PSYCHOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR A.

) Theory of Behavior
According to Sigmund Freud, (1856-1939), human beings are just mechanical creatures, whom he views as prisoners of primitive instincts and powers, which we can barely control. He states that our purpose is to control these instincts and powers. "The soul is like an iceberg; it contains a His life Living from 1856 to 1939, numerous scientific discoveries took conscious part and place during his life. When Freud was still young, Darwins'The an unconscious Origins of Species was published, and Fechner came up with the part." underlying basics of psychology. Developments such as these had a tremendous effect on Freud's thoughts, yet the German, Helmholtz, was probably the person who had the greatest influence on Freud's way of thinking by drawing up thelaw of preservation of energy. This discovery is most likely the reason Freud started looking at people as a closed system of psychic energy that is floating between the conscious and the unconscious part of the human spirit. The iceberg Freud explained these concepts by comparing the human spirit to an iceberg. The visible part of the iceberg (spirit) is the conscious part, which consists of everything we know and remember and the thinking processes through which we function. The unconscious part is made up of everything we have ever learned or experienced, including that which has been "forgotten". A part of these forgotten things are really gone, but the largest part of the unconscious has just been shut out, because it would be annoying to be consciously reminded of it. The influences of Helmholtz are also visible at other points. According to Freud, the material in the unconscious contains psychic energy. This psychic energy is constantly trying to get into the conscious part, while the conscious part keeps using energy to suppress undesirable discoveries. An expression of unknown powers is, for example, slips of the tongue. These expressions show that our unconscious was not strong enough to keep these powers outside the conscious part. Id, Ego and Superego Now we are going back to the theory of the id, the ego and the superego. The spirit of a newborn child just has an id, the instinctive incentives and reflexes that the human beings have developed during the last centuries. The only function of the id is to respond to the incentives. The ego develops itself from the id and from the discovery that the behavior of the id can have tedious results. The superego, a result of a person's socialization, is basically just the conscience, which mediates between needs of the id and the ego. When you are getting older, you start to develop more and more values.

B.) Basic Drives and Motives

Instincts Philosophers in the seventeenth and eighteenth century (like Descartes and Hobbes)

shared a mechanistic view. They thought that some of our actions are the result of internal or external forces, which are not under voluntary control. Hobbes, for example, claimed that underlying reasons for behavior are the avoidance of pain and the quest for pleasure. "Behavior is the The extreme of the mechanistic view is the theory of instincts. result of instincts, An instinct is an innate biological force, which commands the which are present organism to behave in a particular way. The main advocate of since birth." the instinct theory was the psychologist McDougall. He hypothesized that all thinking and behavior is the result of instincts, which are fixed from birth, but which can be adjusted by learning and experience. In his book Social Psychology McDougall enumerated several instinctive drives, like fear, curiosity, aggression and reproduction. This list was expanded later with 8 other instincts. By changes and combinations of instincts he tried to explain the whole repertoire of human behavior. The instinct theory was supported by many psycho-analysts. For example, Freud asserted that human behavior could be explained by two major instincts: the instinct to survive (such as a drive for sexual reproduction) and the instinct to avoid death, which causes aggression. Quite soon, it became evident that many instincts were required to explain human behavior and, even worse, these instincts did not explain very much: so many instincts were postulated such that any type of behavior could be explained. A better phrasing would be to say that instincts provide a description of behavior, rather than an explanation. In the 1920's instinct theory was replaced by the theory of drives. A driving force originates from a natural need, like thirst. Such a situation stimulates the organism to comply with the need. Lack of food causes chemical changes in the blood, which causes the need for food, which stimulates the organism to look for food.

C.) Social Influences

How do we learn social rolls? As we grow and develop in our lives, we also develop social attitudes which strongly influence our behavior. We internalize the attitudes of the society around us by making the attitudes our own. Besides attitudes, people internalize cultural expectations about how to behave. The process through which society influences individuals to internalize attitudes and expectations is called socialization. Individuals do not automatically absorb, but gradually accept cultural attitudes and roles. The individual is often unaware of his acceptance of these socially derived roles, roles are often accepted unconsciously. This is usually accomplished through the imitation of role models. "People are playing roles; the particular role depends on the expectations from society." When do we act so? When individuals "play" these roles dictated by the culture within which they live, they are sometimes conflicting with their own inner beliefs. Frequently, we may act as if we agree with our perceived social expectations, because we do not want to disappoint the people who expect us to meet a particular set of

requirements. This can create an imbalance which may cause ones behavior to become illogical due to these perceived social influences.

