Study Guide for PSB2000 Exam 1 It is always advisable to know the key terms introduced in each section However the study hints listed here by chapter will also help you focus on other important concepts for the exam Any material from Chapters 1 3 may be evaluated on the exam Chapter 1 Study Hints Understand and be able to answer conceptual or factual questions about the biological explanations of behavior Physiological Ontogenetic Evolutionary Functional Psychological explanation deals with the machinery of the body ex the chemical reactions that enable hormones to influence brain activity and routes by which brain activity controls contractions Ontogenetic explanation describes how a structure or behavior develops including the influences of genes nutrition experiences and their interactions Ex the ability to inhibit impulses develops gradually from infancy through the teenage years reflecting gradual maturation of the frontal parts of the brain Evolutionary explanation reconstructs the evolutionary history of a structure or behavior Ex monkeys use tools occasionally and humans evolved elaborations on those abilities that enable us to use tools even better This explanation also calls attention to features left over from ancestors that serve little to no function to the descendants Ex Goosebumps Functional explanation describes why a structure or behavior evolved as it did Within a small isolated population a gene can spread by accident through a process called genetic drift Ex a dominant male with many offspring spreads all his genes including some that helped him become dominant and other genes that were neutral of possible disadvantageous A functional explanation identifies that advantage pages 4 6 The mind brain mind body problem is defined as trying to determine the relationship between the mental mind and the physical brain Know the difference between dualism Descartes and most non scientists and monism most neuroscientists For monism understand what is meant by identity position Dualism The belief that the mind and the body are different kinds of substances that exist independently Decartes I think therefore I am Decartes defended dualism but recognized the vexing issue of how a mind hat is not made of material could influence a physical brain He proposed that mind and brain interact at a single point in space which he suggested was the pineal gland the smallest unpaired structure he could find in the brain Modern scientists reject dualism The decisive objection is that dualism conflicts with one of the cornerstones of physics known as the conservation of matter and energy Because matter alters its course only when other matter or energy acts upon it a mind that is not composed of matter or energy could not make anything happen including muscle movements Monism the alternative to dualism is the belief that the universe consists of only one kind of substance There are various forms 1 Materialism the view that everything that exists is material or physical Eliminative materialism states that mental events don t exist at all and any folk psychology based on minds and mental activity is fundamentally mistaken 2 Mentalism the view that only the mind really exists and that the physical world could not exist unless some mind were aware of it 3 Identity position the view that mental processes and certain kinds of brain processes are the same things described in different terms By analogy one could describe the Mona Lisa as an extraordinary painting or one could list the exact color and brightness of each point on the painting Although the two descriptions appear entirely different they refer to the same object The identity position does not say that the mind is the brain It says the mind is brain activity Know the difference between DNA and RNA and the difference between chromosomes and genes and know the difference between heterozygous different and homozygous same and what that means for dominant vs recessive genes DNA deoxyribonucleic acid Classically a gene has been defined as a portion of a chromosome which is composed of the double stranded molecule DNA A strand of DNA serves as a template model for the synthesis of RNA DNA contains 4 bases adenine guanine cytosine and thymine in any order The order of those bases alone an RN molecule in turn determines the order of amino acids that compose a protein RNA ribonucleic acid a single strand chemical One type of RNA molecule messenger RNA serves as a template for the synthesis of protein molecules 1 Chromosomes a threadlike structure of nucleic acids and protein found in the nucleus of most living cells carrying genetic information in the form of genes Genes homozygous identical pair of genes on the two chromosomes heterozygous an unmatched pair of genes Sex linked vs sex limited A sex linked gene is on a sex chromosome usually the X chromosome because the Y chromosome is SO MUCH SHORTER A sex limited gene could be on any chromosome chromosomes that are not sex chromosomes are autosomal chromosomes but it is activated by sex hormones and therefore shows its effects only in one sex or the other Sex linked Genes that are located on the sex chromosomes LOOK AT Q Sex limited Genes that are present in both sexes but mainly have an effect on one sex ex chest hair breast size etc What are some possible complications in estimating hereditary influences in behavior Consider possible consequences of prenatal influences and the multiplier effect Almost all behaviors have both a genetic component and an environmental component Genes do not directly produce proteins that increase the probability that a behavior will develop under certain circumstances Genes can have an indirect affect can alter your environment by producing behaviors or traits that alter how people in your environment react to you Also it is important to remember that it is often a misconception that shared traits between identical twins who were raised separately can be attributed fully to genetics Because we often forget that these twins shared a womb together for 9 months that s a shared environment which means many of their shared traits can actually be attributed to nurture and not nature The multiplier effect Tendency for small genetic or prenatal influences to change the environment in a way that magnifies the change Heritable does not mean unmodifiable Phenylketonuria is an example of this How Phenylketonuria PKU leading to mental retardation unless the afflicted
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