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Week 5 Assignment
Kayla Williamson
PSY101
Professor Fearn (Professor Heather Burke)
November 6, 2022
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Week 5 Assignment
Part One: Biology and the Mind
1. Discuss how Zoe’s brain is contributing to her feelings of happiness and motivation
after receiving a good grade and positive feedback on her psychology assignment.
Identify specific neurotransmitters that are likely involved.
There are several different types of neurotransmitters. Zoe's brain is contributing to her
feelings of happiness and motivation after receiving her good grade and positive feedback
on her psychology assignment because her dopamine Neurotransmitters are letting her
feel the pleasure of reward and motivation and desire. They are not acting alone they
have the help of neurons and synapses (webtext, 2.3. 2.4).
2. Explain what the autonomic nervous system is. Then discuss how Zoe’s autonomic
nervous system was involved during and after her response to the sound of the
fallen pan of lasagna.
“The autonomic nervous system relays information to and from the central nervous
system but this system bridges communications between the CNS and your internal
organs and glands it releases hormones and it sends messages to the brain 2 tell how
hungry you are how fast your heart is beating.” (webtext 2.9). The autonomic nervous
system is divided into two parts, one of them activates the bodies reflexes and high stress
situations to get better prepared to move quickly. When she heard the lasagna that part of
our brain initiated (webtext, 2.9).
Part Two: Human Development
3. Discuss how Zoe’s brain was developing between age 17 and now. Be sure to include
specific brain structures in your response. Explain how these changes in Zoe’s brain
can explain her behavior around her high school friends.
Zoe's brain at age 17 is only partially developed. Myelination and pruning occur in
adolescence. The cortex and frontal lobes are the last to go through this process of
pruning, or erasing unused information. Myelination increases white matter, which
speeds up neural communication (Harper, 1)pg.81. These changes result in faster
emotional processing, more meaningful feelings towards rewards, and becoming more
capable of regulating emotions and behaviors. This explains teens having emotional
outbursts, risk-taking, and reliance on peers. An example of this would be how Zoe was
wearing similar clothes and adopting the same interests as her peers. Also, this could
explain why she was participating in reckless illegal activities, and why she took Tori's
advice and started looking up to Tori(Harper, 1)pg.82.
4. How did Tori’s weekly talks likely contribute to Zoe’s identity development?
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Her brain is developing the part of the cortex that holds strong values, beliefs, and goals.
Also rewards for positives ones. Brain development, and the increasing ability to think
abstractly, helps to accomplish these goals. Hearing an older adult like Tori, Zoe's former
manager, affects her adolescence way of thinking (Harper, 1)pg. 97.
Part Three: Memory
5. Explain what encoding failure is and how it can account for Zoe’s low grade on the
practice quiz.
In order to understand how an encoding failure can be responsible for Zoe's low grade on
the practice test, let's take a look what an encoding failure is. An encoding failure is the
information we take in that never makes it to our long-term memory, so it never gets
stored there (Harper, 1)pg. 129.Zoe most likely didn't study, because repetition
sends ,memories to long term to be remembered a longer period of time.
6. Explain why Zoe is more likely to understand and remember what she read the
second time, when she uses active study strategies. Be sure to include specific
concepts, or topics, from this chapter in your response.
Zoe is more likely to remember reading what she read a second time than the first time.
This is due to lack of the process called elaborative rehearsal. Elaborative rehearsal is
connecting new information to something already meaningful, allowing you to go into a
deeper level of understanding and successfully remembered memories(Harper, 1).
Part Four: Emotion
7. Identify the three components of emotions. Then discuss how Zoe experiences each
component in this scenario. What are her physical symptoms, thoughts, and
behaviors?
The three components of emotions are: they are embodied, conscious cognitive
experiences, and communicated through behavioral expressions(Harper, 1)p.151. In this
scenario, Zoe's physical symptoms are tense muscles and rapid heartbeat. Her thoughts
are suppressed and behaviors are rude.
8. Suggest two ways that Zoe can better regulate her emotions. Which concepts, or
topics, from this chapter explain why your suggestions might work?
She can stop and think before she acts, and she can calm her body before making
decisions to regulate her emotions, This may work according to what it informs us in the
webtext about emotional regulation (Harper, 1)p.177.
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Sources
Jennifer Harper. 2023. Psychology in the Real World. p. 129, 151, 81, 82, 97, p.177.
https://www.webtexts.com
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