I was very interested by something one of the PHDs at Hope College spoke about in the Chapter 1 video we watched in class today. The man spoke about how so much of psychology directly involves biology. And it is true. I had never really thought about it that way, but in fact every time you have a sensation or perform an action, it does not just happen magically. All of our behaviors result from functions happening inside of our bodies.
I read in Chapter 3a of our book how the nervous system works and how people react and respond to stimuli. The central nervous system is composed of the spinal cord and the brain. Neural fibers ascend and descend through the central nervous system. I had never considered all the biology that is involved in how people react. But I found out that reactions are caused by a process where sensory neurons sense something externally, then the information ascends and descends neural fibers, and the result is a reflex triggered by motor neurons. A specific example is the knee jerk response. When your knee is tapped, that feeling sensed by the sensory neurons, the neurons that carry incoming information from receptors to the brain and spinal cord, is sent up through one simple neural pathway. Then, your knee jerks due to the action caused by the information being sent through your motor neurons, which are the neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands. In the end, reflexes do not just "magically happen."
So in essence, by signing up for AP Psych this year I simultaneously signed up for a biology class.
When signing up for this course at the end of last year, I thought it would be cool to take a class that would different from traditional science courses. I too was shocked to find out that much of Psychology is directly intertwined with Biology. To be honest, I wasn't only shocked, I was disappointed. Before reading chapter 1 I wasn't entirely sure about how interesting the course would be once I learned that it is predominately biology. However, after reading about the fascinating processes that take place within our little brains, I have come to realize that the biological factor of Psychology is actually incredibly awesome. It may seem redundant, but our brains have minds of their own. They react when we don't tell them to. This phenomena can be seen in the case of a person's hand impulsively yanking itself away from a burning hot fire. Our brain makes a decision before we even process it, the brain tells the hand to get out fast. This type of relationship is beautifully simple, yet complicatedly amazing.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you've said: the connection between Biology and Psychology is eye opening. I'd also like to add that not only did you simultaneously sign up for a Biology class, but you've also signed up for a Chemistry class. There are many chemical reactions occurring in your body's biological functions. For instance, neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that affect your moods and feelings, and endorphins create opiates, which are chemicals that help connect feelings such as pain and pleasure from the brain to the body.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to disagree with your statement, as biology and psychology have many similar ideas. When I was working on my lecture for 3A this past week, I actually used a SAT Subject Test for Biology book to get more info on how the nervous system works, which is clearly a biological process. However, psychology is much more limited than biology and only deals with a small portion of it. On the assignment we did in the first few days that discussed how "scientific" psychology is, I placed it at 5 because biology, chemistry, and physics are much more crucial to the fundamental ideas of science. Chemistry is the basic makeup of the world. Physics also deals with each physical element that makes it up. Biology deals with living organisms and genetics. Psychology, though it has many elements of the three, is not a fundamental science. So while I agree we are learning many different elements of biology, to call this a bio-course would be like calling an orange and apple.
ReplyDeleteI was also shocked when I read that first packet, and I thought to myself, "Did I sign up for Biology or pshycology?" I did not think we would be learning about neurons again, I thought we would be learning how to talk to someone when they lie down on the couch (Like in space jam). It is really cool to learn how the brain works, I just did not think there woud be as much science involved as there is. I just want to point out that overall, I really like this class so far even though I am not a science lover because this class takes all of the cool aspects of science and meshes it into one class, which I love.
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