Physiological Psychology

In this paper, we compare and contrast the theories of Structuralism, which was structuralism developed out of early attempts to establish psychology as a separate discipline from philosophy and biology, and Functionalism, which was developed by American psychologists in response to the theory of Structuralism.  Additionally, this discussion includes the contributions and relevance of these theories to contemporary psychology.

Signal detection theory has evolutionary foundations in which our ancestors who were able to detect signals of aggression survived, while those who could not were extinguished. The purpose of this study is to examine the detection of conflict escalation signals in a domestic argument in a married couple as a consequence of history with prior victimization and perpetration of violence.  The purpose of this study is threefold: 1. escalation detection differences between a trained special victim’s detective and untrained individuals, 2. escalation detection for individuals with domestic violence victimization, and 3. physiological arousal during escalation detection.  A series of hypotheses and research questions tested untrained people’s signal detection abilities with a trained, special victim’s unit police investigator as a consequence of male and female-initiated conflict.  Untrained viewers reported fewer aggression signals than the police investigator.  A repeated measures general linear model using two measures of physiological arousal revealed significant effects on electrodermal activity while watching escalating conflict as a function of victimization history.  Results are discussed in terms of signal detection and excitation transfer theories towards explaining responses to escalating conflict.

Freud's theory on gender, sex and love has been constantly viewed as a relevant topic in social science and education spheres. As there are many aspects in this theory that need to be investigated because of the ever changing social landscape, this paper revisits the views of selected college students on specified constructs of the theory. It tried to discover significant findings from the philosophy of Freud to understand whether his concepts are resonated through the perspectives of selected college students. By means of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a qualitative approach exploring the lived experience of the participants. The study discovered that Freud's knowledge on sexuality is still manifested by both Filipino male and female sexes. This was revealed by comparing how Filipino male and female fall in love in this day and age. Based on the results, the college students described Filipino male as passive, much faster in being aware of their sexuality, wild and harsh, responsible, hard-working and a good provider in the family; while women are conservative, powerful than before, and surprisingly no tradition exists for them. Moreover, the students claim that male and female differ in how they express their love such as male cry but it is usually hidden, showing sincerity, and honesty. On the other hand, female are too expressive and emotional; expresses love by kissing, hugging, etc. In this study, the role of society is very vital in establishing sexuality.

There is no exact model for the relationship between the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and evoked or perceived emotion. Music has long been a privileged field for exploration, while the contribution of soundscape research is more recent. It is known that health is influenced by the sonic environment, and the study here presented aimed to investigate the nature and strength of relationships between soundscape features and physiological responses linked to relaxation or stress. In a controlled experiment, seventeen healthy volun-teers moved freely inside a physical installation listening to soundscape recordings of nature, urban parks, eateries, and shops, reproduced using 3D ambisonic techniques. Physiological responses were continuously captured, then detrended, downsampled, and analysed with multivariate linear regression onto orthogonal acoustic and perceptual stimuli features that had been previously determined. Measures of Peripheral Temper-ature regressed onto SoundMass, an ac...

This article argues that paintings of Aesthetic Movement artist Albert Moore (1841-1893) from the mid-1870s onwards are works about consciousness and sensate experience, as defined by Victorian physiological psychologists. First, Moore’s depiction of female figures in these works is considered alongside Luce Irigaray’s theories about sensuous experience. The experiences Moore paints are holistic, private, and self-constituting: in them, self-touch is a mediation between inside and outside, self and world. Sensuous experience is envisioned as multiplicitous, involving the whole body. Next, the logic of Moore’s aesthetic system is compared to that of the nineteenth-century ‘graphic method’, whereby instruments tracked and transcribed inner physiological phenomena (such as the circulation of blood). Moore’s paintings are shown to register rhythms analogous to those of the viscera, unfolding in time. Finally, George Henry Lewes’ (1817-1878) theories of physiological psychology are considered alongside Moore’s use of pattern. Lewes’ holistic and corporeal model of psychological experience is similar to that represented by Moore. Both explore (i) the idea of sensation and sentience as experienced and organised by the whole body, and (ii) differing levels of consciousness. Moore’s forms and working method are multi-layered; his paintings are like corporeal weaves, analogues to the sensate body.

