Nervous System and Psychology Research Methods Essay

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January 15, 14

History of Psychology
Lesson Introduction
“Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem”

How is Psychology Defined? (it is science)
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes. (human nature)

Influences from Philosophy
Debate: Head versus Heart
Practices of the early Egyptians suggest that the heart was seen as more important than the brain.
The process of trepanation dates back over 10,000 years. (Drilling a hole in your head)
Plato (427-347 B.C.)
Tripartite theory of reasoning (3 main important part)
Brain- logical and rationally thinking
Heart- think emotionally, anger
Gut – jealousy, greed, lust
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
Followed the cardiac hypothesis of reasoning
You think with our heart, the brain is an minor import
Heart is more central in our body, it thinks. And also hotter than the brain. Brain just sits there.
We think with our heart.
Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
Followed a medical model to explain mental illness known as the humoral theory
He thought internal.
Humoral- imbalanced fluid
Yellow bio
Black bio
Blood
Flem
Convinced the brain was the major controlling center
Everything that who we are come from brain.

Claude Galen (130-200 A.D.)
Surgeon to the gladiators
Couldn’t dissect people, so dissect the animals.
Primary chief for 4 different empire
Also stated the brain was the central organ of cognition
It is the brain.
Ventricular theory (there are several cavities in our brain which is called ventricle)
Ventricle produce spiral fluid. Today it is not true about ventricle.
Influences from Physiology
Debate: Localization versus Holism
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Followed a dualism approach to scientific study.
Dualism: They believe that mind and physical body are separate thing.
The body is an automaton with tiny tubes or balloons running into the muscles.
The body is just a machine- automaton.
Idea came from technology.
Interaction is at the pineal gland.
Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828)
Phrenology- skill features represent underlying brain development.
His strongest ability was to dissect a brain.
Mapped out the skull to represent 27 different faculties of thought.
Good theory, very poor methodology
Love bump in the back of our head.
Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (1794- 1867 A.D.)
Was fired by the French government to prove Gall wrong.
Conducted experiments on pigeons to support holism.
Good methodology, but bad theory
He used animals, not humans
Fritsch and Hitzig (1870)
Experimentation with the motor cortex of dogs.
Paul Broca (1865)
Published a case of a patent “Tan” who had great language difficulties and suffered left hemisphere damage.
“Nous parlons avec I’hemisphere guache”

Debate: War of Soups and Sparks (cells of our nervous system. how do they talk to each other?)

So is communication by fluids or is it electrical in nature?
Recall Descartes “balloonist” approach and Hippocrates’ Humoral theory.
Experiments by Francis Glisson and Giovanni Borelli (circa 1680)
Cut hand and put the hand under the water.
(Soup side)
Mike the Headless Chicken
After his head was chopped off, he lived for 18 months.
Feed him with eyedropper.
He started chocking, so he died.
Even though he didn’t have a head, he could walk around and eat. Etc.
Chopped only top part of the brain, not the lower portion of the brain.

(Spark side):
Luigi Galvani (1786)
Discovered bioelectricity accidentally using frog legs hung on brass hooks of an iron railing.
Believed muscles contained “animal electricity”
It is not fluid, but electricity that causes us to move.
Giovanni Aldini was the cousin of Galvani.
He first experiment it with animal heads.
Andrew Ure
He got the body. He decided to drain the blood of the body. He put holes and slits in criminal’s body. See what was going one.
Otto Loewi (1873-1961)- Soup side
Conducted an experiment with frog’s hearts to demonstrate a
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