Psychology

There have been many interesting studies throughout the history of psychology to understand the brain and its impact on behavior. However, there are probably no stories as famous as the one about Phineas Gage (1848) who survived an iron stake going through a section of his brain.

Of course conducting a research study to do this to someone would be completely unethical as we learned from our work last Module, but when a natural event allows researchers to gather more information about brain functioning, much can be learned.

In the case of Gage we learned that our brain has an impact on our personality. Gage might have survived this major brain trauma, but many who knew him stated that he was no longer the same person.

Now, we'll try to gain a better understanding of the brain to see how it affects human behavior.

The core structure in the brain is the neuron. The brain consists of billions of neurons responsible for its entire functioning. These neurons work as a network to carry information, send and receive messages, and activate muscles and glands. For instance, if you prick your finger with a needle, the needle produces mechanical pressure on your finger. Sensors in the skin transfer this pressure into an electrical signal, and neurons all over the body carry this signal to the spinal cord and the brain. The brain then interprets the signal as pain. Clusters of neurons are called nerves. There are a million nerves in the body, which have been categorized into various systems responsible for different functions. In totality, this system is known as the nervous system.

The brain is a very crucial organ in the body, playing a key role in regulating many of the functions in the body. So, it is important to understand the structure of the brain and the way each part of the brain impacts behavior.

Hindbrain

Cerebellum: Did you know that the test for drunken drivers, which involves holding the hand out to the side and then bringing a finger to the nose, is all coordinated by the cerebellum? If the cerebellum is damaged, it impacts your fine motor skills, such as picking up a needle or cutting paper along a dotted line.

Medulla: The medulla takes care of breathing, muscle tone, regulation of breathing, as well as coughing and sneezing.

Pons: The pons connects the stem of the brain with the cerebellum. It is responsible for sleep and arousal. These are largely unconscious functions.

Midbrain

Tectum: The tectum orients a person to the environment. It receives stimulus input from the eyes, ears, and skin.

Tegmentum: The tegmentum is involved in movement and arousal. There is a structure within this section called the substantia nigra which is packed with dopamine-releasing neurons that contribute to motor behavior, motivation, and pleasure.

Forebrain

Thalamus: The thalamus is responsible for transmitting all sensory information, except smell, to the cerebral cortex. The thalamus also plays an active role in integrating information from various senses. For instance, it transmits sensations, such as cold, bitter, sweet, darkness, and sound.

Hypothalamus: The hypothalamus is found at the base of the forebrain and is primarily concerned with regulating basic biological needs related to survival—for instance, fighting, fleeing, food, and sex. It also controls the Autonomic Nervous System which is responsible for our stress response.

Limbic System: The limbic system consists of a loosely connected network of structures located around the cerebral cortex. It is the seat of emotions and motivations. It is a combination of the hippocampus and amygdale.

The endocrine system is another biological system that exerts tremendous influence over behavior.

The Endocrine System

The endocrine system is made up of glands that transmit chemicals called hormones throughout the body. Each gland secretes a specific hormone that can create physical and behavioral abnormalities. For instance, at the base of the brain is a tiny structure called the pituitary gland, or the master gland. It is responsible for regulating human growth throughout the development stage. Too much secretion in childhood results in gigantism, where a person becomes abnormally tall. Too little secretion results in a person becoming a dwarf. The pituitary gland is controlled by the hypothalamus. Therefore, we find a major link between the brain and hormones.

The thyroid gland helps regulate the body metabolism and, in a way, affects personality. If too much hormone is secreted, the person tends to be thin, tense, excitable, and nervous—a condition known as hyperthyroidism. If too little hormone is released in an adult, it leads to sleepiness, inactivity, obesity, and slowness. This is called hypothyroidism.

The interlinking of the nervous system and the endocrine system results in the fight-or-flight syndrome. For instance, when you are stressed, the hypothalamus sends signals not only to the ANS, but also to the adrenal gland via the pituitary gland, where hormones are secreted. This prepares the body to cope with emergencies. The pituitary gland also releases gonadotropins that affect the sex gland and corresponding sexual development. Before birth, it determines the sex of the child; during puberty it is responsible for the emergence of secondary sexual characteristics, such as male facial hair and female breasts.

