2. The biology of behavior is the study of behavioral functions of the
nervous system, particularly the brain.
"Physiological psychology" is the branch of psychology which seeks to
determine how activity in the nervous system is related to behavior &
the mind.
Human behavior involves the body-mind interaction of the various
bodily factors.
The most important are:
1. The sense organs, called receptors.
2. The muscles & endocrine glands called effectors.
3. The nervous system known as the connecting or integrating
mechanism.
3. Body and its Functions:
Body composed 4 main compartments-
Head, trunk, hands, feet.
It has 5 sense organs-
eyes. ears, nose, tongue and skin.
5 organs of action-
feet, hands, mouth, excretory, rectum.
Functionary systems-
Respiratory, blood circulatory, skeletal, digestive, endocrine
and excretory systems
There is strong physiological and anatomical basis for
explaining our behavior in all situations of our life.
4. MIND AND ITS FUNCTIONS :
WHAT IS MIND?
WHERE IS IT LOCATED?
Mind is not reality – hypothetical construct.
It doesn’t lie anywhere in our body-we should not confuse
it with brain or nervous system.
It is associated with various mental process and activities.
The functioning of our mind improves or gets developed
with growing age.
5. BODY-MIND RELATIONSHIP:
• Psychology studies human behavior which involves both
body & the mind.
• They are interrelated & interact upon each other.
• Mental functions & physical states affect each other.
• Body & the mind are two aspects of the living, dynamic
& adjusting personality.
• Mind is regarded as a function of the body; it does not
exist apart from the body.
• It is the sum total of various mental process such as
observing, knowing, thinking, reasoning, feeling,
imagining, remembering, judging etc.
6. MODULATION PROCESS IN HEALTH & ILLNESS
EFFECTS OF BODILY CONDITIONS ON MENTAL
FUNCTIONING-
Increased blood pressure causes mental excitement.
Severe pain reduces the concentration level.
Chronic illness causes depression.
Malfunctioning of the endocrine glands may exert a full influence
on one’s personality, resulting in lethargy, nervous tension etc.
Physical fatigue affects our mood and reduces motivation,
interest and concentration.
Brain injury affects many psychological functions.
Well developed brain leads to better development of intellectual
functioning
7. EFFECTS OF MENTAL CONDITIONS ON BODILY
FUNCTIONING-
Unpleasant emotions like fear, anger & worry cause irritability,
insomnia, headache etc.
Emotional conflicts are responsible for peptic ulcer, ulcerative
colitis etc.
Deep thinking & concentration can cause physical strain.
Repressed feelings and aggression are expressed through
nervous system and causes hypertension and cardiac diseases.
Unconscious motivation and conflicts gives rise to many
physical complaints and neurological (conversion) disorders.
8. HEREDITY
Heredity is the basis for the development of human personality.
Heredity is considered as “the sum total of inborn individual
traits”.
Biologically, it has been defined as “the sum total of traits
potentially present in the fertilized ovum”.
According to Douglas & Holland “one’s heredity consists of all
the structures, physical characteristics, functions or capacities
derived from parents, other ancestry or species”.
The life cycle of an individual begins with the fusion of a
sperm and ovum(conception)
9. In the fertilized ovum, there are 23(46) pairs of chromosomes,
half of which are given by the father and the other half by the
mother.
Each chromosome is made up of many genes, which appear to
be the actual determiners of traits.
One gene (DNA,RNA) may influence many characteristics or
traits or conversely many genes may combine to determine one
characteristic.
The heredity basis of individual differences lies in the
unlimited variety of possible gene combinations that can occur.
No two siblings get an identical heredity, as they do not get the
same genes from parents.
10. Fraternal or dizygotic twins are different from each other
because of different pairs of germ cells.
Identical or monozygotic twins have exactly the same set of
genes and therefore, resemble each other completely.
Determination of traits is not only due to combination of genes,
but also due to their dominant or recessive nature.
Some characters are sex linked, i.e. one sex shows the
characteristics, while other sex not apparently affected is the
carrier.
Heredity is the raw material in the hands of the artist, out of
which the potter or tailor prepare the specific objects
11. ENVIRONMENT :
The child inherits the traits and characteristics of his parents and
forefathers through genes at the time of conception. Therefore,
what he possesses at the time of conception is all due to heredity.
