Central Nervous System (CNS) -Human brain

3 Main Components of the Central Nervous System

Brain- Responsible for the control of our behaviour and regulating the body’s

physiological process. It is also in charge with the functions such as thoughts,

forming memories, movements, and awareness.

Spinal Cord- This is where our body’s sense receptors comes from, it activates when

our brain and spinal cord communicates.

Neurons- Cells that’s responsible for sending messages all over our body.

Parts of the Brain

3 Major Parts:

1. Brain Stem

o Located at the base of the brain

o Most primitive part of the brain

o Responsible for basic corresponding such as; breathing and swallowing

2. Cerebellum (Hindbrain)

o Situated just above the brain stem

o Monitors and regulates our motor behaviours such as; automatic movements

and balance

3. Cerebrum (Forebrain)

o Most recently developed part of the brain

o Largest part of the brain (85% of its total mass)

o Split into two parts; right hemisphere and left hemisphere

o Left is to right and right is to left (reversed)

4 Minor Parts:

4. Frontal Lobes

o Located at the forefront of the brain

o Responsible for higher cognitive functioning, language development,

attention, decision making, and problem solving.

5. Occipital Lobes

o Positioned at the back of the brain

o Takes charge in processing and encoding various visual information. Such

as; colours, orientation, and motion

6. Parietal Lobes

o Situated at the top of our brain

o Responsible for processing sensory information, attentional awareness,

visuospatial processing, and integrating somatosensory

7. Temporal Lobes

o Located just behind the ears

o Responsible for recognition, perception (hearing, vision, smell),

understanding language, and the formation of memories.

LIMBIC SYSTEM (FOREBRAIN)

- refers to a group of about half a dozen interconnected structures that make up
the core of the forebrain
- involved with regulating many motivational behaviors (obtaining food,drink,
and sex)
- organizing emotional behaviors (fear,anger,aggression)
- storing memories

Four parts of limbic

Hypothalamus - regulates motivational behaviors, emotional behaviors, secretion of
hormones (puberty), and controls two divisions of autonomic nervous system
Amygdala - located in the tip of temporal lobe, receives input from the senses,
evaluating significance of stimuli and facial expressions that involves fear, distress,
or threat
Thalamus - involved in receiving sensory information
Hippocampus - a curved structure inside the temporal lobe, involved in saving many
kinds of fleeting memories by putting them into permanent storage (saving things in
long-term storage)

MIDBRAIN
- has a reward or pleasure center
- has areas for visual and auditory reflexes
SPINAL CORD
- is a long, thin collection of neurons attached to the brain stem
- contains circuits of neurons which can control some of our simple reflexes

Neurotransmitters

o Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that are released from a

synaptic vesicle into the synapse by neurons. It is vital in boosting and

balancing signals in the brain and for keeping the brain functioning.

Types of Neurotransmitters

Adrenaline

o Fight or Flight

o Produced by stressful events

o Increased heart rate and blood flow

o Physical boost and heightened awareness

Noradrenaline

o Concentration

o Affects attention and responding actions

o Contracts blood vessels resulting into an increased blood flow

Dopamine

o Pleasure

o Feeling of addiction, movement, and motivation

o Humans tends to repeat actions that produces dopamine

Serotonin

o Mood

o Contributes to well-being and happiness

o Aids sleep cycle and digestive regulation

o Affected by exercise and light exposure

Gaba

o Calming

o Calms firing nerves in the central nervous system

o High level improves focus

o Low level results into anxiety

o Improves motor control and vision

Acetylcholine

o Learning

o Involves thought, learning, and memory

o Activates muscle action in the body

o Related with attention and awakening

Glutamate

o Memory

o Most common type of neurotransmitter

o Also related with learning and memory

o Regulates the development and creation of nerve contact

Endorphins

o Euphoria

o Produced while engaging with exercise, excitement, and sex

o Regulates well-being and reduces pain

Module 1: Thinking Self

Two Modes of Thinking

System 1- Operates automatically and quickly with little or no effort and no sense of

voluntary control

o Fast

o Intuitive

o Emotional

o Automatic

o Less Cognitive Effort

System 2- Allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it,

including complex computation

o Slow

o Deliberate

o Reflective

o Analytical

o Complex

o Effortful

Cognitive Biases

o Thinking may be prone to systematic errors.

o Some belief might not be based on evidence but we continue to consider

them as truths
 o Even though you know what the objective reality is, it does not change the

way you see it

Peak End Rule

o People judge an experience based on how they felt at it PEAK and its END

o Remembering Self; writes, reads, replays your autobiographical history

o Experiencing Self; lives trough the moment

Representativeness

o When people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event

belongs to a category

o Assumption that any object (or person) sharing characteristics with the

members of a particular category is also a member of that category

Anchoring and Adjustment

o Anchor based on a given reference point

o Adjust on the anchor (either higher or lower)

o In making judgements under uncertainty, people start with a certain

reference point (anchor), then adjust it insufficiently to reach a final

conclusion.

