Monkey Social Studies

A few weeks ago, I spent a lovely Monday afternoon observing two different primates at the Santa Ana Zoo. I got to the zoo around two in the afternoon, and to my surprise, the zoo was decently crowded. The Santa Ana Zoo is smaller in comparison to other zoos like the Los Angeles Zoo, but still had a decent amount of animals there. Covering a small 20 acres of land, I came across two primates that fit perfectly for the purposes of this course project. I chose to observe an endangered ape, the white-handed gibbon, and an endangered new world monkey, the golden-headed lion tamarin.

Harry and Margaret Harlow’s experiment was mostly centered on social development, which the sole stars of the experiment: Rhesus Monkeys. A significant amount of observations were found in the experiment. These directly related themselves to the limited social contact of humans. It was specifically aimed toward the cases of isolated and feral children. In these experiments, or observations, it is demonstrated that human or mother contact is necessary to the development of a child.

Within this essay, we will study more in depth the behavioral as well as physical traits of two primates at a zoo from their interaction with their peers to their place in the group. This observation would enable us to further understand the possible existing correlation between humans and primates. First, I studied a female chimpanzee with her baby, and then, a dominant male gorilla, in San Francisco Zoo at about noon, on May 23, 2015, for an hour each. Even though they share some similarities such as having a large brain, living for a long time, and being bored in their enclosure, they are still different; when gorillas are the largest, chimpanzees are the smartest. In fact, chimps use tools to catch food, they would not be able to reach

In today’s session, group members learned about how thoughts and emotions contribute to behavior, and how to observe, analyze and responses to those thoughts and emotions in different ways. The common behavior traits that related to substance use were discussed, as well.

It is not known whether the animals in question actually recognized their partner as familiar, nor is it known if it is necessary for them to do so in order to benefit from the buffering effect. Another limitation was the possibility that the effect of social interaction in the study could have been from simply being exposed to a new environment instead of the familiar partner. In future studies, this should be addressed by adding a group of animals in isolated housing conditions and placing them in a new mesh-divided cage without a partner. Finally, this study also utilized isolated animals, which could have been affected by stress. Future studies will need to determine how stress can affect alcohol consumption and the alcohol deprivation effect. Despite the limitations, the results of this study indicate that voles may be used as a model for studying relapse behavior in humans, showing that a person at risk of relapse might be more likely to reduce his alcohol intake if he has social support. (Hostetler et. al.,

Although there are several theories, there is substantial evidence suggesting methamphetamine-induced serotonergic imbalances are responsible for the increased and enhanced aggressiveness characteristic of methamphetamine users. Degeneration of serotonin in the front striatal region of the brain as a result of methamphetamine use and abuse can be shown to produce violent and unpredictable behaviour as a result of the brains inability to regulate appropriate behavioural responses to external stimuli. Therefore, the mechanism of the chemical substance serotonin in regions of the brain that regulate behaviour (such as the orbitofrontal, dorsolateral and prefrontal cortex) can be seen to be responsible for the violence associated with the use of

The study design of this research was a field study observing both male and female chimpanzees. It can also be seen as a case-control study because the only males which were observed had shown strong social bonds with each other. Both sexes that were observed were from Ngogo although some data that was used was from previous studies and randomized tests.

Another animal model of abuse liability that has provided much information on the behavioral effects of cannabinoids is the conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure. This procedure is based on the principles of classical conditioning and provides an indication of drug-related reward/aversion effects in animals. The rewarding/aversive stimulus properties of a drug assessed under this procedure refers to the appetitive nature of the stimulus as opposed to the ability of a drug to increase the probability of a given behavior (i.e. reinforcing effects). Although methodological details differ among laboratories, CPP procedures typically begin by allowing animals to freely explore two distinct environmental contexts within a chamber, which differ

The brain can negatively be affected by such things such as smoking, drinking and substance abuse, lack of sleep, chronic illness. The brain can suffer from both short term and longer term effects from drugs abuse but can somewhat heal with years of sobriety. This paper is focusing on substance use and/or abuse specifically opiates and cocaine. Opiates and cocaine were specially focused on due the high use in the Northeast Region of the United States of America. Another reason to focus on those two especially because they have opposite reactions in the body opiates bring an individual down while cocaine ramps an individual up. The drugs can be used in combination called “speedballing”. The paper will first discuss how the brain functions and its role in creating or destroying harmony.

Drugs have been around for a very long time. They are used for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include relaxation, socialization, curiosity, stress relief, or a form of escapism. However, most people don’t know the threats and danger that it can cause to the body. In this paper, we are going to examine the changes that happen inside the brain due to the effects of different drugs. We will look closely at how drugs such as hallucinogens, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, and cannabis affect an individual psychologically. I will explain the origin of the drugs, how a person feels while on the drug, how the drugs

Neuropsychology is the study of brain-behavior relationships (Barkley, 1983). It is the scientific study of the association between the different structures and physiological processes of the nervous system and the behavior of organisms (Barkley, 1983). The focus of this particular field in psychology is not just pertaining to humans as research on infrahumans consistently provides simple scientific information and data from which research ideas on humans will be drawn/ concluded from (Barkley, 1983). For example, research that was conducted on rats involved giving amphetamines to the rats with given closed head injuries yielded the option of exploring the use of stimulant drugs in helping the recovery of adults and children that have experienced accidental closed head trauma (Barkley, 1983). The field includes the study of developmental changes of the nervous system and it’s behavioral parallels as well as the effects of experimental and also accidental changes of the nervous system on the behavior of an individual (Barkley, 1983).

It has been shown that individuals turn to drugs that elicit a mood or level of arousal consistent with their mode of dealing with stress. Those who deal with stress by confrontation choose drug stimulants. Those who withdrawal from stress chooses opiate drugs. Others who deal with stress through activities related to imagery or fantasy turn to hallucinogens. These differences between behavior and drug preference are thought to be biochemically driven.

Findings: RQ1: Secret of the Soul, Spellbound, David and Lisa, Twelve Monkeys are not a very reliable bellwether of psychoanalytic trends; moreover, they neither portray existing conceptions with accuracy nor offer new insights into dreams and dream interpretation.

An individual’s behavior and emotion becomes chemically altered often resulting in dependency, aggression, onset of diseases and poor judgement. This poses a dangerous threat to the neurotransmitters since they have multiple jobs in different parts of the brain. Drugs of abuse are able to exert influence over the brain reward pathway either by directly influencing the action of dopamine within the system, or by altering the activity of other neurotransmitters that exert a modulatory influence over this pathway. These drugs are often powerful and have been known to trigger schizophrenic behavior and can also cause a person to cease breathing, for example hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin are able to artificially stimulate the serotonin receptor (Sapolsky, 2005).

Drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, ecstasy, heroin and cannabis, are of natural or synthetic origin, which can alter the emotional state, perception, body functioning and behaviour of an individual. Drugs are known to work in the brain by activating certain brain circuits via different mechanisms, and stimulate or inhibit different neurons in the pathway. However, due to the effects of each drug being different, a drug will affect either different pathways and neurons in the brain to that of another, or through a different process, i.e. direct or indirect activity. This essay will discuss the different mechanisms of action that cocaine, ecstasy, heroin and