The Biological Level of Analysis

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The Biological Level of Analysis
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Levels of Analysis
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BIO LOA First lessons

• Examine the essential focus of the biological
  psychology.
• Understand the IB Syllabus for the bio topic and
  consider the emphasis on learning outcomes
• Understand how case studies and technological
  advances have contributed to the development of
  the biological LOA
• Outline the principles that define the biological
  level of analysis
• Explain the effects of neurotransmitters on human
  behavior
• Discuss how the biological LOA can be seen as
  reductionist

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Topics

• The background, principles of the Biological LOA
  reductionism
• Neurons Neurotransmission
• Localization of function in the brain
• The stress response system (effects of hormones
  on behavior, environmental effects on
  physiological processes the interaction between
  cognition physiology)
• Genetics behavior the influence of genetic
  inheritance, evolutionary explanations ethical
  considerations

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The IB syllabus
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Questions to check your understanding

1. Why could the biological LOA be called the most
   basic LOA?
2. Name two discoveries that demonstrate that all
   that is psychological is first physical
3. What has the development of brain imaging
   technologies allowed biological psychologists to
   do?
4. What has advancements in pharmacology allowed the
   medical profession to do?
5. What is the human genome project? What will it
   allow biological psychologists to do?
6. What do behavioral geneticists study?

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The IB syllabus
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(No Transcript)
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• The Biological LOA
• Focus 1
•  
• The mind has a physiological basis
• All that is psychological is first physical
• Different views of this assumption include
• The view that the brain IS the mind (Watson and
  Domasio)
• Conscious awareness is not located in a
  particular area of the brain so the mind cannot
  be purely physical. (Penfield and Eccles)
• The mind is a sense of self made up of a product
  of physiological processes.
• Focus 2
• Heredity is the means through which
  characteristics are passed down.
• Main questions asked in the perspective
• What is the relationship between mind and body?
• What is the EXTENT of the influence of genes on
  humans?

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Understanding the physiological basis of behavior

• One of the most perplexing issues in psychology
  is understanding the relationship between the
  mind and the brain.
• We are all have conscious awareness of our
  surroundings, and also of ourselves this is the
  experience normally described as the mind
• But what is the basis of the mind? Is it the
  expression of a non-physical soul, or is it a
  product of physical processes within our body?
• Psychologists and philosophers have been
  pondering this for centuries
• William James regarded explaining the nature of
  consciousness as one of the most challenging
  questions for psychology to answer. Today more
  than 100 years later, the challenge still exists
• Key question for biological psychologists
• What is the relationship between structure and
  function?
• What influence do genes have on human behavior
  and thought?

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3, 2, 1- The Mind

• 3 important ideas you have learned about the
  mind since August.
• 2 things you would like to know more about
• 1 thing that really frustrates about looking for
  the mind

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Looking for the mind.

• One of the most perplexing issues in psychology
  is the relationship between mind and the body
• What is the basis of the mind?
• Think about this question and write some
  responses below
• The mind is
• The body is
• Are the mind and body separate or are they united?

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Looking for the mind.

• The mind is inner subjective experience of
  awareness
• The body is a physical being including what
  many people feel is the basis of the mind the
  brain
• Are the mind and body separate or are they
  united?
• Phantom limb - http//www.youtube.com/watch?vhlQZ
  mNlPdHQ

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Case studies to show mind body connection

• Develop an understanding of the development of
  the Biological LOA
• Examine two case studies from the biological LOA
  Sacks Phineas Gage- Brain teaching modules 25
• 
  

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Phineas Gage and his tamping iron,his "constant
companion during the remainder of his life."
Damasio (1994)
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The case of Phineas Gage
A controversial case much debate ad many
different interpretations often inaccurate and
exaggerated
Harlow (1868)
"the American crowbar case"

• One of the best known clinical cases involved the
  dramatic injury to an unfortunate railroad
  worker.
• Whilst placing an explosive charge, a spark of
  metal on a rock set off the charge, sending a
  long tamping rod flying upwards.
• The rod entered Gages head just below the left
  eye and exited from the top of his scull (1848).
• Remarkably Gage survived and his behavior
  apparently changed dramatically he used to be
  likeable and responsible, then he was prone to
  terrible fits of temper.
• Sadly he spent his remaining years wondering
  around the US, displaying the hole in his scull
  that had brought him such grief
• although recent images show him proudly holding
  the tamping iron which inflicted the
  controversial injury - consistent with the
  social recovery hypothesis (Macmillan, 1998)
  perhaps the severest mental changes where
  short-lived evidence of neural plasticity
• His story has been a source of endless
  fascination it appears that the rod extensively
  damaged the association areas (which produce a
  meaningful perceptual experience of the world)
  of the left frontal lobe
• Activity Write a few sentences to reflect on
  the video (cog neuro 4.15) and explain how these
  case study may indicate that behavior and thought
  have a physiological basis.