Module 2: Feeling Self

Emotions and its Features

Cognitive

o Processes our thoughts

o Interpretation of an event

Antecedent

o Cause/Trigger
Physiological

o Biological reactions

o Role of the nervous system

Behavioral

o Expressions/Response

Antecedent Condition

o Events, contexts, or situations that trigger an emotion

o Universality of antecedent events elicit same emotions across cultures

Cognitive Appraisal

o Thoughts and beliefs can impact how you feel and behave

Emotional Expression

o Cultural rules that dictate how emotions should be expressed when and

where expression is appropriate.

Theories of Emotion

James Lange Theory

o States that all emotion is derived from the presence of a stimulus, which

evokes physiological response such as muscular tension, rise in heart rate ,

perspiration and dryness of mouth. This physical arousal makes a person

feel a specific emotion.

Cannon Bard Theory

o States the emotion and arousal occur simultaneously

Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory

o This theory says that psychological and cognitive processes work together to

determine emotions
Module 3: Psychological Perspective

Personality

o Talks about enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviours which

characterize how we adapt to our world

Psychodynamic View

o Sees personality as primarily unconscious, occurring in stages and being

linked to early experiences

3 Personality Structures

Id

o Houses biological instincts, completely unconscious, operates according to

pleasure principle.

Ego

o Operates according to the principles of reality

Super Ego

o Moral branch of the personality

o Operates base on beliefs and values

Humanistic Perspective

o Gives emphasis on personal experience and person’s capacity for growth

and free-will to determine his own destiny.

Sigmund Freud

o Freud believed that the levels of mind includes conscious, subconscious, and

unconscious but behaviour is motivated more by our unconscious motives,

fears, desires, etc.

Carl Rogers

o Focused on self-concept which is the person’s overall perception of his

abilities, behaviour and personality.

 o 3 conditions to have growth promoting climate: genuineness, unconditional

positive regard, empathy

Abraham Maslow

o Assumed that people are free to shape their own lives and desire to achieve

self-actualization. There is a hierarchy of needs that we satisfy;

o Physiological need or biological needs such as food, water, sleep.

o Safety or security needs to be safe from danger, illness or threat.

o Belongingness need is to love and be loved in return, to socialize and have

friends.

o Self-esteem need means being accepted, respected and valued by others.

o Self-actualization refers to self-fulfilment or achievement of one’s

potentialities.

Behaviourism

o Asserts that the observable behaviours of a person are in fact the personality

and emphasize the importance of the environment in determining behaviours

and thus personality

Stimulus Response Theory

o Is a concept in psychology that refers to the belief that behaviour manifests

as a result of the interplay between stimulus and response

o Stimulus is anything that produces response.

Bf Skinner

o States that behaviour is positively reinforced tend to be repeated and if not it

will subside

o Law of Effect
Albert Bandura

o Behaviour is mostly developed through observation and imitation

o Bandura thinks that human beings are simply pawns to the environment

Freud’s Defense Mechanisms

Denial
o Refusal to accept reality.
Repression
o Forcing disturbing and threatening thoughts into the unconscious, creating
anxiety.
Projection
o An individual attributes unwanted thoughts, feelings, and motives onto
another person.
Displacement
o Redirection of an impulse (aggression) onto a powerless person or object.
Regression
o Ego reverts to an earlier stage of development. (childish)
Sublimation
o Displace unacceptable emotions into behaviors that are socially acceptable.
Rationalization
o Make an event or impulse less threatening/will make up logical reasoning
why things happens
Reaction Formation
o A person goes beyond denial and behaves in the opposite way of what
he/she thinks or feels.

Module 4: Bioecological Systems Theory

Urie Bronfenbrenner
o An American psychologist who formulated the Bioecological Systems Theory
o Explain how the inherent qualities of a child and his environment interact to
influence how he will grow and develop
o Studying a child in the contexts of multiple environments (ecological
systems) can understand his development
The Bronfenbrenner Models

Microsystem
o Smallest and most immediate environment
o Interactions within the microsystem typically involve personal relationships in
home, school, and community
Mesosystem
o Interactions of the different microsystem
o Involves linkages between home and school, between peer group and family,
or between family and church.
Exosystem
o Pertains to the situation that may exist between two or more settings, one of
which may not contain the developing child but affects him indirectly
nonetheless.
Macrosystem
o Is the largest and most distant collection of people and places to the child
o Composed of the child’s cultural patterns and values, specifically the child’s
dominant beliefs and ideas, as well as political and economic systems
Chronosystem
o Adds the useful dimension of time, which demonstrates the influence of both
change and constancy in the child’s environment.
o Includes change in family structure, address, parent’s employment status