Human Anatomy Psychological Issues - Essay Example

? Essay Psychology Essay Psychology Sensation and Perception The human anatomy has five sense organs. These organs are made of cellular structures with receptors. The cellular structures have links to the nervous system and thus to brain (Anatomy and Structure). Sensing is activated at the cell levels and then formed into sensation by the nervous system, which is then perceived by the brain. Thus, the whole process of sensation and perception can be explained as cause and effect of stimuli, where stimuli are events. The process that converts sensation to perception is called transduction. Transduction is an act of transforming information from the organ of senses into electrical impulses so the brain can understand. What brain then delivers to us is called perception. The human body reacts to the sensation and perception. The branch of psychology that deals with this relationship is called Psychophysics. Gustav Fechnar, a nineteenth century psychologist, studied at which point a person became aware of sensation; in other word the thresholds when brain interprets sensation. Psychologists determined two different thresholds for sensation and perception; absolute thresholds, and difference thresholds. Absolute threshold defines brains ability to perceive a stimulus at the lowest possible intensity. The difference threshold defines brain’s perception to determine the change in stimulus intensity. Can the human brain perceive stimuli below absolute threshold? The answer is yes; it is called subliminal stimuli and marketing technique uses it for subliminal advertisements. The difference threshold defines the brain’s ability to perceive intensity difference of a stimulus, which is a function of its original strength (Intro to Sensation and Perception). This means if one is reading using a light bulb, addition of candlelight will not be noticed. However, the opposite will be noticed, because the original strength is weaker than the additional strength. This phenomenon is called Weber’s law. Sensory adoption and selective attention phenomenon also influence sensation and perception. Human Intelligence Human intelligence is one of the heated debated topics where psychologists failed to secure a common answer. Many views that the foundation of intelligence is a biological factor, and others consider it is directly related to the success. Thus, we can deduce that a distinct genetic group is more intelligent than other groups, and a person who did not achieve success in his life is not intelligent. History shows that these types of interpretation of intelligence were used to justify discrimination of one race against another. Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s book, The Bell Curve, published in 1994 used racial discrimination concept to explain human intelligence. The authors studied the variations of intelligence in American society using empirical statistical analysis based on the results of standardized intelligence tests. According to them, African American and Latinos are less intelligent than Caucasians and Asian Americans (The Bell Curve). Authors’ conclusions were highly criticized by many famous psychologists. Ulrich Neisser along with a group of psychologists explained intelligence through certain characteristics. According to them, an intelligent person learns from the experience, engages in various forms of reasoning, overcomes obstacles by using thinking process, can adapt to the environment, can understand complex ideas (Introduction to Emotion). These characteristics do not necessarily confirms that intelligent people are those people who did well in the school tests, or read a lot of books. Instead, a street-smart person and a person who could pick up a dance quickly could also be an intelligent person. Charles Spearman supported Neisswr’s idea and devised two-factor theory of intelligence through the study of student grades using factor analysis statistical method. His theory depicts two types of human intelligence: general global or g factor, and specific or s factor. G factor postulates that one determining intelligence factor governs all cognitive abilities. S factor only defines a specific single intellectual skill (Introduction to Emotion). Emotions Emotions are reaction of the brain to stimuli and are expressed through experiences such as happiness, love, panic, fear, hate, anger, belief and despair. Emotions have three parts: subjective feelings, physiological responses and expressive behavior (Emotions). Subjective component refers to how an individual experiences emotions. Subjective component is difficult to measure. Physiological response relates to the release of adrenaline by the human body and it is possible to measure. Expressive behavior demonstrates reaction of an individual to the emotional experiences. At the same time, expressive behavior shows how a person manages emotional behavior, navigate social complexities and make critical decisions (About Emotional Intelligence). These skills together are called emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence shows one’s competence in managing emotional behavior, navigating social complexities and making the critical decision. In 1848, railroad worker, Phineas Gage's brain was injured when a rod propelled through his head while working with the gunpowder. Phineas survived the injury, but it drastically changed his personality. After the injury, he developed irritable, quick to anger, and impulsive characteristics in his personality. Gage lost some of his emotional intelligence after the accident. Emotion is a reaction of the brain to stimuli. The accident injured Gage’s part of his brain’s Frontal lobe. Study showed that injury to the Frontal lobe and Amygdala, an almond shaped organ in two hemispheres of brain, change emotional intelligence of people. Like Gage, another woman with brain injury to her Amygdala lost response to fear. Response to emotion is necessary for a person’s well-being, survival and quality of life. The emotion of fear can keep a person safe from dangerous things, nurture the children when they are crying (Introduction to Emotion). Emotions still remains mysterious; an individual does not know if external symptoms cause emotion, or an individual is driven by emotion. Psychologists try to