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Biological Level of Analysis (LOA)
The biological or physiological level of analysis explains behavior in terms of physiology meaning that it
explains behavior in terms of the brain, genes, neurotransmitters and hormones.
What are the Principles of the Biological LOA?
1. Behavior is biologically determined by physiological processes such as the nervous system
(neurotransmitters e.g. serotonin) and the endocrine system (hormones e.g. testosterone)
2. The above principle was expressed as "all that is psychological is first physiological"
3. Patterns of behavior can be inherited through genetics
4. The study of animals can inform our understanding of human behavior
Principles of the Biological Level Demonstrated in Theories and Research
 Localization of function (case study of Phineas Gage)
 Genetic predisposition of diseases using correlational twin research (Minnesota Twin Studies)
Research Methods
 Experiments
 Observations
 Correlational Studies (Twin studies)
 Case studies (Phineas Gage)
 Ethical Concerns
Describe the ethical concerns associated with the Biological LOA
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Physiology and Behavior
Localization of Function
 Broca's Area - Involved in speech production - Patients with Broca's aphasia lack fluency of
speech
 Wernicke's Area - Involved in speech comprehension - Patients can produce speech but not
comprehend it
 Phineas Gage (case study)
Much of what psychologists know about the human brain has come from case studies of individuals
who had brain surgery or brain damage in accidents. Phineas Gage is one such case study. He was a
young railroad worker in 1848 who had an accident at work. He was forcing gun powder into a rock with
a long iron rod when the gun powder exploded. The iron rod shot through his cheek and out the top of
his head, resulting in substantial damage to his frontal lobe. Incredibly, he did not appear to be very
hurt. His memory and mental abilities were intact, and he could speak and work. However, his
personality totally changed. Before the accident, he had been nice to be around, but afterward he
became ill-tempered and dishonest. He lost his job and ended up working as an exhibit at fairs.
Phineas Gage’s injury served as a case study for the effects of frontal lobe damage. He did not lose a
specific mental ability, such as the ability to speak or follow directions. However, his personality and
moral sense were altered. Psychologists now know that parts of the cortex (called the association
areas) are involved in general mental processes, and damage to those areas can greatly change a
person.
Describe at least two limitations of this case study.
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Effects of Neurotransmission on Behavior
Neurotransmitters
1. Serotonin
 Sleep
 Arousal Levels
 Emotion
 Happiness - Monks hallucinated after 48 hours of no food or water - linked to increased
serotonin levels (Kasamatsu & Hirai, 1999)
Study: An Electroencephalographic Study on the Zen Meditation. (Kasamatsu & Hirai, 1999)
Aim: to determine how sensory deprivation affects the brain
Method: studied Buddhist monks on a 72 hour pilgrimage to a holy mountain; took blood samples
before the trip and after monks reported hallucinations
Results: found increase in serotonin levels had activated the hypothalamus
Serotonin plays diverse roles in various parts of the brain affecting our frame of mind, appetite,
learning aptitude, memory, and arousal levels. A study carried out in 1999 at Tokyo’s University by two
researches named Kasamatsu and Hairi sought to find out how sensory deprivation affects our brain.
They followed monk’s on a pilgrimage to a holy mountain in Japan. The trip was intended to take 72
hours without any food, water, or dialogue. After 48 hours, the monk’s began to hallucinate and thought
they saw ancient ancestors or felt their presence by their side. The researches had taken blood
samples of the monk’s before the trip and after they began to hallucinate. The results were an increase
in the serotonin level, which means that the thalamus and frontal cortex of the brain became active,
causing them to hallucinate. Higher serotonin levels will activate parts of the brain that causes
hallucinations.
Find a second neurotransmitter and a psychological study using this neurotransmitter. Briefly describe
the study, findings, and limitations. Be sure to include title of study, researcher, and year.
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Functions of Two Hormones on Behavior
1. Testosterone – Aggression
Study: Hormone Spikes After Handling Gun, Making Men More Aggressive (Klinesmith, 2006)
The finding comes from a study by psychology student Jennifer Klinesmith and her professors at Knox
College, Galesburg, Ill. (2006) Klinesmith designed the study, in which 18- to 22-year-old college men
participated. Klinesmith told the men they'd be taking part in a study of the effect of attention to detail
on taste sensitivity. She collected a saliva sample for testosterone testing. Then she led each man into
a room where he sat at a table with an object on it. The man had to take apart the object and put it back
together according to instructions. For half the men, the object was a pellet gun that mimicked a Desert
Eagle automatic handgun. The other half of the men worked with a child's game called Mouse Trap.
