for it all. The key was to study the actions of a person. The mind was of no consequence. For quite a few years, there were not any doubts about behaviorism. Behaviorism had a good run but it could not answer questions about a human’s mind. After all, to behaviorists the mind was not important. Behaviorists believed that everything they learned from experiments on animals, applied to humans. Questions were now being asked about how humans...
Words: 985 - Pages: 4
...psychopathology, studies different behaviors against what society deems normal. The study of abnormal psychology attempts to answer why some people’s behaviors are unusual, different, or abnormal. For some, abnormal behavior is due to mental illness, childhood trauma, or chemical imbalances in the brain. Because abnormal psychology has no definite boundaries, it is often a controversial field of psychology. It is an ever-changing field for the last 100 years, but several core concepts remain unchanged in abnormal psychology. Evolution of Abnormal Psychology The core concepts of abnormal psychology that caused the field to evolve into a scientific discipline are: the importance of context in defining abnormality; the continuum between normal and abnormal behavior; cultural and historical relativism in classifying abnormality; diagnosis advantages and limitations; principle of multiple causality; and the mind-body connection (Hansell, 2008). Context is important to understand abnormal behavior. An otherwise normal behavior becomes abnormal when the behavior is out of context. For example, sadness and grieving are normal behaviors when a loved one dies. Sadness and grieving; however, are abnormal if a person displays these behaviors when there is no reason such as death or other painful experiences. Context makes it easier to explain why a person behaves a certain way. There is no black and white between normal and abnormal behavior. Instead, there is a continuum...
Words: 783 - Pages: 4
...Each theory is different because of what they focus on and how the subject is analyzed and different explanations for human behavior. Each theory has been expanded over time by many different scholars and experts. Each added their own thoughts on the theories. Cognitive Theory The cognitive theory mainly focuses on memory, thinking, and problem solving and how it relates to behavior (Psychology and Society, n.d). Those thought processes affect behaviors in many ways because actions are almost always an afterthought. A person thinks about what they are going to do and then do it or not. For example, a person is taking a test in school and they don’t know the subject matter. There is a question that they absolutely don’t know the answer to. The student will have several thoughts. The first thought would be to guess the answer and hope they get it right. The second thought would be to look over at the paper of a fellow classmate. The student chooses to look at the paper of a classmate and gets caught. The student knew that cheating was wrong but still weighed the options and chose to do it anyway. The cognitive theory influences psychology today by allowing a “sight” into the mind of a subject. Until this theory was developed many people did not know why a person did the actions that they did. The mind is one of the major focuses in psychology. The mind can tell a lot about person and what they would or would not do and why. Behaviorism Behaviorism is defined by Webster’s...
Words: 866 - Pages: 4
...Liebniz, and others, psychology has a very long past but only a short scientific history. Philosophical Background In the seventh century B.C., the King of Egypt conducted what many, including psychology historian Morton Hunt, consider to be the first psychology experiment. Though flawed and rudimentary, the king tested his idea that thoughts and language came from the mind. Although unscientific, the idea of the minds overall ability to do more was put to the test. Socrates (460-399 B.C.) often considered and referred to as a father of philosophy, stated “One thing only I know and that is I know nothing.” This realization came when he concluded that philosophy can only begin when one learns to doubt, particularly the thoughts and ideals that each individual holds dear and sacred. In short, real philosophy cannot start until one’s mind begins to examine itself. Again the mind is central and paramount. To modern psychology he gave the Socratic Method of questioning, which demanded definitions be as accurate as possible, clear thinking at all times, and exact analysis of all details. Hippocrates (460-370 B.C), the father of medicine, developed a new method of research that necessitated the need for careful observation followed by precise collection and interpretation of facts. This method was incorporated into the study of individual physical...
