Essay on Understanding Consciousness

After receiving his Doctorate, Dr. Harlow became employed at the University of Wisconsin. He was an outstanding professor who reveled in educating students in psychology. He aided several students in obtaining their PhD as well. His students thought very highly of him. Lack of funding restricted Harlow of a functioning laboratory. With the assistance of his graduate students, he found a vacant building that was renovated. This lab became his “Primate Laboratory”. This was the first of its kind at that time. Throughout his career, Harry was recognized with several honors, which included the Gold Medal from American Psychological Foundation (LeRoy, 2008).

Throughout the earlier years, psychology was known as, “the science of mental life” Initially, psychology began on a December day in 1879, at a local German university, by Professor Wilhelm Wundt. The experiment, was to determine the time in which it took an individual, whom initially heard a bell, to press a telegraph’s key in response to the sound omitted. Wundt’s attempt was aimed at measuring the “atoms of the mind”. A fast and simple approach towards the mental process of an individual’s reaction. Thus, solidify Wilhelm, within the birth of psychology, as

Numerous factors determine when and why you feel tired, full of energy, and hungry. A person's state of consciousness and awareness varies throughout the day and depends on a person's activity, environment, and time clock.

The concept of Psychology originated from philosophy and biology which are two factors used in psychology today (Eysenck 2009). Psychology represents ‘study of the mind’ (Gross 2005). Psychology is a type of science which studies the behaviour of humans and animals, psychology tries to understand why people behave in certain ways taking into consideration their thoughts and feelings (Eysenck 2009). The term psychology was founded from the Greek word, psyche which means mind, soul or spirit combined with the Latin word logos which means’ the study of’ (Gross 2005). Psychology dates back to ancient civilizations who were interested in workings of the the mind and behaviours (Payne and Walker 2003). Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychological laboratory in 1879 (Glassman 2008). Wundt and his co workers studied the structures that make up the mind, he was the first theorist to use psychology as a self conscious experiment studying perceptions and conscious awareness (Gross 2005).

Consciousness refers to an individual’s self-awareness, both internally and external stimulus which include your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations and environment. Your consciousness can constantly change from one conscious to another. The constant change in consciousness can also be referred to as “stream of conscious”. Awareness- its mechanism and function has

The main assumption of the biological approach is behaviour and experiences can be explained by biological changes in the body. This approach focusses on the investigation of the brain, nervous system and other biological factors such as hormones; whereas the main assumption of the cognitive approach is that information received from our senses is processed by the brain and that this processing influences how we behave or at least justifies how we behave the way we do. Cognitive processes are examples of hypothetical constructs – researchers cannot directly observe processes such as thinking but we can infer what a person is thinking based on how they act (behavioural patterns). Some key researchers in the biological approach are Maguire et. Al (2000) - Navigation-related structural changes in the hippocampi of taxi drivers, and Sperry (1968) - Hemisphere disconnection and unity in consciousness. Some key researchers in the cognitive approach are Loftus and Palmer (1974) - eyewitness testimony and Baron-Cohen (1997) – Autism.

Throughout the course of history, the phenomenon of psychology has drawn countless psychologists and scientists to further comprehend the depths and fascinations of the human mind and body. Using experimentation as a source of obtaining and recording desired information regarding the new realizations of the mind, cognitive scientists continue to fathom at the intricate revelations the mind has to offer. Although the complexities of the mind have brought scientists to puzzling conclusions, scientists have used a series of experimental steps to conclude how and why the processes of the brain can change the actions and personalities of an individual.

My short assignment four best demonstrates this outcome. In this assignment, I explored the field of biopsychology, the study of the brain and behavior, by attending a lecture of biopsychology class here at the University of Washington. Dr. Lauren Graham spoke on the topic of the nervous system

Every behavior begins with biology. Our behaviors, as well as our thoughts and feelings, are produced by the actions of our brains, nerves, muscles, and glands. In this chapter we will begin our journey into the world of psychology by considering the biological makeup of the human being, including the most remarkable of human organs—the brain. We’ll consider the structure of the brain and also the methods that psychologists use to study the brain and to understand how it works.

Clinical psychology was not discovered until 1879, at the University of Psychology, in Leipzig, Germany, by Wilhelm Wundt. Much has transpired before the discovery such as Theodor Fechner published The Elements of Psychophysics in 1860, and in 1874, Wilhelm Wundt published the Principles of Physiological Psychology. Both of the publications were needed to state the methods of physiology and physics as an answer to questions in psychology. Wundt believed research and studies were essential to know individual and group differences in sensation and perception, and the reaction time of humans. Although

From the dawn of man, to modern times, the human race has accomplished so many scientific achievements that it are spectacular. But one thing in particular that has puzzled humans over the centuries is the brain, and how it affects human behavior. It wasn’t until the late 1800s when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological research laboratory at Leipzig, that experimentation and research began in order to fully understand the human mind. Afterwards, many other psychologist such as Sigmund Freud also began research as well, performing experiments and creating their own theories on certain behaviors. The controversy started when psychologist then began to perform unethical experiments in order to advance in the field of psychology. The

Psychology is a scientific application of behaviourism. It evolved from three key areas of research, philosophy, biology and physics. In 1879 a man named Wilhelm Wundt created the first laboratory with the sole

Biological psychology is the study of how biology affects a number of psychological processes i.e. how the mind affects the body (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner & Hood 2015). The study of the mind has had many influential figures throughout history that often use each other’s ideas as a stepping stone to further advance psychology, some of the first being Plato and Aristotle. Plato believed in nativism and theorised some skills and characteristics are innate and a person is born with them (Schacter et al, 2015). Aristotle, however, was in favour of philosophical empiricism i.e. that all knowledge is acquired through experience, yet current scientists do not consider that nativism and empiricism are entirely accurate (Schacter et al, 2015). Aristotle also believed that the brain existed to cool the blood, as during that time people were sceptical that an organ could be responsible for behaviour (Kolb, Whishaw & Teskey 2016). The next major advancement in biological psychology was the introduction of phrenology by Francis Gall, Gall’s theory suggested that all psychological capabilities had a specific place in the brain (Schacter et al, 2015). This theory later turned out to be correct, although was overshadowed by Gall’s insistence that he could state a person’s character dependant on the size of lumps and indentations on a person’s skull, which he thought would represent the size of that brain region beneath (Schacter et al, 2015). Due to this, in spite of a large following, phrenology was quickly discredited. Biologist Pierre Flourens, unhappy with Gall’s research, began removing localized areas of the brain in various animals to observe their behaviour (Schacter et al, 2015). Flourens then found that animal’s movements differed to those with intact brains. This mirrored a situation for surgeon Paul Broca with whom one of his patients had damage to the left side of

As far back as the time when man first discovered ways to communicate with one another he has attempted to understand and explain the course of historical events. In considering the historical development of scientific psychology two main views of the historical progress the field of science have emerged: personalistic theory and naturalistic theory.

Psychology is the study of the mind, its biology, and behavior if the individual. The father of psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, used objective measurement and controlled analyzing to find and emphasize separation between psychology and philosophy (McLeod). Wundt opened the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879, using his background in physiology to study reactions and sensations (McLeod). There is no doubt that he, along with the later help of Sigmund Freud, launched what is now modern psychology. Psychology and its research helped the world understand the inner workings of the mind and how it affects everyone around us.