Therefore, the brain controls the body through the nervous system and the endocrine system.

Steve is a 34-year-old sales manager of a firm. He has just been nominated for the post of senior manager, but for this he has to make a huge presentation in front of all the senior members of the organization. The pressure is immense, but he realizes how important this presentation is. Steve works all day every day for a week, at the end of which his presentation is extremely successful and his promotion gets confirmed.

Martin is a 40-year-old who is faced with the same situation. Martin is finding it difficult to accommodate the pressure of the post of senior manager. Though he has wanted this for many years, he cannot help worrying about the work he is going to have. This worry hinders him from doing his best and he even feels like he is starting to get a cold. He also works on his presentation, but it is not appreciated and he does not get the promotion.

So why is it that though both Steve and Martin faced the same challenge, only Steve could make it? This is because the two men coped with the pressure and anxiety in different ways.

What is Stress?

Stress is a physiological and mental response to situations and events that seem out of our control or that seem to demand more from us than they do normally. Such events and situations are termed stressors, and they can vary from an illness, to a project assignment at work, to the death of someone close.

Levels of stress that people believe they are undergoing or experiencing are subjective, and they depend on the coping mechanisms each individual has. Steve and Martin were faced with similar situations. But, the levels of stress may have varied for both individuals, which probably affected the outcome.

Subjective means that the situation is open to our interpretation. What does the situation "mean" to us? Is it a threat? Do we have the resources to handle it?

This leads us to another question—when does stress become distress? Stress at certain levels has been found to be useful for productivity. Initially, performance increases as stress increases, because stress is energizing in the beginning of the task. At a certain point, stress becomes unhelpful and detrimental for performance. This usually happens when the stressors are extremely intense, produce an inability to make correct decisions, and seem completely out of our control.

Some of the categories of stress are stated below:

Daily Hassles: Minor occurrences of daily life can cause stress. Getting stuck in traffic, getting in the slow lane at the grocery store, misplacing your car keys, or forgetting to pick up milk on the way home from work all cause significant stress but are rarely directly managed with any coping strategies. Richard Lazarus, the eminent psychologist who pioneered research in stress, and his colleagues call these hassles and argued that the greater the hassles of day-to-day life, the poorer the psychological well-being. The problem with hassles is that there is little that can be problem-solved away. Hassles generally just have to be tolerated, which is a part of what makes them hard to mange as well.

Major Events: In addition to smaller day-to-day events there are also major events such as the death of a loved one, divorce, marriage, changing residences, personal injury or illness, and so on, which cause immense stress. Psychologists Holmes and Rahe in their study of stress and life events discovered that such major events require a great amount of readjustment. The greater the number of events requiring readjustment, the poorer is the psychological health of the individuals.

Environmental Events: Environmental events such as storms, earthquakes, and tornadoes can also cause immense and long-lasting stress. It is the lack of control associated with these events that determines the high levels of anxiety. The widespread destruction and trauma caused by a tsunami wave on December 26, 2004, is an accurate example of the extreme effects of natural events. There are also the ambient stressors such as excessive noise, heat, pollution, and crowding that do not have any real urgency but still are negatively valued and put additional demands on the individual.

Work-Related Stress: Stress can also be work-related as the working population increases all over the world and people spend much of their day at work. Work-related stress can be caused by the following factors:

Role Overload and Underload: Too much work and too little work respectively.

Role Conflict: Conflicting demands and expectations at the workplace. For example, a working mother would experience a role conflict in balancing her roles as a mother and a professional.

Burnout: Too much work for too long a time resulting in the individual being unable to cope.

Frustration: Frustration is referred to as a negative emotional state that prevents a person from achieving a goal. When frustration occurs due to external uncontrollable factors, such as bad weather preventing you from going on a trip, the stress is less than when frustration occurs due to personal factors like falling ill and not being able to go on a trip. Most of these examples can fall into the categories of either failures or losses.

Chronic Stress: Chronic stress is a significant stressor that continues over time and does not seem to have an end in sight. Money and child care issues can cause immense stress; especially when such instances are spread over a prolonged period. Other examples could include a difficult boss or the care-giving demands of a sick parent that lives in your home.