In this study, I took the quantitative research approach of film statistical stylistic analysis to examine the editing pattern evolution of 130 Hollywood movie trailers over the past 60 years from 1951 to 2015; the prior studies on the overall evolution of the Hollywood movies’ editing pattern are compared and discussed.  The results suggest that although the movie trailers are much shorter than the whole movies, the average shot lengths of the trailers still display a declining trend over the past 60 years, and the variations in the shot lengths are also decreasing. Second, the motions within each frame do not change significantly over the years, while the correlation coefficients between the shot lengths and the motions within the shots are moving toward a more negative correlation relationship over time, suggesting that the trailers are subject to an editing evolution trend that the shorter the shot is, the more motions there are within it, and this also aligns with the overall movies’ editing pattern evolution trend. Last, the luminance of the trailers remains almost the same over time, which does not align with the overall movies’ editing pattern evolution of becoming darker and darker over decades. Together these findings suggest that the movie trailers’ editing rhythm evolution in general aligns with that of overall movies over time while the visual editing pattern evolution of color luminance does not. The study results will improve our understanding on how the Hollywood movie trailers’ editing pattern and style have evolved over time and pave the way for future advertising studies and cognitive psychology studies on the audience’s attention, immersion and emotional response to various editing patterns of movie trailers.

En nuestra vida cotidiana tenemos ocasión de experimentar con frecuencia diferentes emociones, tales como: alegría, tristeza, enfado, miedo, etc. Si reflexionamos sobre la causa y sobre qué pensamos, qué sentimos y qué hacemos cuando nos encontramos bajo estos estados emocionales podremos entender más fácilmente este fenómeno. Fenómeno que nos resulta tan agradable o tan desagradable, activa nuestro organismo y puede provocar cambios importantes en el curso de nuestra conducta.
Cuando una persona se encuentra contenta o enfadada, alegre o triste, tranquila o temerosa, generalmente es debido a alguna causa, que seguramente podremos encontrar en una situación o algún suceso recientes, situación que probablemente habrá tenido consecuencias positivas o negativas para dicha persona. La interpretación de esta situación y de sus consecuencias es en buena parte responsable de la reacción emocional. Esta interpretación y las ideas que la acompañan pueden estar presentes durante algún tiempo en el pensamiento, dándoles vueltas, con lo que se prolongará así el recuerdo de los distintos aspectos de la situación.
Mientras esto sucede, la actividad fisiológica del organismo se ve alterada, de manera que suele aumentar la actividad de algunas respuestas fisiológicas, como por ejemplo, la tasa cardiaca, la respiración, la tensión de los músculos, la sudoración, etc. Algunos de estos cambios podemos percibirlos, otros no. La percepción de estos cambios está relacionada con la intensidad subjetiva de la experiencia emocional. Es decir, a mayor intensidad de los cambios corporales sentiremos mayor enfado, alegría, etc.
Al mismo tiempo, si alguien observa la actividad motora de esta persona que experimenta una reacción emocional, podrá notar una expresión facial, una postura, unos movimientos, unos gestos, que revelan la experiencia emocional que esta persona está sufriendo. Es decir, notará que tiene cara de enfado, o de tristeza, o de miedo, notará cambios en el tono de la voz, podrá observar si esta persona llora o ríe, si se aproxima o se aleja de la situación que provoca la reacción emocional, etc.
Una teoría de la emoción debería dar cuenta de los siguientes elementos y sus interrelaciones: una situación o estímulo, que reúna ciertas características o cierto potencial emocional, como generador de emociones; un sujeto capaz de percibir esta situación, procesarla correctamente y reaccionar adecuadamente ante ella; el significado que el sujeto concede a dicha situación; la experiencia emocional que el sujeto siente en esta situación; la reacción corporal; y la expresión motora-observable.
En efecto, en una reacción emocional suelen observarse tres tipos de expresión emocional diferentes, o respuestas emocionales de tres tipos: experiencial, o lo que experimenta el sujeto (sentimientos de alegría, tristeza, enfado, etc.); corporal o fisiológico (cambios en el ritmo cardíaco o respiratorio, aumento de sudoración, cambios en la tensión muscular, etc.); y expresivo-motor (sonrisa, llanto, expresiones faciales de ira, de miedo, etc.)
Se trata de tres formas de expresión diferentes de un mismo fenómeno. Las respuestas de cada uno de estos tres tipos suelen considerarse como índice de que se está produciendo una reacción emocional. Ahora bien, en algunas ocasiones, los cambios en los tres niveles de respuesta no son concordantes, pudiendo variar en intensidad, en la dirección del cambio (aumento frente a disminución), en el momento que se produce el cambio, etc. Por todo ello, se considera que estas tres formas de expresión emocional obedecen a tres sistemas de respuesta parcialmente independientes. A estos tres sistemas de respuesta se les denomina: cognitivo, fisiológico y motor.
Muchas teorías se han centrado en las manifestaciones emocionales de un único sistema de respuesta (cognitivo-subjetivo, fisiológico o expresivo-motor). Sin embargo, hoy en día es comúnmente aceptado que las emociones se manifiestan en estos tres sistemas de respuesta.