After conception, how he develops is the outcome of the interaction
between his hereditary characteristics and environment.
The forces of environment begin to play their part and influence
the growth and development of an individual right from the time of
the fertilization of the ovum by the sperm.
Therefore, what happens after birth is important but also what goes
inside the womb of the mother after conception has equal
significance.
12. Environment covers the social, moral, economical, political,
physical and intellectual factors, which influence the
development of individual from time to time.
Definitions-
The environment is everything that affects the individual
except his genes. -Boring, Langfield and Weld.
Environment covers all the outside factors that have acted
on the individual, since he began life. –Woodworth.
13. Environmental forces can be divided into 2 major heads:
1. Internal Environment-
From conception to till his birth in the womb of the
mother (9months).
• Embryo receives the nutrition, through the blood stream of its
mother.
• Physical & mental health of the mother including her habits,
attitudes & interests etc. all constitute inner surroundings that
affects the growth and development of individual .
2. External Environment-
After his birth what the child gets in terms of
environmental influences is purely external in nature.
14. It can be further divided into 3 sub-parts
A. Physical Environment: Non-living things like water, air,
housing, soil, climate, heat, light, radiation, noise, etc. form the
physical environment.
These affect the body and mind of the growing child. So, it is
necessary to provide a decent home and locality for good
physical and mental health of the child.
B. Biological Environment: It refers to the living component
of man’s external environment, which consists of plants,
animals, insects, bacteria and viruses.
It is necessary that the child should be allowed to grow in a
good, healthy biological environment.
The child should be kept away from the disease carrying
germs, bacteria and viruses.
15. C. Psychosocial (Socio-Cultural) Environment:
It includes cultural values, customs, habits, beliefs, attitudes,
religion, education, occupation, social and political
organization, etc. Parents, members of the family, friends,
classmates, neighbors, teachers, mass communication and
recreation, libraries are also included in this environment.
These different environmental forces have a desirable impact
upon the physical, social, emotional, intellectual, moral and
aesthetic development of an individual.
Their influence is a continuous one, which begins with the
emergence of life and goes on till death.
Therefore, it is always advisable to consider the sources like
one's heredity and environmental factors for determining the
behavior or development of some specific personality traits.
16. BRAIN AND BEHAVIOUR :
The entire behavior is effectively managed and controlled by
the coordination and functioning of the nervous system.
How we will behave in a particular situation depends upon the
judgment of our brain.
The sense impressions, which are received through the sense
organs, do not bear any significance unless they are given a
meaning by the nervous system.
Learning also to a great extent is controlled by the nervous system.
The proper growth and development of nerve tissues and nervous
system as a whole helps in the task of proper intellectual
development
Any defect in the spinal cord or the brain seriously affects the
intellectual growth.
17. The emotional behavior is also influenced by the nervous
system, especially at the time of anger, fear and other
emotional changes.
During emotional outbursts, nerve tissues cause the change in
the secretion of hormones by some glands and consequently
influence the emotional behavior of an individual.
The process of growth and development is also directly and
indirectly controlled by the functioning of the nervous system.
The personality of an individual is greatly influenced through
the mechanism of the nervous system.
Human behavior involves the body-mind interaction of the
various bodily factors.
18. The most important are:
The sense organs, called receptors.
The muscles and endocrine glands, called effectors.
The nervous system known as the connecting or integrating
mechanism
Receptors (Psychology of Sensations)-
The stimuli in the form of various sensory experiences are
received by our sensory systems known as receptors.
External Receptors: External receptors are those sensory
mechanisms that help us contact the outer world, for example,
eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. The specific receptor cells for
receiving the external stimuli lie within these sensory systems.
19. Sense organs :
Our sense organs help in assimilating knowledge of the world
around us. Each of our sense organs has a distinct function to
perform.
Sense organs consist of receptors, which are specialized
sensitive cells associated with endings of sensory nerve
fibers. These receptors are stimulated by objects outside the
body and by internal conditions.
When the receptors are not functioning properly, they lead to
sensory defects or disorders- visual, auditory, cutaneous,
olfactory, gustatory and kinesthetic disorders.
