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SK298 - Brain, the mind & mental health > Week 1 - Perspectives on the Brain, Mind and Mental Health > Flashcards

Week 1 - Perspectives on the Brain, Mind and Mental Health Flashcards

1
Q

In what most basic way might you define what the brain is?

A

An organ of the human body

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2
Q

What is an organ in the biological sense?

A

A structure of the body that serves a particular function, such as the lungs or heart

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3
Q

What is the definition of a biological system?

A

A group of interrelated organs and tissues that work together to serve a particular function

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4
Q

What are the constituent parts of the nervous system?

A
  • Brain
  • Spinal cord
  • All of the peripheral nerves of the body
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5
Q

What are neurons?

A

Brain cells that relay messages within and between brain areas, and from the brain to the rest of the body and back

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6
Q

What are the five different types of neuron?

A
  • Multipolar neuron
  • Pyramidal neuron
  • Purkinje cell
  • Bipolar neuron
  • Unipolar neuron
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7
Q

What is the main similarity between the different types of neuron?

A

They all have a cell body and lots of branching dendrites

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8
Q

What are glial cells?

A

Cells that play a supporting and protective role within the brain

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9
Q

What function do glial cells perform?

A

They clear away waste, such as dead neurons

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10
Q

What is meant by the term plasticity?

A

The ability of the brain to adapt and change as a result of experience

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11
Q

What does the field of cognitive neuroscience investigate?

A

The ‘thinking’ functions, and the processes within the brain that support these

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12
Q

What does the field of neuroanatomy investigate?

A

The structure and organisation of the brain

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13
Q

How would a cognitive neuroscientist study the brain?

A

They would monitor living participants using a variety of technical equipment, such as fMRIs

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14
Q

How would a neuroanatomist study the brain?

A

They would study the brain postmortem using techniques such as slicing and staining to make features of the brain tissue more easily visible

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15
Q

What does the field of neurogenetics investigate?

A

The genetics which underpin the nervous system

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16
Q

What does the term translational research mean?

A

Reserarch which is conducted in a laboratory setting and can be carried across to have a clinical impact

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17
Q

What is meant by the term mental state?

A

Mental activities which include thinking, beliving and feeling

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18
Q

What viewpoint regarding the brain did the French philosopher Rene Descartes propose?

A

That the body and mind are different entitities - the brain is physical, whereas the mind takes on a more ethereal form

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19
Q

What approach to the mind did the American philosopher John Searle propose?

A

That minds and bodies are not different entitiies, and that mental states are an intrinsic property of complex biological systems - that you could not have mental states without a functioning brain

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20
Q

What may be a problem with John Searle’s approach to the mind?

A

His proposition would mean that when the brain dies, the mind dies with it, which could raise ethical questions about when the mind begins and ends

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21
Q

What are the three components of the mind which Sigmund Freud proposed?

A
  • Id
  • Ego
  • Superego
22
Q

What areas of personality do the Id, Ego and Superego deal with?

A
  • Id: instincts
  • Ego: reality
  • Superego: morality
23
Q

What does the Id component of the mind do?

A

It operates on the pleasure principle, making demands based on basic instincts such as hunger, and then provides a sense of pleasure when these demands are satisfied

24
Q

What does the Ego component of the mind do?

A

The Ego sits between the Id and the Superego, mediating between them, and is also our conscious decision-making component

25
Q

What does the Superego component of the mind do?

A

It is the seat of social morality, telling us right from wrong. It is our conscience and includes our personal aspirations of our ideal selves

26
Q

What is meant by the term psychodynamic approach?

A

It is an approach to understanding the mind which infers that the mind is created from a dynamic interaction between the Id, Ego and Superego

27
Q

What explanation for the cause of mental health problems did Freud propose?

A

That mental health problems arose due to an unresolved conflict between the Id and Superego

28
Q

What is meant by the term behaviourism?

A

An approach in psychology that is concerned with observable behaviours, rather than the concept of the mind (it does not take in to account thoughts or feelings)

29
Q

What is the behaviouristic approach to psychology?

A

That to understand ourselves, we do not need to refer to the concept of the mind at all, that all behaviours are learned through interaction with environment

30
Q

Which psychologists were pioneers of behaviourism?

A

Ivan Pavlov and Burrhus Skinner

31
Q

What is subjective evidence?

A

The type of evidence given when a person reports how they are thinking or feeling

32
Q

What is objective evidence?

A

The type of evidence that can be verified by others and includes the outward behaviours of an individual

33
Q

What is quantitative data?

A

Data that can be counted or measured in numerical values

34
Q

What is qualitative data?

A

Non-numeric information such as interviews, diaries, answers to survey questions, audio-visual recordings and images

35
Q

What is cognitive psychology?

A

It is the study of internal mental processes such as perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem solving and learning

36
Q

What processes does cognitive psychology help us to understand?

A
  • Perception
  • Thinking
  • Memory
  • Attention
  • Language
  • Problem solving
  • Learning
37
Q

How do cognitive psychologists conduct research?

A

By gathering empirical data from scientific research methods

38
Q

What is the evolutionary approach?

A

A scientific view which argues that humans and other organisms are a product of biological evolution

39
Q

What is plasticity?

A

The idea that biological organisms change as a response to their environment

40
Q

What is phenotypic plasticity?

A

The property of organisms to produce distinct phenotypes in response to environmental variation

41
Q

What is a phenotype?

A

An individual’s observable traits, such as height, eye colour, blood type

42
Q

What is the medicalised approach (with regards to mental health in particular)?

A

An approach which suggests that mental health is the same as or an extension of physical health, and therefore requires medical treatment

43
Q

What is psychopharmacology?

A

A field of psychiatry which focuses on how substances such as drugs affect the brain and mind

44
Q

What is the name of the holistic model of health psychology as developed by George Engel?

A

The biopsychosocial model

45
Q

What does the biopsychosocial model propose?

A

That biological, psychological and social factors are all

46
Q

What are the different types of self?

A
  • Bodily self
  • Perspectival self
  • Volitional self
  • Narrative self
  • Social self
47
Q

What is interoception?

A

The sense that helps you understand and feel what is going on inside your body

48
Q

What are the two big changes that the WHO wants to bring about with regards to mental health?

A
  • Reduce stigma and discrimination
  • Improve services for mental health
49
Q

What is reductionism?

A

A level of analysis that narrows the focus from large to small scale

50
Q

What is the WEIRD population effect?

A

The particular focus of psychological studies on people from Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic countries

SK298 - Brain, the mind & mental health (19 decks)

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