PSY 450 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Bloodborne, Castration, Ernest Starling

• School: University of Oregon
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 450
• Professor: Pranjal Mehta

Document Summary

Behavioral endocrinology: the scientific study of the interaction between hormones and behavior (a multidisciplinary field: behavioral endocrinology is bidirectional (hormones affect behavior, and behavior can influence hormones) Hormones: organic chemical messengers released from endocrine glands that travel through blood system to i(cid:374)flue(cid:374)(cid:272)e the (cid:374)e(cid:396)(cid:448)ous syste(cid:373) to (cid:396)egulate the i(cid:374)di(cid:448)idual(cid:859)s physiology a(cid:374)d behavior. Behavior: thought of as involving movement, but the majority of outputs (such as color change) can be considered behavior. A complete description of behavior is required before questions of causality can be addressed: ge(cid:374)e(cid:396)al (cid:395)uestio(cid:374) studied (cid:271)y (cid:271)eha(cid:448)io(cid:396)al s(cid:272)ie(cid:374)tists: (cid:862)what (cid:272)auses a(cid:374)i(cid:373)al a to e(cid:373)it (cid:271)eha(cid:448)io(cid:396) x? (cid:863) There are 4 interacting levels of analysis to explore/explain the causes of behavior: immediate causation, development, evolution, adaptive function. The four levels of analysis can be grouped into sets of two. Immediate causation+ development= (cid:862)ho(cid:449) (cid:395)uestio(cid:374)s(cid:863) (cid:894)e. g. ho(cid:449) does a(cid:374) a(cid:374)i(cid:373)al e(cid:374)gage i(cid:374) a behavior?) Evolution + adaptive function= (cid:862)(cid:449)hy (cid:395)uestio(cid:374)s(cid:863) (cid:894)e. g. why does a(cid:374) a(cid:374)i(cid:373)al e(cid:374)gage i(cid:374) pa(cid:396)ti(cid:272)ula(cid:396) behavior?)