20. Internal Receptors :
Internal receptors are associated with the internal stimuli
present in our body. They are responsible for feelings of pain,
hunger or nausea. Another variety of these internal receptors
helps us in maintaining balance, bodily posture and equilibrium
and exercise control over the muscles.
Sensation :
The functioning of the five senses is called sensation.
Sensations are purely the result of physical stimuli operating on
our nervous system.
22. Effectors (Muscular and Glandular Controls of Behaviour):
Effectors are termed as the organs of responses. What is
received through the sensory organs in the form of sensory
input is responded through bodily reactions and motor
activities carried out through muscles and glands, particularly
the hormones secreted by the ductless glands, which are
responsible for most of our behavior patterns. The
underactivity or overactivity of these glands, causes deficiency
or excess of hormonal secretion. This affects the entire
personality makeup of the individual.
Muscles:
Our behavior and activity involves movement of different
parts of our body. Muscles helps the organism to carry out
motor activities in order to respond to various stimuli.
23. There are mainly three types of muscles,
Smooth muscles, cardiac muscles and skeletal muscles.
Smooth muscles are primarily concerned with the process of
digestion, excretion and blood circulation.
Cardiac muscles function smoothly in a rhythmic fashion,
but when one is emotionally upset, their normal functioning is
disturbed causing heart trouble.
Skeletal or striped muscles enable the individual to perform
voluntary motor activities ranging from walking to the fine
psychomotor skills like typing, etc.
24. Glands.
Glands play an important role in human behavior. They also
assist in the digestion of food, elimination of waste products,
production and prolongation of emotional states and regulation
of metabolism of the body.
There are two types of glands:
1. Duct glands
2. Ductless or endocrine glands.
Duct glands release their chemical secretion through little
ducts or tubes into the body cavities or on the surface of the
body.
25. Some of the duct glands are: Salivary glands, Gastric
glands, Sweat glands, Lacrimal glands, Kidneys.
The duct glands either become overactive or underactive, under
the influence of emotions. There is a close and intimate
connection between human behavior and the secretions of duct
glands.
Ductless or endocrine glands secrete chemical substances called
hormones.
The hormones are released into the blood stream and are carried
to all parts of the body.
They play a vital role in the determination of human personality.
They affect the development of the body, general metabolism,
mental development, development of secondary sex
characteristics and emotional behaviour.
26. Connectors
Connectors or adjusters help in regulating, controlling or
coordinating the activities of receptors and effectors.
The ability to play a piano, drive a car or hit a tennis ball
depends on muscle coordination.
It is necessary for the body to provide messages to the muscles
to coordinate.
These messages are passed through specialized cells called
“neurons”.
28. A nerve cell with all its branches is called a neuron. These
are the basic elements of the nervous system.
A neuron has a nucleus, a cell body and a cell membrane
to enclose the whole cell. There are tiny fibers extending
out from the cell body called ‘dendrites’.
Their role is to receive messages through electrical
impulses from the sense organs or adjacent neurons and
carry them to the cell body.
The messages from the cell body further travel the length
of a nerve fiber known as the axon.
29. A group of axons, bundled together like parallel wires in
an electrical cable, is referred to as a nerve.
The axon (but certainly not all of them) is surrounded by
a fatty covering called the ‘myelin sheath’. It serves to
increase the velocity, with which the electrical impulses
travel through the axons.
30. Functions of neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitter Function
Acetylcholine Regulates muscle movement and cognitive
functioning .
Glutamate Helps in memory process
gamma -aminobutyric acid
(GABA)
Moderates eating, aggression and sleeping .
Dopamine
Regulates movements and coordination,
emotions and voluntary decision-making ability.
Deficiency of dopamine causes Parkinson’s
disease, overproduction causes mental disorders
like schizophrenia .
Serotonin Regulates sleep, eating, mood and pain.
Endorphins Reduces pain and pleasurable feelings .
31. NERVOUS SYSTEM :
The nervous system is the master controlling,
communicating and regulatory system in the body.
Nervous system controls and coordinates all essential
functions of the human body.
It is the center of all mental activity including thought,
learning and memory.
Together with the endocrine system, the nervous
system is responsible for regulating and maintaining
homeostasis.
34. CEREBRUM
Cerebrum is the largest part of
brain
▶ Cerebrum consists of two
hemispheres namely right and
left hemispheres.