Acute Stress: Acute stressors are threatening events that have a relatively short duration because there is a known endpoint. Examples in this category are things like waiting for the results of a medical test or working on the thesis paper for your master's degree.

Conflict: Conflicts can be described by having two different opposing views or options from which one needs to choose. Laura King and Robert Emmons (1990, 1991) found that the more internal conflict that individuals experienced the higher the levels of psychological distress.

Pressure: Stress that involves expectations and demands to behave in a certain way are often called pressures. These pressures can be unspoken or they can be clear and direct. Many times they can be divided into two types—the pressure to perform or the pressure to conform. In one case, a salesperson is pressured to sell a lot of items in a short period of time (perform), and in the other case this sales person could be pressured to dress a certain way and to treat the customers a certain way (conform).

Stress can affect the physical health of a person, and it has been linked with major illnesses, such as heart disease (due to which it has been named the silent killer). Stress can cause psychosomatic diseases, such as ulcers, asthma, high blood pressure, stomach infections, hives, and arthritis. Some less severe psychosomatic conditions are headaches, stomachaches, backaches, indigestion, constipation, insomnia, and so on.

The susceptibility to stress also depends on individual factors, such as the coping mechanisms you have at your disposal. Some people are more prone to stress and illness than others. Such people are known to be "Type A" personalities. They are achievement oriented, highly competitive, and striving. Type A people are always rushing against time and losing their temper. They challenge themselves and are eager to exceed their own limits. Because of this constant race, they are prone to anger and frustration. The more the anger is repressed, the greater are the chances of heart disease or heart attacks. On the contrary, some people seem unusually resistant to stress and are known to have a hardy personality. They show higher levels of commitment, view a challenge positively, and have a higher degree of control over events and situations. Thus, not only situations, but also personal characteristics, influence an individual's response to stressful situations.

Let's understand more about the physiological reactions to stress by learning about General Adaptation Syndrome as given by Hans Selye.

General Adaptation Syndrome

About two months ago, Sheila moved to a new city for a new job. She has never been out of her hometown and is, therefore, extremely anxious. Sheila has left her family behind, and she knows no one else in this new place. Along with that, the team she is now working with has been unfriendly and unreceptive to her arrival as a fresh face. She also has to work 14 hours a day to cope with the new role requirements. All of these factors have been causing Sheila immense stress and her work performance seems to be getting affected. Sheila is tired, depressed, tense, unable to sleep, and unhappy.

How will Sheila cope in such a scenario? What is happening within Sheila?

Sheila's sympathetic nervous system is reacting to the outside situation and producing extreme levels of arousal. The initial stages of a stress reaction are known as the alarm stage, in which the body prepares itself for immediate action. The arousal of the sympathetic nervous system releases hormones that prepare her to meet such situations. When the stress continues for more than a few days she reaches the resistance stage, where the level of arousal is less, but the body is continuing to produce hormones to deal with the situation. Continued exposure to the stressful situation drains the body of its resources and leads to the exhaustion stage. It is at this stage that our susceptibility to illness and psychosomatic diseases increases. To avoid reaching the stage of exhaustion, it is essential to start using coping mechanisms to deal with the stress.

Let's now look at the causes of stress, its effects, and effective coping strategies.

Cerebrum: The outer part of the cerebrum is the cerebral cortex. The cerebrum is divided into two parts—the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere—connected by the corpus callosum. Each hemisphere is divided into four lobes. If the movement of a person is disrupted and there seems to be no coordination between the person's arms and legs, you might assume that there has been damage to the frontal lobe.

The Wellness Cycle

One theory to think about stress and the way stress can be managed better is the wellness cycle, developed by Charlesworth and Nathan. There are certain health-promoting lifestyle responses, which can drastically improve how we manage stress. These responses are categorized as:

· Behavioral: This includes things like better time management.

· Physical: This includes exercise, meditation, nutrition, and so on.

· Cognitive or emotional: This includes restructuring thoughts, positive thinking, and so on.

