Organic Brain Biopsychology Chapter 1
Terms
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- ALTRUISTIC BEHAVIOR
- Behavior that benefits someone other than the individual engaging in the behavior.
- ARTIFICIAL SELECTION
- Change in a population's genetic frequencies as a result of breeder's selection of desired individuals for mating.
- AUTOSOMAL GENE
- Any gene on any chromosome that is NOT a sex ( X & Y ) chromosome.
- BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
- Study of physiological, evolutionary, & developmental mechanisms of behavior & experience.
- CHROMOSOME
- Gene bearing DNA strand.
- CROSSING OVER
- Exchange of parts between 2 chromosomes during replication.
- DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID ( DNA )
- Double-stranded chemical chromosomes are composed of this; template for RNA synthesis.
- DOMINANT GENE
- Gene that shows strong effect on both homo and heterozygous conditions.
- DUALISM
- Belief that mind & body exist indepedently but somehow interact.
- "EASY" PROBLEMS
- Questions pertaining to certain concepts of consciousness; difference between awake & asleep, attention mechanisms.
- ENZYME
- Any proteins that catalyze biological reactions.
- EVOLUTION
- Change in genetic frequency / variety of a population over generations.
- EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATION
- Understanding a species in terms of evolutionary history; what evolved from what.
- FITNESS
- Number of copies of one's genes that endure in later generations.
- FUNCTIONAL EXPLANATION
- Understanding why a structure or behavior evolved the way it did; why something served as an advantage and therefore evolutionarily selected.
- GENE
- Unit of heredity that maintains its structural identity from one generation to the next.
- "HARD" PROBLEM
- Philosophical questions of why & how brain activity is associated with consciousness.
- HERITABILITY
- An estimate ranging from 0-1.0 of how much of the variance in a population is due to heredity, rather than environment. (Nature over nuture)
- HETEROZYGOUS
- Having 2 unlike genes for a given trait.
- HOMOZYGOUS
- Having 2 identical genes for a given trait.
- IDENTITY POSITION
- View that mental processes are the same as brain processes but are called by different terms.
- KIN SELECTION
- Selection for a gene because it benefits individual's relatives.
- LAMARCKIAN EVOLUTION
- A discredited theory that evolutionn proceeds through the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
- MATERIALISM
- View that everything that exists is material or physical.
- MENTALISM
- View that only the mind exists.
- MIND-BODY / MIND-BRAIN PROBLEM
- Question of how the mind is related to the brain.
- MONISM
- The theory that mental & physical substances are the same; opposite of dualism.
- MULTIPLIER EFFECT
- A tendency for small genetic / prenatal influences to alter the environment in a way that the change is magnified.
- MUTATION
- The change in a gene during reproduction.
- ONTOGENIC EXPLANATION
- Understanding a structure or behavior in terms of how it developed.
- PHENYLKETONURIA ( PKU )
- The inherited inability to metabolize a phenylalanine leading to mental retardation unless the afflicted person stays on a strict low phenylalanine diet throughout childhood.
- PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION
- Understanding a behavior in terms of how it is related to the activity of the brain and other organs.
- PROBLEM OF OTHER MINDS
- Difficulty in knowing whether other people / animals have conciousness.
- RECESSIVE GENE
- A gene that affects a homozygous condition, but not heterozygous.
- RECOMBINATION
- Reassortment of genes during reproduction leading to a characteristic not apparent in either parent.
- RIBONUCLEIC ACID ( RNA )
- A single strand chemical that serves as a template for the synthesis of protein molecules.
- SEX-LIMITED GENE
- A gene that primarily influences one sex.
- SOCIOBIOLOGY
- The field concerned with how & why various social behaviors evolved.
- SOLIPSISM
- The philosophical position of 'I alone exist -- I alone am concious'.
- X CHROMOSOME
- Chromosome of which female mammals have 2 and males have 1.
- Y CHROMOSOME
- Chromosome of which male mammals have 1 and females have none.