La emoción es un concepto multidimensional, cuyas manifestaciones abarcan al menos estos tres aspectos. Hablamos de emociones para referirnos a ciertas reacciones que se vivencian como una fuerte conmoción del estado de ánimo. Esta vivencia suele tener un marcado acento placentero o desagradable y va acompañada por la percepción de cambios orgánicos, a veces intensos. Al mismo tiempo, esta reacción puede reflejarse en expresiones faciales características, así como en otras conductas motoras observables. Por lo general, las emociones surgen como reacción a una situación concreta, aunque también puede provocarlas información interna del propio individuo.

ISBN: 84-8004-236-2

There is no exact model for the relationship between the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and evoked or perceived emotion. Music has long been a privileged field for exploration, while the contribution of soundscape research is more recent. It is known that health is influenced by the sonic environment, and the study here presented aimed to investigate the nature and strength of relationships between soundscape features and physiological responses linked to relaxation or stress. In a controlled experiment, seventeen healthy volun-teers moved freely inside a physical installation listening to soundscape recordings of nature, urban parks, eateries, and shops, reproduced using 3D ambisonic techniques. Physiological responses were continuously captured, then detrended, downsampled, and analysed with multivariate linear regression onto orthogonal acoustic and perceptual stimuli features that had been previously determined. Measures of Peripheral Temper-ature regressed onto SoundMass, an acoustic feature, and onto Calm-to-Chaotic, a perceptual feature, in each case with a moderately sized effect. A smaller effect was found for Heart Rate onto VariabilityFocus, an acous-tic feature, and for Skin Conductance onto the interaction between the acoustic features. These relationships could be coherently accounted for by neurophysiological theory of how ANS activation leads to emotional relaxation or stress. We discuss limitations of the present study and considerations for future soundscape emotion research, as well as more immediate practical implications.

Referring to neurological structures and functions within the brain, as well as thought operations and behaviors coming from the brain, this short paper distinguishes between the Body and the Soul, and between the Soul and the Spirit.  Materialists, attempting to describe the fully functioning human being, argue there is only Body. Dualists argue there is only Body and Soul. The Spiritual/Tripartite view is that humans exist as Body, Soul, and Spirit. There are scientific indications, as well as literary/philosophical/theological indications that human beings exist at all three levels. The scientific indications come from brain scans, thought operations, and complex behaviors. The Soul develops from the Body, and the Spirit develops from the Soul, but that does not mean that (once formed) they can be reduced to one another. This paper attempts to move the reader from a “substance” orientation (materialism) to a “functional” orientation (measurable abilities).  Reductionistic materialism does violence to the functional integrity of the human being. What hangs over this whole discussion is the materialistic “substance” metaphysics of the 1600s.  Unless you can specify a tangible, measurable “substance”, then whatever you are talking or writing about is not really “real.”    This position is, of course, nonsense.  Anyone who knows about the electro-magnetic forces, clouds, speeds, positions, transformations, sudden appearances and disappearances in particle physics knows that the era of a “single observable stuff universe” is long over.  What supplies a much more complete, understandable, and satisfying perspective is a functional orientation, where the focus shifts from “material substances” to “observable functions and outcomes.”  This is the descriptive orientation of this paper.  Yet, often, if you bring this up this newer orientation, you will instantly be called “unscientific.”  What is truly “unscientific” is refusing to question assumptions and refusing to look at life through anything but a “substance” lens.  If ever we are to have what Abraham Maslow called “a Science of Persons”, we are going to have to get past our obsession with material “substance” and accept/welcome an Analysis of Functions.