Words: 1434 - Pages: 6
...discipline. The early Greeks such as Aristotle believed “The heart was the seat of the mind”, and the brain was more so a filter to calm heat the heart produced. While the philosopher and physician Hippocrates believed “The brain was the seat of sensation as well as intellect”. Investigation and dissection of minds belonging to abnormal beings lead to many controversial beliefs. The beginning of modern philosophy is said to be led by Rene’ Descartes. Descartes was considered the father of modern philosophy, mathematics, physiology, and psychology. In 1633 Descartes wrote a book titled “The World”, demonstrating how various disciplines could be united through reason of mathematics. He failed to publish his book at that time to stay in good graces of the Catholic Church. Descartes’ Discourse on Method was not relevant until after his death. His Discourse on Method expressed to accept truth only to what could not be doubted. This begot the Cartesian System of Rationalism, Nativism and Mechanistic Interactionism. The Cartesian system simply meant to think clearly, logically, and without bias, to reduce problems and work systematically from simple to complex, and finally check your work. John Locke led the Origins of British Empiricism, which explains how knowledge is acquired and how humans view the world through education. Locke rejected the concept of innate ideas, but established the belief of how our minds develop ideas due to exposure. This concept...
Words: 898 - Pages: 4
...figures are enormous compared to other health issues of this century (Buckholtz, 2012). There is little effort on the aims of scientist and criminal law that would have them working together and that is treading cautiously. Brain Imaging has come into light in the past decade or two that shows structural and functional deficiencies in the frontal and temporal lobes. These frontal and temporal lobes regulate aggression. Some say there is a gene some call the “warrior gene” which is aggressive. The actual name is MAOA. Some are using this as a defense when a person is being tried for a violent crime. Also research of violent and aggressive psychopathic individuals have proven that several biological markers do exist and these are; lowered heart rate, abnormal EEG, multiple abnormalities in right temporal lobes and greater abnormalities in left temporal lobes. Scientist have also discovered prefrontal damage encourages; risk taking, irresponsibility, rule-breaking, emotional and aggressive outburst, argumentative, violent criminal acts, loss of self-control, immaturity, lack of tact, inability to modify and inhibit behavior appropriately, poor social judgment and violence. Our genetics is a set of building blocks that dictate among other things how our brains are built, function and get wired together. Every thought, emotion or...
Words: 933 - Pages: 4
...The Mind-Brain Problem JOHN BELOFF Department of psycho log^, George Square, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, Scotland Abstract-The mind-brain problem, which is still with us, raises the question as to whether the mind is no more than the idle side-effect of our brain processes or whether the mind can, in some degree, influence behavior. Here we rehearse the arguments on both sides plus some desperate recent attempts to eliminate mind altogether. What is the Problem? However contentious, the philosophical problem, as distinct from the physiological problem, can be stated quite simply as follows: What, essentially, is the relationship between events in the brain and those private, subjective, introspectible experiences that together constitute our inner mental life? We need not assume here that consciousness is synonymous with mind-consciousness may well be no more than just one aspect of mind-but, with respect to the problem at issue, it is the existence of consciousness that is critical. Stated thus, the problem admits of only three basic answers: (1) Events in the brain, operating in accordance with the laws of physics, determine completely both our behavior and our subjective experiences. (2) Mental events may be elicited by events in the brain or they may, in turn, elicit brain events and so influence the course of our behavior (I use here the word 'elicit' rather than 'cause' advisedly since the kind of causation here envisaged is so unlike ...
Words: 5887 - Pages: 24
...Abstract Psychology is a scientific study that all investigate of the human mind, body and over matter in many different fields of psychology to understand and conduct observations on the mental process of the human mind and behavior. It is used to define the mysteries of the human behavior, such as expressions on how people feel and observe actions. The study of the mind is to observe both conscious and unconscious states. Every day we live, breathe, walk, talk, think, and experience in our lives. All of us have so many thoughts and ideas that build up with time which can create issues within ourselves if we don’t vent it out. Psychology studies the brain and mental behaviors. “If we want to understand the mind and behavior, we should investigate it scientifically, just as physicists study the nature of light or gravity, through systematic observation and experimentation” (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). There are theories within psychology that have influenced our knowledge such as structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, psychoanalysis, cognitive, and evolutionary. The first school of psychology was Structuralism which focused in studying down the mental process and its basic components. There were two major structuralist thinkers include Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener. They used techniques such as introspection to analyze the inner process of the human mind. Functionalism was influenced by William James. Two major functionalist thinkers...
Words: 672 - Pages: 3