When these health-promoting lifestyle responses are adopted, they can reduce levels of stress and anxiety and increase self-esteem, improve health, and increase resistance to future stressing factors.

Health Psychology focuses on understanding how our emotional and cognitive processes influence our physical well-being. One of the hallmarks of understanding the health and wellness of an individual is understanding stress. Stress is the response of the body to any demand made on it. Some stress is good stress—it leaves you stimulated, motivated, and challenged.

Stress can be cumulative, meaning that something that affected you in the past can add to how you deal with stress in the future. Stress can come from many sources, but the two main sources are your personal life and workplace. Many of us cannot leave our job at work or our personal life at home. It sort of all blends together. If we cannot separate, when we need to, our personal life from our work or vice versa, it can lead to increased stress.

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Through all the stages of life, one thing remains common—learning. So it is important to know what learning is and how it takes place.

Learning is a process whereby experience leads to a relatively consistent change in behavior.

Learning can be separated into sections to further explain what it is:

· Learning is evident from performance improvement

· For example, if someone is working on learning math formulas there should be improved scores on math tests.

· A learned behavior should be able to be performed relatively consistently

· For instance, if you have learned to ride a bike at home, you are unlikely to forget how to ride a bike in a different location or at a different time.

· Learning is a process based on experience

· Interactions with the environment teach us new things, like learning that stoves can be hot.

What learning is and what learning is not?

Temporary changes in behavior due to motivation, drugs, injury, or disease are not learning.

Learning does not include the changes that take place in an individual because of the natural process of maturation or development.

Riding a bike, memorizing the times table of 9's, ballet moves for dance recital, and creating a PowerPoint presentation are all examples of learning.

Why is this important?

There is a debate in the psychology field regarding how much behavior is learned and how much of it is innate (or biologically wired within each of us). Some of the theories we will be discussing focus on the idea that behavior is understood only in terms of our inherited characteristics and simple learned behavior from our environment.

One of the ways that behavior is changed due to experience is called reinforcement.

What is reinforcement?

Reinforcement refers to any event that increases the probability that a response will occur again.

· A response is any identifiable behavior.

· Responses may be observable actions such as running or eating.

· Responses may be internal, such as having a faster heartbeat when you hear a noise in the dark.

Reinforcement is the key to learning, not practice as most of us think.

So, “practice doesn’t make perfect” because we can be practicing the wrong things. Perfect practice ( reinforcement ) produces learning.

What is behavior modification?

Learning principles can be used to manage one’s own behavior or the behavior of others.

Most of the time we think about modifying behavior with children and animals, but all of our behavior is being modified by our environment and the responses that we receive from others around us. Most likely our parents worked at modifying our behavior to help us become responsible adults. Sometimes our response and feedback to others in our lives, like our significant others and bosses, will also modify their actions.

Some psychologists believe that learning occurs in the following basic ways:

· Classical conditioning

· Operant conditioning

· Observational learning

Now, we'll examine each in detail in the subsequent pages.

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Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning, sometimes called Pavlovian conditioning, is a basic form of learning whereby an environmental event (or stimulus) predicts the occurrence of another event. Organisms learn to associateone stimulus with the other.

· Classical conditioning is based on what happens before a response.

· It begins with a stimulus that reliably triggers a response. Then a secondary stimulus that doesn't normally trigger the response is added and linked with the first stimulus.

For example: Susan has two wild ducks that come for food. At first, they came toward her when they saw her throw bread. Now they come when they hear the screen door close. They have associated the sound of the door with food.

Pavlov's Dog Famous Case

Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, discovered that the mere sight of food made his dogs salivate, so he decided to experiment.

· First he rang a bell. The sound didn't cause any response from his dogs.

· After ringing the bell, he gave the dogs food.

· After many times, the ringing of the bell alone would cause the dogs to salivate.

· This was because the dogs had been conditioned to link the sound of the bell with food.

Terminology

· The neutral stimulus (NS), the bell in Pavlov’s case, will become the conditioned stimulus (CS).

· The unconditioned response (UCR) and the conditioned response (CR) will always be the same—as long as the experiment and theory work. (We are trying to get the same response—just by different means.) In Pavlov’s case, the UCR and CR are salivation.

