PSY 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Human Connectome Project, Evolutionary Psychology, Neurochemistry

• School: EKU, Eastern
• Department: PSY—Psychology
• Course: PSY 200
• Professor: Matthew Moran

Document Summary

Biology is increasingly emphasized in explaining psychological phenomena: three major advances that have helped further the scientific understanding of psychological phenomena, progress in understanding brain chemistry, developments in neuroscience, advances in decoding the human genome. Brain chemistry: what do we know about brain chemistry, tremendous progress has been made in understanding brain chemistry, hundreds of substances play critical roles in mental activity and behavior. The human genome: the human genome: the basic genetic code or blueprint for the human body. Evolutionary thinking is increasingly influential: the functionalists and evolution, evolutionary psychology: attempts to explain mental traits as products of natural selection, while the brain adapts biologically, some of the contents of the mind adapt to cultural influences. Solving adaptive problems: evolutionary theory: useful for considering whether behaviors and physical mechanisms are adaptive, through evolution, specialized mechanisms and adaptive behaviors have been built into our bodies and brains.