D.) Emotions
The word emotion includes a wide range of observable behaviors, expressed feelings, and changes in the body state. This diversity in intended meanings of the word emotion make it hard to study. For many of us emotions are very personal states, difficult to define or to identify except in the most obvious instances. Moreover, many aspects of emotion seem unconscious to us. Even simple emotional states appear to be much more complicated than states as hunger and thirst. "The word emotion includes a broad repertoire of perceptions, expressions of feelings and bodily changes." To clarify the concept of emotions, three definitions of various aspects of emotions can be distinguished:

1. Emotion is a feeling that is private and subjective. Humans can report an extraordinary range of states, which they can feel or experience. Some reports are accompanied by obvious signs of enjoyment or distress, but often these reports have no overt indicators. In many cases, the emotions we note in ourselves seem to be blends of different states. 2. Emotion is a state of psychological arousal an expression or display of distinctive somatic and autonomic responses. This emphasis suggests, that emotional states can be defined by particular constellations of bodily responses. Specifically, these responses involve autonomously innervated visceral organs, like the heart or stomach. This second aspect of emotion allows us to examine emotions in both animals and human beings. 3. Emotions are actions commonly "deemed", such as defending or attacking in response to a threat. This aspect of emotion is especially relevant to Darwin's 4. point of view of the functional roles of emotion. He said that emotions had an important survival role because they generated actions to dangerous situations.

These are three generally accepted aspects of behavior, but some researchers add two others aspects: motivational state and cognitive processing. Categories Some psychologists have tried to subdivide emotions in categories. For example Wilhelm Wundt, the great nineteenth century psychologist, offered the view that emotions consist of three basic dimensions, each one of a pair of opposite states: pleasantness/unpleasantness, tension/release and excitement/relaxation. However, this list has become more complex over time. Plutchik suggests that there are eight basic emotions grouped in four pairs of opposites:

1. 2. 3. 4.

joy/sadness acceptance/disgust anger/fear surprise/anticipation

In Plutchik's view, all emotions are a combination of these basic emotions. This hypothesis can be summarized in a three dimensional cone with a vertical dimension reflecting emotional intensity.

BIOLOGICAL BASE OF BEHAVIOR A.) The Nervous System

Every moment of the day your nervous system is active. It exchanges millions of signals corresponding with feeling, thoughts and actions. A simple example of how important the nervous system is in your behavior is meeting a friend. First, the visual information of your eyes is sent to your brain by nervous cells. There the information is interpreted and translated into a signal to take action. Finally the brain sends a command to your voice or to another action system like muscles or glands. For example, you may start walking towards him. Your nervous system enables this rapid recognition and action. "The nervous system allows us to perceive, to interpret and to respond to events from the environment." The nervous system is the most complex system of the human body. The human brain itself consists of at least 10 billion neurons. Single-cell creatures do not need a nervous system. They are in immediate contact with their environment and do not need communication between cells. Multi-celled creatures need the nervous system for the communication between their cells.

What is its function? There are three general functions of the nervous system in man and animals: 1. Sensing specific information about external and internal conditions (In the example above, this is seeing your friend). 2. Intergrating that information (This is the understanding of the information coming from the eyes). 3. Issuing commands for a response from the muscles or glands (This is the reaction of walking towards him). The nervous system provides us the ability to perceive, understand and react to environmental events. That is why the nervous system is so extremely important for human behavior.

B.) Genetic Influences

Behavioral genetics is a field of research in psychology, that aims to determine heritability and to determine how much of the behavior is accounted for by genetic

factors. Behavioral genetics began in England with Sir Francis Galton and his study of the inheritance of genius in families. He discovered that genius 'runs in families' and concluded that it is to a significant degree a heritable behavioral trait. "Behavior is Since Galton a lot of people tried to prove that genetics play an influenced both by important role in many aspects of behavior. Those people proved genes and the that complex behaviors related to personality, psychopathology environment." and cognition are all influenced to some degree by genetics. They have also found that genetics alone is never enough to explain behavior, because behavior is also influenced by the enviroment. Today, most psychologists believe that behavior reflects both genetic and environmental aspects. They try to explain variability in a trait like intelligence or height or musicality in terms of the genetic and enviromental differences among people within that population.

DAILY BEHAVIOR A.) Body Language

Body language is usually more informative than words. Words by other people usually tell you what other people WANT to say, while body posture usually tells, what they really feel and think. They express for example emotions, thoughts and how they think. It is easier to lie with words, than with body language. Consequences of Body Language Psychologists have found out that when people try to simulate body language, they change many other things. By walking more upright, people may really feel more confident. When body language is changed, people will respond different to these changes. Body language, therefore, has consequences for the interaction with other people. "When you change your body language, people will respond in a different way."

BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS A.) Abnormal Behavior

Before we can write about specific behavioral disorders, we must define 'abnormal'. And what is normal behavior? The following criteria are used to determine wheter a persons behavior is abnormal or not: 1. Deviation from statistical norms;the word abnormal means 'away from the norm'. Many population facts are measured such as height, weight and intelligence. Most of the people fall within the middle range of intelligence, but a few are abnormally stupid. But according to this definition, a person who is extremely intelligent would be classified as abnormal. Thus in defining abnormal behavior we must consider more.

2. Deviation from social norms; every vulture has certain standards for acceptable behavior; behavior that deviates from that standard is considered to be abnormal behavior. But those standards can change with time and vary from one society to another. 3. Maladaptiveness of behavior; this third criterium is how the behavior affects the well-being of the individual and/or social group. Examples are a man who attempts suicide, an alcoholic who drinks so heavily that he or she cannot keep a job or a paranoid individual who tries to assasinate national leaders. 4. Personal distress; the fourth criterium considers abnormality in terms of the individual's subjective feelings, personal distress, rather than his behavior. Most people diagnosed as 'mentally ill' feel miserable, anxious, depressed and may suffer from insomnia. In the type of abnormality called neurosis, personal distress may be the only symptom, because the individual's behavior seems normal. None of these definitions provides a complete description of abnormal behavior. The legal definition of abnormality declares a person insane when he is not able to judge between right and wrong, but this criterium is not used by psychologists.

B.) Split Brain

What is Divided Brain? This paragraph deals about patients suffering divided brain, therefore we will first explain something about the location of functions in the brain. This disease is also called split-brain, and the problem the patient has is that the both brain parts cannot communicate with each other. The brain has two hemispheres, the right and the left hemisphere. Those two hemispheres do look like mirror images of each other, but a closer examination reveals certain asymmetries. When the two hemispheres are measured during an autopsy, the left one is almost always larger than the right one. This anatomical difference are related to differences in functions between the two hemispheres: the left hemisphere is specialized for the use of language, while the right one is specialized for mental imagery and the understanding of spatial relationships. Speech and the production of sounds are usually located in the left hemisphere. But some left-handed people have speech centers located in the right hemisphere or divided between the two. "Split-brain patients cannot combine information of both hemispheres." Seeing is also complicated, the two eyes of you give their information to the opposite hemisphere; your right eye gives his information to the left hemisphere, and your left eye to the right hemisphere. The brain transforms this information so we see 'normal'. As a result of this the left hemisphere sees the right hand in the right visual field, this is correct because your right hemisphere controls you left body-half and otherwise. When someone is suffering a split-brain his both hemispheres cannot communicate. In a test, a person with a split brain is seated in front of a screen. Because of his split brain he cannot use his right hand to take something he sees with his left eye. When a word appears on the left side of the screen, the eye passes the information through to the right hemisphere so he won't understand the word because language depends on the left hemisphere. An important thing is that the word may not flashed on

the screen for more than one-tenth of a second. if it remains longer the subject can move his eyes so that the word is also projected on the left hemisphere. Behavior Because people with split brain can not combine the information of both hemispheres, their behavior is pretty strange. Because he is not aware of everything that happens he can look stupid and his behavior can be illogical and vague.

C.) Personality Disorder

Schizophrenia is the label given to a group of psychotic disorders characterized by distortion of reality, withdrawal from social interaction and disorganization of thought. The word schizophrenia is derived from the Greek words for to split (schidzein) and mind (phren). This splitting is related to fragmenting of the thought processes. "Schizophrenia is a Schizophrenia occurs in all cultures, also those that are remote collective noun for from western civilization and its stress. Research in the United diseases that are States has shown that about six out of every 1,000 people characterized by receive care for schizophrenia. Because the disorder often withdrawal from reoccurs and because the patient's suffer long from it, half of all reality." psychiatric hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering schizophrenia. Characteristics Schizophrenia usually appears in young adulthood. Sometimes the disorder develops slowly, but sometimes it has a sudden onset. These are often a result of stress with people living an isolated life. Whether the disorder develops slowly or suddenly, the signs are many and varied. The primary characteristics can be summarized as the following, although not every schizophrenic person will show all of them: 1. Disturbance of thought and attention; people suffering schizophrenia often cannot think logically and as the result of this they cannot write a story, because every word they write down might make sense, but are meaningless in relation to each other, and they cannot keep their attention to the writing. 2. Disturbances of perception; during acute schizophrenic episodes, people say that the world appears different to them, their bodies appear longer, colors seem more intense and they cannot recognize themselves in a mirror. 3. Disturbances of affect; schizophrenic persons fail to show 'normal' emotions. For example, a patient may smile while talking over tragic events 4. Withdrawal from reality; during schizophrenic episodes, the individual becomes absorbed in his inner thoughts and fantasies. The self-absorption may be so intense that the individual may not know the month or day or the place where he is staying. 5. Delusions and hallucinations; in most cases the former characteristics are accompanied by delusions. The most common are beliefs that other persons are trying to control his thoughts, he may become suspicious of friends (paranoid), this is the reason why Robert Kennedy was assassinated. The results of schizophrenia are many and varied, but these are the main characteristics.