Another example

Let's understand classical conditioning with the help of another example.

Sally is seven years old, and she goes to school. Every day at 12:00, the school bell rings to indicate lunchtime, and all the children run to the cafeteria. Every time the bell rings, Sally begins to salivate in anticipation of the meal she is going to have. Sally's doorbell at home has a similar ringing sound as the bell at school. Because Sally has become conditioned to associate the sound of the bell with forthcoming food, she begins to salivate each time the doorbell of her home rings! Sally's response has become influenced without her realization or deliberate attempt.

Here, a neutral event termed stimulus (the school bell), when paired with another stimulus (food), acquires the tendency to elicit the unconditioned response (salivation). Eventually, the neutral stimulus (bell), will elicit the response (salivation) without presence of the food.

The bell is the neutral stimulus, which, on its own, could not elicit a response. The anticipation of food did elicit a salivation response, and this is known as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). After being paired with the UCS, the neutral stimulus started eliciting the same salivation response as UCS. The neutral stimulus is now known as the conditioned stimulus (CS), because it can elicit the salivation response. The response to the UCS is known as the unconditioned response (UCR), while the response to the conditioned stimulus is known as the conditioned response (CR). This process is the same for all situations of classical conditioning.

Some Basic Principles of Classical Conditioning

· Acquisition: The process of the CS (conditioned stimulus) because of repeated pairings with the UCS (unconditioned stimulus) acquiring a CR (conditioned response) is termed as acquisition. This means the sound of the school bell causes salivation due to the anticipation of food.

· Extinction: After the neutral stimulus changes to CS, it can stop eliciting the CR when the pairing of the CS and UCS stops. This is known as extinction, and in a way it demonstrates the unlearning of the learned response.

· Generalization: Over a period, certain experiences can shape your likes and dislikes. If Sally begins to salivate when she hears any bell ringing, it is known as stimulus generalization. What happens is that the reaction to the stimulus becomes generalized to all similar stimuli.

· Discrimination: Stimulus generalization can be dangerous. For instance, a child who has learned to become friendly with strangers from stimulus generalization finds all adults trusting and kind. To avoid this, the child has to be taught stimulus discrimination—a process of learning to respond to certain stimuli but not to others.

Example of Generalization: Famous Case with Little Albert

Another famous classical conditioning experiment was with Little Albert and researchers John Watson and Rosalie Rayner. This is the case of training the young child to be afraid of a white rat by pairing the appearance of the white rat with a loud noise. They found that after teaching Little Albert to be afraid of the white rat, he was also afraid of other items that were like the white rat, such as a white rabbit, a mask, etc. Little Albert’s reaction to the stimulus had become generalized.

Operant Conditioning had its start with two major influences:

1. The Law of Effect (Edward Thorndike)

1. The Law of Effect: behaviors that are followed by pleasant, positive consequences are likely to increase in frequency.

1. Learning involves an association between a stimulus and a response. (A stimulus–response connection leads to learning.) The process of trial and error builds stimulus—response connections mechanistically.

1. Experimental Analysis of Behavior (B.F. Skinner)

1. The purpose of experimental analysis of behavior was to discover the ways that environmental conditions affect the likelihood that a given response will occur.

1. Operant conditioning procedures facilitate experimental analysis of behavior and modify the probability of different types of operants as a function of the environmental consequences they produce.

1. An operant is any behavior emitted by an organism that affects the environment. It can be defined in terms of the observable effects it has on the environment.

Operant Conditioning

1. In operant conditioning, learning is based on the consequences of responding.

2. A response may be followed by a reinforcer (reward such as food), punishment, or nothing.

3. For example: If you wore a pair of red sneakers and everywhere you went people laughed, you probably wouldn't wear them again.

What happens before and after a response?

Events that happen before the response are the antecedents.

1. When my dog hears me pull in the driveway, she runs to the door.

2. My dog has learned that the sound of the car coming in the driveway means that someone is home.

Effects that follow after the response are the consequences.