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The man who mistook his wife for a hat

• Visual agnosia
• Cant name, but can describe objects
• Cant make sense of what he his seeing
• Able to adapt and compensate
• Mind and brain interlinked

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The man who mistook his wife for a hat (Sacks,
1985)

• P, a music teacher, whose associates have
  questioned his perception, is referred by his
  ophthalmologist to the neurologist Oliver Sacks.
  During the first office visit, Sacks notices that
  P. faces him with his ears, not his eyes. His
  gaze seems unnatural, darting and fixating on the
  doctor's features one at a time. At the end of
  the interview, at which his wife is present, P.
  appears to grasp his wife's head and try to lift
  it off and put it on his own head. "He had . . .
  mistaken his wife for a hat!" She gave no sign
  that anything odd had happened.
• During the second interview, at P.'s home,
  P. is unable to recognize the rose in Sacks'
  lapel, describing it as "a convoluted red form
  with a linear green attachment." He is encouraged
  to speculate on what it might be, and guesses it
  could be a flower. When he smells it, he comes to
  life and knows it. The wife explains that P.
  functions by making little songs about what he is
  doing--dressing, washing or eating. If the song
  is interrupted he simply stops, till he finds a
  sensory clue on how to proceed. This singing
  method of compensating allows P. to function
  undetected in his professional and personal life.
  He remains unaware that he has a problem.
  Sacks chooses not to disturb his ignorant
  bliss with a diagnosis. Though his disease (never
  diagnosed but hypothesized as a tumor or
  degeneration of the visual cortex) advances, P.
  lives and works in apparent normalcy to the end
  of his days.

Explain the mans condition, how is our awareness
related to what our senses tell us?
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Two philosophical traditions of thought Dualism
and Materialism

• Dualism
• Dualists claim that mind and matter are two
  separate categories. In particular, mind-body
  dualism claims that neither the mind nor matter
  can be reduced to each other in any way.
• Materialism
• The philosophy of materialism holds that the
  only thing that can be truly proven to exist is
  matter. Fundamentally, all things are composed of
  material and all phenomena (including
  consciousness) are the result of material
  interactions therefore, matter is the only
  substance.
• Monism
• Views mind and matter as being ultimately the
  same kind of thing.
• Which school of thought do you think that
  psychologists from the biological LOA come from?
  Explain your answer

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The background of the Biological LOA

• Reading History of the Bio LOA
• Worksheet BIO LOA
• Read Crane 43

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The Principles that define the biological LOA
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The Principles that define the biological LOA

• Cognitions, emotions and behaviours are products
  of the anatomy and physiology of our nervous and
  endocrine systems
• 2) Patterns of behaviour can be inherited
• 3) Animal research may inform our understanding
  of human behaviour

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The principles of the biological LOA

• Write three bullet points on each of the key
  principles of the Biological LOA
• Use Crane 38 39

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The Principles that define the biological LOA

• 1) Cognitions, emotions and behaviours are
  products of the anatomy and physiology of our
  nervous and endocrine systems
• All behavior that is psychological is at first
  physiological since the mind appears to reside
  in the brain, all thoughts, feelings and
  behaviors ultimately have a physical/biological
  cause (there is a biological basis to behavior).
  However, this relationship can be seen as
  bi-directional i.e. biology can affect cognition
  and cognition can affect biology. There is a
  localization of function specific functions are
  associated with specific areas of the brain.
  There are also biological correlates of
  behavior which suggests that its possible to
  find a link between a specific biological factor
  (e.g. a hormone) and a behavior.
• 2) Patterns of behaviour can be inherited
• Human genes have evolved over millions of years
  to adapt physiology and behavior to the
  environment. Therefore much behavior will have a
  genetic basis. (This is reflected in the
  structure of the brain we share a number of
  behaviors with lower organisms e.g. the
  primitive brain or limbic system regulates
  behavior associated with hunger, thirst, sex and
  other basic drives, and some psychological
  disorders appear to have a genetic basis)
• 3) Animal research may inform our understanding
  of human behaviour
• Psychology should investigate the brain, nervous
  system, endocrine system, neurochemistry and
  genes and it is also useful to study why human
  behavior has evolved the way it has this is
  evolutionary psychology. We can also learn about
  human behavior from studying animals, since we
  are evolutionary related to them.

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Questions to review your learning

• 1) Before Darwins seminal work The origin of the
  species (1859) how did people view the
  differences between humans and animals?
• 2) According to the biological LOA, what is the
  basis of the mind?
• 5) In your opinion, are mind and body separate or
  are they united? Explain your answer.
• 6) Do you believe that the mind resides inside
  the brain? Is your view the same or different to
  biological psychologists?
• 7) Explain the key principle of the biological
  LOA that all behavior that is psychological is
  first physiological
• 8) Explain the principle of localization of
  function
• 9) What does the biological LOA assume about the
  role of genes in determining behavior?
• 10) What does the biological LOA assume should be
  studied by psychologists?
• 11) What research methodologies are used by
  researchers from the biological LOA?