Causes Not everybody has the same opinion about the causes of schizophrenia, but some factors have certainly influence on schizophrenics. Disturbed home life and early trauma are frequently found in the background of schizophrenics. The early death of one or more parents, emotionally disturbed parents and strife between parents are found with greater frequency in the background of schizophrenics.

D.) Alzheimers Disease

Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain now considered a leading cause of dementia. Alzheimer's disease was first described by the German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, it affects an estimated 2.5 to 3 million people in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the number of individuals with this condition is estimated to rise to over 1 million by the year 2010. Percentage rates (cases per 100 individuals of 65 years and over) worldwide vary considerably between 0.6 in China to 10.3 in Massachusetts, United States. The incidence of the disease increases with advancing age, but there is no evidence that it is caused by the aging process. Cause and Diagnosis The average life expectancy of people with the disease is between five and ten years, although many patients now survive 15 years or more due to improvements in care and medical treatment. The cause of this disease has not been discovered, although palliative therapy is available. The ability of doctors to diagnose Alzheimer's disease has improved in recent years, but this remains a process of elimination and final diagnosis can be confirmed only by postmortem. "Patients suffering Alzheimer's disease lose nervous cells in parts of the brain involved in cognitive processes." Alzheimer's patients show nerve cell loss in the parts of the brain associated with cognitive functioning. The hallmark lesions of Alzheimer's disease include the formation of abnormal proteins. Alzheimer's disease is also characterized by profound deficits in the brain's neurotransmitters which has been linked with memory function.

E.) Autism
Autism (from the Greek word autos, which means self) is a severe infant disorder of behavior that develops before the age of three. The term is used to describe many types of mental disorders, but, as originally named in 1943 by the American child psychologist Leo Kanner, early infantile autism describes a rare cluster of symptoms. Its incidence is approximately 1 in 2,500. "A child suffering autism is unable to use language in a meaningful way and to process

Characteristics An autistic child is unable to use language meaningfully or to process information from the environment. About half of all autistic children are mute, and those who speak often only repeat what they have heard. The term autism refers to their vacant, withdrawn appearance, but its connotation of voluntary detachment is inappropriate. Other characteristics of autism include an uneven pattern of development, a fascination with mechanical objects, a ritualistic response to environmental stimuli, and a resistance to any change in the environment. Some autistic children have precocious ability, such as mathematical skills. information in the proper way." Cause, Prognosis and Treatment The cause, prognosis, and treatment of autism are still under study. Research suggests a genetic defect as the cause of the disorder, which may be some form of autoimmune disease or degenerative disease of nerve cells in the brain. The best treatment is special education, stressing learning in small groups, and strict behavioral control of the child. Treatment with drugs such as fenfluramine and haloperidol is also being tested. In general, prognosis is poor for those autistic children who remain mute past the age of five. Children who speak fare better, and some of them recover.

Phobias are excessive fears in specific situations when there is no real danger or fears that are totally out of proportions. Most of the time the person with a phobia realizes that his fear is irrational and illogical but he still feels anxiety. Avoiding the feared situation can only relieve this anxiety. Most of us are afraid for something; snakes, heights, doctors, injury or death are the most reported fears. But a fear is different from a phobia. A fear is usually not diagnosed as a phobia unless it causes big problems in the person's daily life. An example of this is a woman with a phobia for enclosed places, she will notice her phobia when she want to use elevators. "Phobias are extreme fears in specific situations in the absence of a real threat." Explanations There are a number of explanations about how phobias develop. Some phobias may result from frightening experiences. For example, you might develop fear for flying after experiencing a near air disaster. Once such a phobia develops, the individual may go to great lengths to avoid the feared situation, and so eliminating a possible fear. Other phobias may be learned through observation. fearful parents tend to produce children who share their fears. This phobia might be inherited, but it is more likely that parents provide a model and that the children imitate that model. Other phobias might develop because they are rewarded. When a child is afraid of going to school because he will be separated from his parents for a while, he will say he has a stomachache or something like that. Then his parents reward him with the comfort of staying home with his parents. Treatments Behavioral techniques have proved successful in treating phobias, especially simple and social phobias. One technique, systematic desensitization, involves confronting the phobic person with situations or objects that are feared. Exposure therapy, another behavioral method, has recently been shown to be more effective. In this technique,

phobias are repeatedly exposed to the feared situation or object so that they can see that no harm befalls them; the fear gradually fades. Antianxiety drugs have also been used as palliatives. Drugs to treat depression have also proved successful in treating some phobias.