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Biopsychology

Biopsychology. Or Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about sexual selection but were afraid to ask. Interactions. Definitions of interactions: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts The relationship between the variables is multiplicative instead of additive

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Biopsychology

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  1. Biopsychology Or Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about sexual selection but were afraid to ask

  2. Interactions Definitions of interactions: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts The relationship between the variables is multiplicative instead of additive The effectiveness of one intervention is contingent upon another intervention

  3. Interactions No Yes 0 3 No 5 -20 Yes

  4. Interactions Valium No Yes 0 10 No Alcohol 5 100 Yes

  5. Interactions Gender Male Female Scorpion King 10 -10 Movie Ya Ya Sisterhood -10 10

  6. Evolution Survival of the fittest

  7. Evolution Finding/Harvesting Resources Avoiding Predators Avoiding Illness REPRODUCING!!!

  8. Evolution If other organs such as the stomach and spleen were evolutionarily advantageous, why not the brain?

  9. Evolution Mate Selection Men – Looking to “spread their seed” Women – Looking for a mate who will care for children

  10. Evolution Post Hoc Theorizing Game He who hesitates is lost Look before you leap Birds of a feather flock together Opposites attract

  11. Behavioral Genetics Nature Vs. Nurture

  12. Behavioral Genetics Identical Twins 100% Fraternal Twins 50%

  13. Behavioral Genetics Shared Genetics Genetic Family Adopted Child Adopted Family Shared environment

  14. Behavioral Genetics

  15. Behavioral Genetics Heritability Estimates – The proportion of the total variance in a trait that is attributable to genetic variation within a group.

  16. Behavioral Genetics Heritability Estimates Intelligence: .70 Neuroticism: .55 Depression: .44 Doing Crosswords: .55 Liking Sweets: .65 Playing Chess: .62 Assertiveness: .72 Smoking: .48 Ambition: .54 Humility: .42 Leadership: .59 Time Reading: .43

  17. Behavioral Genetics However, it is generally accepted that behavior is determined by a nature x nurture interaction e.g. A person with a genetic predisposition towards alcoholism won’t become an alcoholic if he never takes a sip of liquor

  18. Psychophysiology Heart Rate Blood Pressure Skin Conductance Electromyography Cortisol Levels Breathing Rates Tone of Voice

  19. Psychophysiology Polygraphs Liars feel: 1) Nervous that they’ll get caught 2) Guilty about lying

  20. Psychophysiology Polygraphs • How it works: • Tell the truth, get a baseline measure • Tell a lie, get a measure of deception • Compute the difference between the two • Ask real questions, if subject looks more like a liar than a truth-teller, then the subject is lying

  21. Psychophysiology Polygraphs • Problems: • Questions may be anxiety provoking • Knowing that if the machine says that you’re lying you’ll go to jail causes anxiety • Not all liars exhibit psychophysiological responses.

  22. Psychophysiology How to trick a polygraph: Difference Arousal Time

  23. Psychophysiology How to trick a polygraph: Arousal Difference Time

  24. Psychophysiology How polygraphs REALLY work Criminals get scared by the prospect of being detected, and they confess their crimes!

  25. Psychophysiology Other areas that psychophys can study Emotion Attitudes Unconscious Processes

  26. Circadian Rythyms The Sleep-Wake Cycle Free of all time cues, the human day averages about 25 hours Body temperature, and hormone levels follow this cycle Regulated by the hormone melatonin Since we have a ~24 hour cycle, the longer we stay awake, the less we sleep!

  27. Circadian Rythyms Average Hours Sleeping per Day Giant Sloth: 20 hours Brown Bat: 19 hours House Cat: 14 hours Jaguar: 10 hours Human: 8 hours Elephant: 3 hours Horse: 2 hours

  28. Sleep Deprivation The Randy Gardner Case Mood Disturbance common Complex Cognitive tasks unaffected Dull cognitive tasks are difficult Longitudinal partial sleep deprivation causes more difficulty than short term total sleep deprivation Microsleeps

  29. Sleep Deprivation Experimental rats die after several days. Yoked Rats not affected.

  30. Sleep Deprivation Increasing sleep efficiency after deprivation Da Vinci’s sleep strategy 15 minute nap every 4 hours Total of 1.5 hours of sleep per day Replicated by Stampi, (1992) in a lab. Takes 2 weeks to adjust, during which time...

  31. Conclusions • Evolution may have impacted our behavior, but be wary of post-hoc analysis • The nature vs. nurture debate should be viewed as an interaction • Psychophysiology can tell us a great deal, but polygraphs are useless. • Sleep is good.

  32. Assignment #1 Example for class: Spanking Children

  33. Happy 4th of July!!

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