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What about genes ???

• Weve focused on case studies showing the brain
  as a physiological correlate to certain
  behaviors.
• Weve NOT examined principles 2 3.
• Homework reading touches on this BUT
• well closely examine genes when we study
  genetics.

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Two important concepts to consider in the BIO LOA

• Reductionism
• Free Will
• Determinism

This is key evaluation which can be brought into
any questions from this section
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Reductionism

• Definition Reductionism is an approach to
  understanding the nature of complex things by
  reducing them to the interactions of their parts,
  or to simpler or more fundamental things (e.g.
  depression is caused buy low serotonin)
• Think of an analogy in your daily school life
  which would explain reductionist thinking

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Read the next slide..

• From the slide draw three symbols which would
  explain reductionism.
• Label each symbol with a characteristic of
  reductionism

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• Reductionism is based on Occam's razor or
  Morgans law of parsimony (parsimony means
  less is better) This principle states that
  when explaining any phenomenon (e.g. behavior)
  the simplest level of explanation is the best -
  "All other things being equal, the simplest
  solution is the best. E.g. if the cause of
  eating disorders can be attributed to genes
  then it should be explained in this way
• The biological LOA emphasizes the role of genes,
  neurotransmitters and brain structures in
  determining behavior.
• This means that the biological LOA is a
  reductionist one because it concentrates on the
  part biological factors play in psychological
  conditions
• Has this approach been valuable? Yes -for
  example Its enables the use of the scientific
  method, and has lead to researchers from the
  Biological LOA to identify the role of
  neurotransmitters and genes in mental disorders,
  (e.g. serotonin levels and depression, and the
  role genes in the development of eating
  disorders) as well as the functions of specific
  structures in the brain.
• Is taking a reductionist approach always a
  problem? Not always, but it often is a problem
  most human behaviors involve a higher level
  cognitive functions (thinking) and social
  cultural factors also play an important role in
  the way we behave, and these are not usually
  considered by the biological LOA
• For a full explanation of behavior we need to
  study all these different levels (cognitive,
  social cultural and biological) - this means
  taking a holistic approach so the reductionist
  nature of the biological LOA limits it as a LOA

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Read the next 3 slides

• Work in triads
• What is free will? What is determinism?
• List 3 examples..
• Which one does the bio LOA reflect and why?

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Free will vs. Determinism
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Free will Determinism and the biological LOA

• There is a debate about whether we has human
  beings have free will and we are able to make
  choices which will influence who we are and how
  we behave, and a determinist view which
  proposes that everything that happens has a
  definite cause, and it is that cause that
  determines what happens.
• Determinism is the view that, for everything that
  happens, there is a condition or set of
  conditions which are the cause for that thing
  happening. (Oakley, 2001) and in order to
  study human behavior scientifically, we must
  study these causes
• Free will proposes that we have an ability to
  chose the actions that we take, so we cannot
  explain everything by simply studying the causes
  of processes
• Determinism involves the denial of free will
  Hard determinism denies free will altogether
  (free will is the sense that we exercise control
  over our decisions) there is also Soft
  Determinism which proposes that in some
  situations we do have some free will to make
  decisions (we will look at this when we study the
  cognitive LOA)
• The philosopher David Hume (1734) argued that if
  an event is determined by something else, then
  the two events should be highly correlated and
  should appear in a chronological order (e.g. low
  serotonin leads to depression)
• The discussion of free will and determinism
  involves moral accountability (ethics) if we
  dont have free will then are we still
  responsible for our actions?
• The biological LOA takes the view that behavior
  is determined by internal, biological processes
  or systems. This is biological determinism.

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• The biological approach takes the view that
  behaviour is determined by internal,
• biological processes or systems. This is
  biological determinism. Up to a point
• physiological determinism may be a valid argument
  because physiological
• factors provide explanations of behaviour but do
  they offer a complete
• explanation? They may be more applicable to
  non-human animals where
• learning has less influence on behaviour.
  Non-human animals also lack selfawareness,
• which is associated with the concept of will.
  Without selfawareness
• and consciousness, can you say about an organism
  that it has a
• will? One line within the biological approach is
  genetic determinism
• claiming that your genetic make-up (e.g.
  intelligence) is given from birth
• and cannot be altered. Within socio-biology the
  genetic make-up of
• organisms determines natural behaviour, e.g.
  related to biological sex. The
• natural selection is seen as the result of
  inherited characteristics that has
• been naturally selected and passed on to the next
  generation

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Questions to check your understanding of free
will determinism

• 1) Define free will and determinism
• 2) What does David Hume propose is needed in
  order for one event to be determined by another?
• 3) How does ethics come into the discussion of
  free will and determinism?
• 4) What is biological determinism? Why might this
  apply to non human animals more than humans?
• 5) What is genetic determinism?
• 6) How is the biological perspective a
  deterministic one?
• 7) Explain what biological determinism is
• 8) Explain what genetic determinism is