Psychology 2550A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Monoamine Oxidase, Neuroticism, David Buss

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2550A/B
• Professor: David Vollick

Document Summary

Influence behaviour through their effects in shaping our body, brain, and large number of specialized chemical components that regulate their functioning. Biological bases of extraversion introversion (h. j. eysenck) Eysenck was a pioneer in trying to connect psychological dispositions to their biological foundations, focusing on the characteristics of extraverts vs introverts. According to his theory, extraverts differ from introverts because of differences in their physiological level of arousal (loa) in the brain. Proposed that these differences are influenced by the ascending reticular activation system (aras) of the brain, the system believed to regulate overall arousal in the cortex. When he first developed his theory in the 60s, the aras was viewed as a gateway that controls the level of stimulation into the cortex. In his theory, introverts need only small amounts of stimulation to overstimulate them physiologically, which then leads them to become distressed and withdrawn.