1. When I enter the house, I pick her up and pet her.

2. My dog has learned that the sound of a car pulling into the driveway signals she gets hugs and pets.

Six-year-old Susie is rewarded with staying up to watch a fun TV show each time she willingly brushes her teeth before going to bed. One night, however, Susie refused to brush her teeth without repeated reminders, and she was sent to bed without watching the TV show. So, the next night when Susie wanted to watch a show on TV, she decided it was better to brush her teeth without any hassles. This is a typical example of operant conditioning, where learning occurs because specific behaviors are encouraged with rewards and undesirable behaviors are suppressed with punishment.

Operant conditioning can occur in four ways:

· Positive reinforcement: Positive reinforcers are events that, when given following a response, increase the likelihood of that response occurring again. For instance, when your parents hugged and kissed you for saying "please" and "thank you," it increased your likelihood of saying "please" and "thank you" more often.

· Negative reinforcement: Negative reinforcers are events that, when removed following an action, increase the likelihood of the action occurring again. For instance, on a cold winter morning, you are sleeping soundly beneath a warm blanket when, suddenly, the alarm clock goes off. In order to escape the sound of the alarm, which is the negative reinforcer, you turn it off.

· Punishment: Punishments are events that, when given in response to an action, decrease the likelihood of that action occurring again. If you turn a switch on and get an electric shock, you are less likely to turn the switch on again because of the fear of getting a shock again.

· Omission training: Omission training occurs when a positive reinforcer is withdrawn following a response. This decreases the likelihood of that response occurring again. When you behaved badly as a child and your parents didn't let you watch television—positive reinforcer—you stopped behaving badly.

Learned helplessness is a key concept in operant conditioning learning theory.

The classic experiment in learned helplessness uses two conditions. In the first condition, a rat is routinely exposed to painful shocks without any means of escaping them. In the second condition, the same rat and another rat are both exposed to the same number of shocks, except this time they are given a means of turning them off by pressing a lever. In the second phase of the experiment, both rats are exposed to shocks and given the means to turn them off by learning to press a lever. The interesting result is that the rat that was not able to control the shocks in the first phase is unable to learn to turn them off in the second phase. The rat had, in effect, learned to be helpless in the face of an adversive stimulus.

There are many implications of learned helplessness both in stress management and mental health. People who feel they have control over their stressors are better able to cope with them. In mental health there is a model of depression that builds on the concept of learned helplessness, which you will read about in a later chapter of your textbook.

Observational learning refers to learning done vicariously. In observational learning, an organism simply observes another perform a behavior, notes the consequences, and modifies its own behavior in a future, similar situation. It is not unique to humans.

Observational learning is achieved by watching and imitating, not by consequences.

Observational Learning =Modeling

How many of you have kids? Have you ever noticed that they do what you do? (Even the bad things!) That is because they learn by observational learning. You are modeling behavior for them even if you don’t realize it.

You are probably aware of the raging debate on whether or not television is responsible for the impact of violence on children. Some people argue that children learn violence from television; others say it is impossible to learn anything from television, because most of the programs are staged and unreal. The first group of people believes in observational learning—the type of learning that you'll study in this topic.

Observational learning is one of the ways to acquire new information, skills, behaviors, rules, and concepts—it is commonly known as imitation.

Key Factors

The following factors are important to observational learning:

· Attention: In order to learn through observation, you need to direct your attention to the other person whose action you wish to learn.

· Memorization: Besides paying attention to the action that has to be learned, you need to be able to retain that action. You need to remember what the other person has said or done so that you can repeat the same action.

· Production: You convert the actions saved in your memory into appropriate actions. This depends on:

· Your physical ability to perform the given action that is learned—memorizing the observed learning does not help if you are unable to convert that learning into action.

· Your ability to monitor your performance of the learned action—this will help you move closer to the learning that you observed.

· Motivation: Learning is only possible when you are motivated to learn. For instance, a young boy will learn how to defend himself with karate only if he is motivated to pay attention in the karate class.

We have covered the three basic ways of learning. Let's review.

Be sure to check out the Discovering Psychology Video #8 for this Module titled "Learning". This reviews some of these prominent researchers—Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson, and Skinner—who have greatly influenced today's thinking about how learning takes place. This program examines the basic principles of classical and operant conditioning elaborated by these renowned figures.