Science: Biology in Psychology

There are three different theories that are used when talking about how we react to stress through the physiological aspect or the psychological aspect. The first is part of the physiological aspect of stress called the Cannon Fight or Flight theory which was proposed in 1914. Fight or Flight response is a physiological stress response that evolved to help organisms to survive immediate danger. The theory states that when an organism, human being or animal, faces imminent danger (acute stressor) the body arouses quickly and is ready to act via two different systems. They are the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal medulla which is part of the endocrine system and is the region that produces the hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones increase heart rate, blood flow, and glucose levels to prepare the body for an emergency. This response from the body suggests that the body knows how to protect itself and reach homeostasis. These two systems work together to either fight against the danger or flight away from the danger. Lord, King and Pfister in 1976 studied the Fight or Flight response in animals through a very unethical study. They administered chemicals on male hooded Wistar rats which inhibited the neurotransmitters from functioning normally. This made it very difficult for the rats to escape an electric shock. The results of the study suggest that the Flight or Fight response

In an acute stressor, the immune system is heightened. But is suppressed in a chronic stressor. In this situation the cortisol levels rise, and weaken the immune system. This weaken system can make the human body more susceptible to serious disease, infections

When put under stress, both humans and baboons have cortisol and adrenaline found in their blood. These hormones are critical for survival, and other physical changes in the body such as a racing heart, increased blood pressure, and quickly responding muscles are all present when the body is put under stress. However, in regard to humans, these same physical responses can occur when the body is not in a life in death situation. Instead, it is common for psychological stresses such as public speaking, taking a test, paying taxes, or driving a vehicle to invoke the same physiological responses as someone in a critical situation. This can be unhealthy for the human body, as many people can get worked up over multiple stressors in one day,

The aim of this review is to discuss the mechanisms by which the nervous and immune systems interact to affect each other during periods of stress (psychological and physiological), the specific effects of cortisol-mediated stress on the immune system based on the magnitude and duration of the stressor, and the models proposed to explain these effects.

Cortisol is also known as the “ The Stress Hormone” and “Public Health Enemy Number One” according to Christopher Bergland (1). Cortisol has its way in our bodies because with too much or to low our bodies will have problems. Even though having too much cortisol in our bodies is bad, it stills an essential part for our body because it influences and regulates many of the changes that occur in the body in response to stress (3).

Whether it is the study of biopsychology and other fields of psychology or neuroscience, all psychologists and scientists are trying to understand the functions of the brain. The body and mind connection and how it reacts to certain behaviors or illnesses. Most all psychological functioning can be reduced to underlying brain processes. This should serve as reason alone as to why biology plays an important part in the study of psychology. Psychological factors play a role in whether a person develops a mental illness and in how well they recover from a mental illness, yet biological and genetic risk factors, or predispositions, are

Cortisol has been shown to have the greatest effect on the health of a person. Cortisol is a hormone released in stressful situations. Cortisol levels in young children have been shown to increase when the child is left in the care of someone they are unfamiliar with and when they attempt to interact or play with large groups of other children. (Turvett 2008) Lack of control in a situation is associated with a lack of recovery of cortisol, which can lead to a range of negative health effects. (Ursin 2004)

Cortisol has a main function, this is to restore homeostasis following exposure to stress (Randall’12, 2011), the effects of cortisol are felt over the entire body and “impact several homeostatic mechanisms. While cortisol’s primary targets are metabolic, it also affects ion transport, the immune response, and even memory” (Randall’12, 2011). Stress even over relatively short periods and in different contexts, “tend to produce similar results: prolonged healing times, reduction in ability to cope with vaccinations, and heightened vulnerability to viral infection. The long-term effects of constant cortisol exposure associated with chronic stress produces further symptoms, including impaired cognition, decreased thyroid function, and accumulation

Firdaus Dhabhar gave a short lecture on August 19th, 2015 about the good effects that stress can have on our lives. I read two papers published by Dr. Dhabhar in the last five years, both concerning his research on the biological response of stress and how this can impact our daily lives as well as how it can be both detrimental and essential to good health. Each paper explored stress, one was more focused on the physical and the other focused on both the physical and the mental. Given my own project this summer, I was especially interested in the paper published by Aschbacher and colleagues in 2013 because they also explored cortisol reactivity to stress. While their project and my project looked at very different things in very different populations it was exciting to read more about cortisol and how people are exploring this hormone’s role in our stress

Long-term alterations in the secretion include a glutocorticoid hormones cortisol via the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal access personal play crucial role in mediating the link between chronic stress exposure and ability to variety of diseases. (Stalder et al. 2012) Some of the biological consequences of such arousal were first identified by Selye (1956) as the General Adaptation Syndrome. Selye noted t h a t a principal characteristic of this response is an elevation in cortisol level. As a result of this early work and of more recent laboratory-based research, cortisol is now often regarded a s a "stress hormone" and as an objective marker of stress (Baum et al., 1982). (Pollard 1995)Registering for stressors cognitive affective states

Stress can be broadly defined as any stimulus that disrupts homeostasis, with the stress response referring to physiological and behavioral reactions to such a stimulus (Selye, 1950). It

The stress hormone that we release when are stressed is called Cortisol. Cortisol is an important hormone in the body and is secreted by the adrenal glands. It is at it’s highest levels in the morning and should only be released in short bursts of time. Cortisol is used within the body to maintain proper glucose metabolism, regulation of blood pressure, release insulin for blood sugar maintenance, immune function, and inflammatory response. Short terms effects of cortisol are small effects are a quick burst of energy for survival reasons, increased memory functions, a burst of increased immunity, lower sensitivity to pain, and helps maintain homeostasis in the body.

Stress causes the build up of cortisol. Excess cortisol- the body’s ‘stress hormone’- is responsible for the ‘symptoms’ of stress. The anxiety, sleep problems, digestive issues, headaches and depression that you experience when you are stressed are all as a result of an excess of cortisol in your body. By decreasing your cortisol levels, you will be able to eliminate these negative ramifications of stress.

The body response to stress consists of a well-known topic like fight or flight and general adaptation syndrome. We deal with stress on day-to-day bases but prolonged amounts of stress can

The biological approach to psychology is the thought to be related to the physical structure of humans. The biological approach, believes that abnormality has a physical indication, such as illness or disease. Furthermore, it also suggests that behaviour is shaped by physiological internal factors. There are four psychical causes to psychopathology which have been reviewed and investigated. The four include, damage on the brain, infections, biochemistry and genetics. In addition, behaviours driven by abnormality are illnesses caused by the possibility of the combination of the four factors (AS Psychology, 2017). In a study that was carried out, it was shown that someone of a first-degree relative like a son, or a daughter, of someone who suffers from a mental illness such as schizophrenia has an estimated ten per cent change of developing schizophrenia themselves (Cardwell et al, 2008: p.226). Additionally, some physical disorders appear to emerge from defects in single genes. It is very unlikely that this has the same affect for mental disorders, such as schizophrenia. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2016), it is projected that while suffering from schizophrenia, the risk of identical twins developing schizophrenia raises from forty, to sixty-five percent. The medical profession has learned more about the part played by biochemistry in mental health disorders. In schizophrenia, the biochemistry explanation displays the dopamine hypothesis, meaning