Introduction: - Aging is a continuous, complex, and dynamic process that begins with birth and ends with death. And unless we die in our early years, each of us will grow old and experience the effects of the aging process. Elderly people are vulnerable to psychological and social crisis and to a typical presentation of illness common to the aged. The most common old age problems are economic dependency, loneliness, insecurity, diminished self-concept, physical illness, perceptual and cognitive problems like diminished vision, hearing and memory. Morbidity increases with advancement of age. However in recent years, the issues or problems of old people in society have increasingly become prominent. There are 81million older people in India-11 lakh in Delhi. Material &Methods :- study was conducted among 200 aged people with a simple random technique from 10-09-2014 to 14-01-2015to assess the physiological and psychological problems of aged and identify the support system available to them in selected urban community of Jaipur Results: The data revealed that Majority (72%) reported to have moderatePhysiological and Psychological problems and (28%) had only mild problems. Majority of were getting support from their relatives and 53 percent enjoy moderate support from friends where as 47 percent have poor support from friends. Interestingly, there was no correlation physiological and psychological problems and support system available to the aged in the community. Conclusion: Physiological And psychological problem of the aged are very common and Social support available for the aged in the society is inadequate and governmental and non-governmental agencies have to take serious steps to improvise in this direction.

Anxiety and resting heart rate are inter-related psycho-physiological variables and they have
adverse effects in sports performance. The purpose of the present study is to find out if there was
any relationship existed in the resting pulse rate and anxiety profile of different ballgame players.
Total sixty (N=60) intervarsity players (twenty footballers [n=20], twenty volleyballers [n=20]
and twenty basketballers [n=20]) were selected as the subjects of the present study. The age of
subjects was ranged from 18 to 25 years. Sports competitive anxiety test (SCAT) developed by
Martin (1977) was employed on the subjects. Heart rate was measured by pulse palpation. The
pulse rate is measured by counting the heart beats in a set period of time. Pearson product
moment correlation was applied to determine the relationship between the anxiety and resting
pulse rate. The result of the present study revealed that there was no significant relationship was
found between resting heart rate and anxiety profile among selected three ballgames players.

Aim: Nine‑center meditation of simplified Kundalini yoga was formulated by sage Vethathiri Maharishi and improves the functions of endocrine glands. It involves the following centers: Mooladhara, Swadhistana, Manipuraga, Anahatha, Visuddhi, Agna, Thuriya, Shakthi Kalam and Shiva kalam. Meditation is done on all the nine‑centers, seven of which are endocrine glands located within the physical body and Shakthi kalam, Shiva kalam are Universal field and absolute space respectively. Meditation commences at Mooladhara Chakra; followed by meditation on each of other chakras and concludes when the mind merges with absolute space. Mind is a magnetic wave with self‑rotating movement. The speed of mind is measured in terms of mental frequency. Scientists have discovered through the use of electro encephalograph (EEG) that the mind works at frequencies ranging from 1 to 40 cycles/s. These frequencies have been classified into four. They are (1) beta wave (14–40 cps), (2) alpha wave (8–13 cps), (3) theta wave (4–7 cps), (4) delta wave (1–3 cps). Methods: To prove the research concept, forty‑four students of two different schools pursuing 11 th standard were selected and chosen one as an experimental group and another one as a controlled group. The former group alone underwent and practiced the nine‑center meditation for 6‑month. The mind frequencies of the students of both groups were measured by EEG test in Vethathiri Maharishi's Kundalini yoga research center and their body mass index (BMI), pulse rate, blood pressure (BP) were measured by a medical officer in the center. Results: The result show that after 6‑month regular practice of the nine‑center meditation, the former group of students progressed well compared to the later in the following: Increase in BMI, academic marks, harmony in relation with parents, teachers, friends and decrease in pulse rate, BP and mind frequencies. The nine‑center meditation regulates and promotes the functions of the endocrine glands and mind. Conclusion: That streamline and uplift physiological and psychological functions of humans especially student community very rapidly.

ABSTRACT: We describe the plurality of types of explanation and explanatory practices that are distinctive of experimental or scientific psychology. We also consider the extent to which the framework of mechanistic explanation provides a unifying perspective.

When used deliberately in television and film, jerky motion captures attention. However, it can be distracting in the movements of characters in digital video. To what extent does this kind of jerkiness influence message processing? Based on a limited-capacity model of message processing, jerky character motion was predicted to increase compliance to a persuasive message. The present experiment manipulated the jerkiness of an actor's movements in a computer-delivered video to examine its effect on responses to a hypothetical medical scenario. Jerkiness, whether subtle or obvious, increased self-reported compliance. It also decreased heart rate variability, indicating attentional mediation. Though counterintuitive, these findings indicate that jerky character motion can make computer-mediated messages more persuasive.