Fifteen minutes later, the men gave another saliva sample. Then they were asked to taste a lidded 3ounce cup of water with a drop of Frank's Red Hot Sauce in it.
Hot-Sauce Trick
Finally, the men were given a 3-ounce cup of water and a bottle of the hot sauce. They were told the
water would be given to the next man in the study, and that they could — anonymously — put as much
hot sauce in the water as they liked. This hot-sauce trick has been used before. The more aggressive a
man is feeling, the more hot sauce he tends to put in the next man’s drink. Sure enough, testosterone
went up about 100 times more in the men who handled the gun than in the men who handled the
children's toy. And the gun handlers put three times more hot sauce in the water — on average, about
a half ounce — than the toy handlers. The more a man's testosterone went up after gun handling, the
more hot sauce he put in the water. "Such findings raise many of the usual questions about whether the
presence of guns in modern society contributes to violent behavior," Klinesmith and colleagues
conclude. "Although our study is clearly far from definitive, its results suggest that guns may indeed
increase aggressiveness partially via changes in the hormone testosterone."
The study appears in the July issue of Psychological Science.
2. Oxytocin - Trust
Study: Oxytocin increases trust in humans. (Kosfeld et al, 2005)
Biology of trust
There is a simple hypothesis about what steers the human brain to trust another human: a hormone
called oxytocin. Oxytocin is produced in the brain’s hypothalamus and stored in the posterior pituitary
gland. We know that it helps smooth muscle contractions in childbirth and in breastfeeding mothers. But
recently we’ve discovered that its applications go beyond the maternal. It turns out that oxytocin also
reduces social anxiety and helps people meet and bond with each other. A man and woman involved in
the mating dance are releasing oxytocin; so are friends having a good time at dinner.
Forming relationships like these involves trust, but is there a direct connection between trust and
oxytocin? To find out, my colleagues and I conducted an experiment in which participants took either
oxytocin or a placebo. Fifty minutes later, participants played the trust game against four different
anonymous partners. They played with real money, with each point worth almost half a Swiss franc.
The results revealed that oxytocin does indeed seem to grease the wheels of trust. Of the 29 investors
who had taken oxytocin, 45 percent transferred the maximum amount of 12 points in each interaction.
By contrast, only 21 percent of the placebo-group investors did so. The average transfer made by the
oxytocin-group investors was 9.6 points, compared with 8.1 points by the placebo group investors.
Interestingly, the investors’ expectations about the back-transfer from the trustee did not differ between
the oxytocin and placebo recipients. Oxytocin increased the participants’ willingness to trust others.
The Trust Game
This is a two player game with the following setup. One player, an investor, is given money at the start.
The investor can take the money and end the game, or he can give all or part of it to the other player,
the trustee. Whatever money is offered is tripled before the trustee gets it. In turn, the trustee can either
take the money or send part or all of it back to the investor.
Effects of Environment on Physiological Processes
 Brain plasticity - ability to rewire connections between neurons
o Enriching environment leads to increased cortical thickness in rats compared to boring
environment (Rosenzweig & Bennett, 1972)
 Environmental stressors at work can increase our susceptibility to disease (e.g. heart disease).
 Sleep deprivation in rats causes increased metabolism (210-270%) despite increased food
intake and for most rats eventual death (Rechtschaffen & Bergman, 1995)
Look up one of the above studies. Briefly describe the research method, findings (results), and list at
least one limitation.