answer these questions, and more (Introduction to Emotion). Definition of Disorders A psychological disorder is a state of mind of a person, which involves the person’s behavior, thoughts, and emotions that cause suffering to that individual and others around that person (Psychological Disorder). Each person’s brain everyday perceives events through sensation, and this is how one learns new information and behavior. However, a person with a psychological disorder receives distorted perception. For example, when there is no sound, a person with a mental disorder may hear background noise. The non-existing sound is called hallucination, and this is a symptom of schizophrenia disorder. Another mental disorder is phobia. A phobia is an irrational fear of a subject from an event (Phobic Disorder). When Jenny was growing up, several times was attacked by a black bird when she went out to get the mail out of the mailbox. Eventually, she developed an abnormal fear of birds (Definition of Didorders). Jenny’s mental disorder is an example of phobia. Clinical psychologists treat schizophrenia and phobia type mental disorders. Clinical psychologists and research psychologists are different. Research psychologists study healthy human mind while clinical psychologists, like a medical doctor, treat the psychological disorder diseases. Medical doctors treat diseases of the body while clinical psychologists treat diseases of the mind. Clinical psychologists are called therapist who deals with emotional and mental disorders. Disease of mind is the psychological disorder, and it takes place when normal brain functioning goes wrong. Parkinson’s disease, anxiety disorder, depression, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorders are just few examples of when brain functioning goes wrong (Mental Disorder). Someone with this problem needs to seek help from a group of therapists consisting of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and counselors. Diagnosis A human is integration of two components: body, and mind. When body is affected by some disorders, it expresses through symptoms. An individual goes to a medical doctor to find the answer what does the symptom express and why it is caused. The answer of these questions is called medical diagnosis; identification of disease from symptom. For example, one has a throat disorder functioning; the doctor determines the nature of illness is a sore throat, which is caused by the bacteria strep. The medical doctor diagnosis answered to “what” and “why” questions (Classification and Diagnosis). Just like body, when mind is affected by disorders, it also exhibits certain symptoms; however, in this case it is much harder to get the answers of above discussed “what” and “why”. When body shows disorder, for example, one complains about soar throat, a doctor can conduct a swab and discover why. When mind shows a disorder, for example, hallucinations or delusions, a psychologist does not have an option to run an alternative equivalent to swab test (Classification and Diagnosis). Psychological diagnosis is difficult than medical diagnosis that is why; psychologists have worked hard to improve diagnosis (Classification and Diagnosis). Psychologists David Rosenhan undertook an experiment to find out how authentically hospital diagnoses mentally ill patients. He sent pseudopatients, including himself who faked their symptoms to assess how doctors established diagnosis. The healthy people were diagnosed mentally ill. Once Rosenhan announced these embarrassing results, another hospital extended a challenge to him by asking to send fake patients. Hospital announced that they detected 49 fake cases out of 195 people while Rosenahn sent none (Classification and Diagnosis). These two incidents illustrate the difficulty in diagnosing mentally ill patients. Psychologists use Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder or DSM to diagnose mental illness. Since its creation in 1952, DSM always underwent revisions depending on new achievements in psychology. The current DSM – IV recommends psychologists to use a system of five axes when making comprehensive diagnosis. Axis I includes clinical disorders; Axis II is used for intellectual and personality disorders; Axis III includes medical and physical disorders; Axis IV is used for social and environmental factors, and Axis V is used to complete patient’s psychological profile (Classification and Diagnosis). Rosenhan’s investigation and DSM show that diagnosing and treating mental illness is not a black and white process (Classification and Diagnosis) References About Emotional Intelligence. (n.d.). talentsmart.com. TALENESMART. Retrieved from from http://www.talentsmart.com/about/emotional-intelligence.php Anatomy and Structure of Human Sense Organs. (n.d.). scientificpsychic.com. Scientific Physics. Retrieved from http://www.scientificpsychic.com/workbook/chapter2.htm Classification and Diagnosis. (n.d.). education-portal.com. Education Portal. Retrieved from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/classification-and-diagnosis.html Definition of Disorders. (n.d.). education-portal.com. Education Porta. Retrieved from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/definition-of-disorders.html Emotions. (n.d.). humanillnes.com. Human Disease and Conditions. Retrieved from http://www.humanillnesses.com/Behavioral-Health-Br-Fe/Emotions.html Introduction to Emotion. (n.d.). education-portal.com. Education Portal Retrieved from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/introduction-to-emotions.html Intro to Sensation and Perception. (n.d.). education-portal.com. Education Portal. Retrieved from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/intro-to-sensation-and-perception.html Mental Disorders are Disorders of the Brain. (n.d.). sciencedaily.com. Science Daily. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071016091009.htm Phobic Disorders. (n.d.). medscape.com. Medscape. Retrieved from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/288016-overview Psychological Disorder. (n.d.). aleydog.com. Psycological Glossary. Retrieved from http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Psychological%20Disorder The Bell Curve. (n.d.). indiana.edu. Human Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/bellcurve.shtml Read More