This article is a theoretical consideration on the role of sensory pleasure and mental joy as optimizers of behavior. It ends with an axiomatic proposal. When they compare the human body to its environment, Philosophers recognise the cosmos as the Large Infinite, and the atomic particles as the Small Infinite. The human brain reaches such a degree of complexity that it may be considered as a third infinite in the universe, a Complex Infinite. It follows that any force capable of moving such an infinite deserves a place among the forces of the universe. Physicists have recognized four forces, the gravitational, the electromagnetic, the weak, and the strong nuclear force. Forces are defined in four dimentions (reversible or not in time) and it is postulated that these forces are valid and applicable everywhere. Pleasure and displeasure, the affective axis of consciousness, can move the infinitely complex into action and no human brain can avoid the trend to maximize its pleasure. Therefore, we suggest, axiomatically, that the affective capability of consciousness operates in a way similar to the four forces of the Physics, i.e. influences the behavior of conscious agents in a way similar to the way the four forces influence masses and particles. However, since a mental phenomenon is dimensioneless we propose to call the affective capability of consciousness the fifth influence rather than the fifth force.

This paper examines the potential link between disturbances in sleep cycles and onset of dementia. It is focused on obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea (OSHA) and Alzheimer's Disease. People who are diagnosed with either of these diseases have one thing in common:  quality of sleep.

The MIRC is a miniaturized multimodal interaction recorder for children which has been designed for a research project on communication development in Hadza hunter-gatherer infants in Tanzania. It records physiological arousal, the distance of major caregivers and interactional partners (who wear a related device), the general whereabouts of the child using a relative GPS and the vocalizations infants make and the audio input they experience (though the speech is not intelligible for privacy reasons). It has been developed from similar devices that have been used successfully in ornithological studies at the Max Planck Institute in Seewiesen over the last years.

The background of developing the MIRC was that by observing infants interacting with their environment, we have no information about the processes that happen inside the child. Arousal, particularly the level of arousal, plays a role in learning. However, physiological measurements on infants have mainly been dependent on lab situations. A small, wearable device is particularly necessary when working with infants and in the field. The use of the wearable device allows the researcher to learn from infants’ interaction and communication without disturbing these processes or the natural environment in which they live.

The MIRC was developed to make physiological measurements possible in real life situations instead of a laboratory setting. Additionally, by using one device instead of several that are commercially available (e.g. to make audio recordings such as the LENA Pro or measure physiological activity like the Sproutling) the information is synchronized and can be analyzed in relation to each other. Moreover, the MIRC is smaller than the multiple devices that the infants would have to wear otherwise and can be adjusted to a wide age range. The MIRC is as small as a flash drive and is built into a holster that the infants wear. This enables the infants to move and interact freely, which facilitates the measurement while reducing the child’s discomfort in the situation.

The MIRC is a logger and the data is recorded on a micro SD chip. The device is powered by 3 AAA batteries. The transmitter has been adjusted to very close communication, therefore the output power (-20 dBm) of the radio is extremely low: 200 000 times lower than that of a mobile phone. The electrodes for picking up the signal for the heart rate is realized like a common heart rate chest strap. These are widely available for adults to measure their heart rate during exercise but not available for infants, as far as we know.

First experiences using the MIRC in the field with Hadza infants will be presented here.

Non-sedentary work configurations (e.g., standing meetings), which encourage standing rather than sitting in the course of work, are becoming increasingly prevalent in organizations. In this paper we build and test theory about how non-sedentary arrangements influence interpersonal processes in groups performing knowledge work – tasks that require groups to combine information to develop creative ideas and solve complex problems. We propose that a nonsedentary workspace increases group arousal, while at the same time decreasing group idea territoriality, both of which result in better information elaboration and, indirectly, better group performance. The results of an experimental study of 54 groups engaged in a creative task provide support for this dual pathway model and underscore the important role of the physical space in which a group works as a contextual input to group processes and outcomes.

Managing family, workplace, and community conflicts requires self understanding. This presentation given to the Junior League of Atlanta in Nov. 2014, examines conflict styles, as well as, some fundamental physiology and neuroscience related to humans in conflict. For more information and the accompanying workbook email shayes32@kennesaw.edu.