Approaches

- He was the first German psychologist, he believed that the human mind could be studied scientifically with experimental methods of the natural sciences.

• Structuralism is referred to the approach he used by aiming to studying the structure of the mind.
• Introspection is referred to the technique he adapted; where the individual gained knowledge about their mental states.

PROCEDURE:

•  Participants were given an image and asked to recall the description of the inner mental process which they experienced whilst looking at the image.

EVALUATION:

• His procudure lacks reliabiliity because it relied on non-observable respsonses such as memory or perception.
• Introspection is not a valid measure of the human mind as participants have little knowledge of the causes and underlying our attitude and behaviours.

Empiricism- the belief that knowledge comes from observation and experiences rather than it being innate. (natural)

What factors make a science?

- Objective: Preconceived ideas or biased do not influence data collection.

- Systematic: Observations or experiments are carried out in and orderly way

                      Results are accurately measured and recorded.

- Reliable: Methods like observations are replicable, so they an be repeated.

- Theory: To explain the reults of observations

Heredity: passing psychological characteristics on from one generation to the next.

Genes: carry instructions for particular activities.

Genotype: Genetic code that is written in the DNA

Phenotype: characteristics that result from the genetic code

- Twin studies can us to investigate biology by researching the concordanced rated between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. However, issues with this is that they share similar environments and are sometimes raised by non-parental family member.

Central nervous system: The control of behaviour nand regulation of biological processes. Composed by the brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral nervous system: Relay information from and to the CNS from other parts of the body. It is made up of all nerves around the CNS.

The somatic nervous system: Made up of cranial nerves and spinal nerves. these nerves have sensory nerves which relay information to the CNS, and motor nerves which relay information from the CNS

The autonomic nervous system: It regulates involvuntary actions such as the heartbeat and bloodpressure.

> Sympathetic system: Uses neurotransmitter adrenaline to prepare us for the fight or flight response

> Parasympathetic system: Uses neurotransmitter acetylcholine to relax the body adter the fight or flight response.

-It is a network of glands throughout the body which secret messengers known as hormones.

-It works closely with the nervous system

-Endocrine system uses blood vessels to deliver hormones to their target.

Pituitary gland: To encourage the release of hormones from other glands.

It is controlled by the hypothalamus

Negative feedback: Pituitary glands could be prevented from producing more of its own hormones when high levels of hormones produce in other glands.

> The antorior pituitary: Releases ACTH as a response to stress whihch stimulates the adrenal glands to produces cortisol.

> The posterior pituitary: Releases oxytocin which stimulates the contract of the uterus during childbirth and is important in mother-infant bonding.

- They sit above each kidney

> Adrenal cortex: (The outher part)

Regulates and supports functions such as cardiovascular and anti- inflammatory

> Adrenal Medulla: (The Inner part)

Releases adrenaline and noradrenaline which prepares the body for the fight or flight response.

Neurons are cells that carry information through the body. They consist of :

- Dendrites (at one end of the cell) which receive signals from other neurons.

- Axon: where the impulse terminates.

- Cell body: which is the control centre.

3 Types of neurons:

>Sensory neuron: carry nerve impulses from the sensory receptors to the spinal cord and brain

They convert information into neural impulses.

> Relay neurons: Allow sensory and motor neurons to communicate with one another

Only found in the spinal chord and brain

> Motor neurons: Project their axons outside of the CNS and directly or indirectly control muscles.

Synaptic gap- gap between two neurons

Synaptic vesicles- sacs at the end of the axon which contain chemical messagers (neurotransmitters) and bind to receptors on the surface of the cell. They either produce:

> Excitatory effect: increase likelyhood that the neuron will fire, they switch the nervous sytem on

> Inhibitory effect: decrease the likelihood that the neuron will fire, they are responsible of calming the mind and body

The process of the synaptic transmittion takes a fraction of a second. It ends with reuptake, where the presynaptic neuron stores the neurotransmission.