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Interaction between Cognition and Physiology in Terms of Behavior
 Meditation produces gamma waves found using a PET scan with monks (Davidson, 2004)
o Limitation - Did not account for confounding variable of practice since monks meditate a
lot
Brain Imaging Techniques
 EEG - records brain waves
o Cannot show what is happening in deeper brain regions
o Cannot show actual functioning of brain regions
 PET - monitors glucose metabolism in brain via injection of radioactive glucose
o Can record ongoing activity like thinking
 fMRI - provides 3D image of brain
o Easier to carry out compared to PET
o Higher resolution than PET
o Cannot record ongoing activity - just snapshots
Evaluation of Brain Imaging Techniques
 MRI scanners are unnatural environments for cognition - ecological validity
Define: Ecological validity
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Colors in images may exaggerate activity in brain regions
Equipment may not be sophisticated enough to detect subtle brain activity
Brain areas activate for various reasons because the brain is highly interconnected so you
cannot conclude that just because the amygdala is activated the patient is experiencing fear
All of these imaging techniques are indirect measures of neural activity
o They measure indicators that suggest neural activity is occurring
o Other measures like single unit recording directly measure neural activity by implanting
electrodes into the brain
o Ethical issues with using single unit recording on humans
Genetics and Behavior
Extent of Genetic Inheritance on Behavior
 Huntington's - Only neurodegenerative disease with a 100% genetic cause
o Use Minnesota Twin Studies to relate genetics and behavior
Intelligence
 Both genetics and environment play crucial role
o Poverty tends to correlate with low IQ
 Meta-analysis of 111 studies found highest correlation for IQ was kinship (Bouchard & McGue,
1981)
 Minnesota Twin Study (Bouchard et al., 1990)
o MZ twins raised together compared to MZ twins raised apart longitudinal study
o Estimate that heritability accounts for about 70% of intelligence
o Criticism (limitations)
 Media coverage to recruit participants - possible sample bias
 Ethical concerns about how he reunited the twins who were reared apart
 No control over how often the twins reared apart visited each other prior to study
 Equal environment assumption - cannot assume twins raised together
experience same environments (e.g. treatment from parents, experience with
friends and peers in school and at home)
Ethical Considerations for Research into Genetic Influences
 Undue stress on patients being tested for Neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's…)
 Parents can feel responsible for fate of the child
 Patient may feel less responsible for their disease and make less of an effort to recover, instead
relying on medications to do the psychological work
Evolutionary Explanation of Behavior (Evolutionary Psychology)
Disgust
 Promotes survival (Fessler et al., 2004)
 Confirmed by online survey that found participants had the strongest disgust reaction to stimuli
which threatened the immune system (Curtis et al., 2004)
 Has also been related to biological preparedness and phobias because animals that elicit a
disgust response can be poisonous and avoiding these creatures because they evoke disgust
further promotes survival
Study: Elevated disgust sensitivity in the first trimester of pregnancy (Kessler at al., 2004)
Imagine a thick, juicy steak...swarming with maggots. Disgusted? Congratulations, you're evolved!
Disgust is a survival skill, says Dan Fessler, associate professor of anthropology and director of UCLA's
Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture: "We experience disgust today [because] the response
protected our ancestors, [allowing them] to survive long enough to produce offspring."
Fessler and colleagues asked 496 healthy pregnant women to consider scenarios that included the
maggots-on-meat, fish hooks through fingers, and contact with feces or urine. During the first trimester
of pregnancy, increased levels of the hormone progesterone lowers a woman's immune system to keep
it from fighting the "foreign" genetic material taking shape in the womb, making both the woman and her
fetus extremely vulnerable. First-trimester women scored much higher in disgust sensitivity than
counterparts in subsequent trimesters when it came to scenarios involving food — perhaps, Fessler
reasons, a disgust response to protect against food-borne illness.
"A lot of the diseases that are most dangerous are food-borne, but our ancestors could not afford to be
picky all the time about what they ate," Fessler said. "Natural selection may have helped compensate
for the greater susceptibility to disease during this risky point in pregnancy by increasing the urge to be
picky about food, however much additional foraging that required. That the sensitivity seems to lift as
the risk of disease and infection diminish is consistent with the view of disgust as protection against
pathogens."
Evaluation of Evolutionary Arguments
 Testing evolutionary theories of behavior is empirically difficult so researchers may be led astray
by confirmation bias
 Define: Confirmation Bias
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We know little, if anything, about Homo sapiens’ behavior - it is purely speculative
Disregard the role of culture in shaping behavior
Look up the Minnesota Twin Study. Briefly describe the study, including method and findings. Discuss
how the study specifically links genetics to a particular disease.
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