▶ Each hemisphere has 4 lobes
1.Frontal lobe
2.Temporal lobe
3.Parietal lobe
4.Occipital lobe
35. Lobe Function
Occipital Visual processing
Parietal Movement, orientation,
calculation, recognition
Temporal Sound and speech
processing, aspects of
memory
Frontal Thinking,
conceptualization,
planning
36. THALAMUS- situated at the base of the cerebrum. It
has some control over the autonomic nervous system and
also plays a role in the control of sleep and alertness.
HYPOTHALAMUS- lies below the thalamus. It exerts a
key influence on all kind of emotional as well as
motivational behaviour. Centers in the hypothalamus
have control over the important body processes like
eating, drinking, sleeping, temperature control and sex. It
also has control over the activities of pituitary gland.
MID BRAIN- is a short-constricted segment of brain
which forms a connection between cerebrum and other
parts of brain.
37. HINDBRAIN- is composed of three structures the
medulla, pons and cerebellum.
‘Medulla’ controls breathing and many important
reflexes, such as those that help us to maintain our upright
postures. It also regulates the highly complex processes
like digestion, respiration and circulation.
The ‘pons’ assist in breathing, transmitting impulses from
the cerebellum to the higher brain regions and in
coordinating the activities of both sides of the brain.
‘Cerebellum’ is responsible for body balance and the
coordination of body movements like dancing, typing,
playing, etc.
38. .
Hypothalamus -------
Responsible for
regulating basic biological
needs hunger, thirst,
temperature control
Pituitary gland --
'Master' gland
that regulates other
endocrine glands
Cerebral cortex
Corpus callosum
Bridge of fibers
passing information
between the two
cerebral hemispheres
Spinal cord --
Responsible for
communication between
brain and rest of the body
involved with simple reflexes
Pons
Involved in sleep
and arousal
Reticular formation
A network of neurons
related to sleep,
arousal and attention
Medulla
Responsible for regulatinglargely
unconscious functions such as
breathing & circulation
39. Spinal cord works as a channel of communication from
and to the brain.
It is a rope-like structure, made up of long round nerve
fibers.
It also works as an organ for effective reflex actions like
withdrawal of the hand when something is hot.
These reflex actions are almost automatic in nature.
40. Nature of Behaviour of an Organism, Integrated
Responses :
Integrative Function of the Nervous System :
The various activities of the nervous system can be grouped
together as three general, overlapping functions.
Sensory
Integrative
Motor
▶ Millions of sensory receptors detect changes, called stimuli,
which occur inside and outside the body.
▶ They monitor such things as temperature, light and sound from
the external environment. Inside the body, the internal
environment, receptors detect variations in pressure, pH, carbon
dioxide concentration and the levels of various electrolytes. All
of this gathered information is called sensory input.
41. ▶ Sensory input is converted into electrical signals called nerve
impulses that are transmitted to the brain.
▶ There the signals are brought together to create sensations, to
produce thoughts or to add to memory; decisions are made
each moment based on sensory input. This is integration.
▶ Based on the sensory input and integration the nervous system
responds by sending signals to muscles, causing them to
contract or to glands causing them to produce secretions.
▶ Muscles and glands are called effectors, because they cause an
effect in response to detections from the nervous system. This
is the motor output or motor function
42. Autonomic nervous system:
Autonomic nervous system is autonomous and works
independent of voluntary control.
It is made up of nerves connecting with the glands and smooth
muscles, which are involved in respiration, circulation and
digestion.
These processes go on automatically without our knowledge.
The system operates actively during emotional states. When we
are well, physical and mental activities are integrated.
43. We receive stimuli and are able to think, learn and
remember. We are able to experience the various types of
feelings.
In illness, the normal healthy functioning of the body and
its various organs Illness affects the threshold levels of our
nervous system, may cause abnormal reactions to ordinary
stimuli. It may adversely affect our coordination, may
disturb our thinking processes.
44. Importance of knowledge of the Nervous System
and Glands to a Nurse-
▶ It helps the nurse to understand the physiological
basis of patient behavior.
▶ It helps the nurse to understand how glandular
secretions influence personality.
▶ It helps the nurse to understand the various diseases
of nervous system and glands and their effect on
human behavior.
