MODULE

IN
INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY

PREPARED BY:
MARIA LOURDES G. BALITA,LPT MPysch
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: THE NATURE OF PSYCHOLOGY

1-12
A. Difference of Psychology
B. Historical Beginning of Psychology
C. Misconception to Psychology
D. The School of Psychology
E. Methods of Psychological Research
F. Psychology as a profession

Chapter 2: NEUROLOGICAL BASIS of BEHAVIOR

13-20
A. The Nervous System
B. Organization of the Nervous System
C. Central Nervous System
D. Peripheral Nervous System

Chapter 3: DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY

21-34
A. Definition of Growth, Maturation and Development
B. Significant Facts about Development
C. Mechanism of Heredity
D. Stage in the Span

Prenatal Puberty
Infancy Adolescence
Babyhood Early Adulthood
Early Childhood Early Adulthood
Late Childhood Old Age

Chapter 4: DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

35-42
A. Definition of Sensation
B. Characteristics of Sensation
C. Our Scene Organs
D. Definition of Perception and its Function
E. Importance of Perception
F. Attention and Perception
External Factors
Internal Factors
Chapter 5: CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS ALTERED STATES
43-48
A. Meaning and Classification of Consciousness
B. Function of Consciousness
C. State of Consciousness
D. Sleep and walking Cycle
E. Stages of Sleep
F. Prevalence, Causes and treatment of Insomia

ii
 G. Dreams, Hypnosis and Meditation
H. Altering Consciousness with Drugs
I. How Psychoactive Drugs Exert Effects on Brain

Chapter 6: LEARNING THROUGH CONDITIONING

49-58
A. Definition of Learning
B. Theories of Learning
Association Theories
Non Association Theories
C. Memory, Encoding Storing and Retrieval

Chapter 7: THINKING
59-63
A. Meaning and nature of Thinking
B. Elements of Thinking
C. Learning Concept
D. Problem Solving
E. Decision Making
F. Creative Thinking
G. Stages in Creative Thinking
H. Characteristics in Creative Thinker

Chapter 8: MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

64-70
Part I Motivation
A. Meaning of Motivation
B. Cycle of Motivation
C. Principles of Motivation
D. Classification of Motivation
E. Function of Motives
F. Hierarchy of Motives

Part II
A. The Nature of Emotions
B. The Nature of Emotions
C. The Psychological Response in Emotion
D. Emotional Control

Chapter 9: PERSONALITY
71-81
A. The Meaning of Personality
B. Elements of Personality
C. Development of Personality
D. Theories of Personality
Internal theories
External theories
E. The Filipino Personality
F. Ways to Improve One‘s Personality

iii
Chapter 10: STRESS, COPING AND MENTAL HEALTH
82-90
A. The Meaning of Stress
B. Four Principal of types of Stress
C. Frustration
D. The three Basic Types of Conflict
E. Emotional response to Stress
F. Coping, Mechanism, with Stress
G. The Different Defense Mechanism
H. The Effects of Stress on Psychology Functioning
I. Abnormal Reactions to Frustrations
J. Adjustment and Mental Health

iv
 CHAPTER 1
THE NATURE AND BEGINNING OF PSYCHOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary life has stimulated great interest and excitement in the study of
human behavior. Social scientists are devoting more time in studying and improving
knowledge and skills in search for answers to people‘s question concerning human
problems, experiences, adjustments, learning, sexuality, relationships and many others.
Students and professionals constantly ask questions like: Can I improve my IQ
(Intelligence Quotient)? If so, how? What makes other people succeed, while others fail?
How can learning be facilitated? Can memory be improved? Why do people behave the
way they do?
Although people started ―psychologizing‖ from the time they began to wonder
about themselves, there seems to be an increased attention focused on psychology to
provide answers to questions on human activities whether they be social, personal,
emotional, vocational, conscious or unconscious. Moreover, we live in a society that is
complex, marked by the dominance of technology, the intense desire to acquire material
goods, and the formation of superficial and insincere relationships. Such conditions are
making adjustments and adaptations to daily life quite hard, and the mental health of
people threatened. Many of the problems result in severe frustrations, unresolved
conflicts, boredom, depression, loneliness and even excessive excitement. These realities
challenge an individual to understand himself and the behavior of other people, and to
seek more effective way of handling his daily adjustments.
And so, we will begin our study in psychology by briefing introduction to you the
features and characteristics of psychology as a science. Psychology is getting more and
more popular today and so many things have been said about it. Some are true while
others are not.
This chapter will introduce you to the science of psychology. It will tell you what
psychology is and what is not.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON:

After studying this chapter, the students should be able to:
1. Understand the goal of psychology as a science.
2. Know the historical development of psychology as a science.
3. List down the different methods that are employed for psychological research.
4. Explore briefly some of the fields or areas of psychology
5. Appreciate the significance of psychology to everyday living.

DEFINITION OF PSYCHOLOGY
The word psychology expresses various meanings to many people. For some, it‘s
like magic one uses to ―psychologize‖, to know what another person is thinking or
feeling, for others it represents the study of the mind and soul. For some psychologist it is
the study of the relationship between environmental stimulation and motor response and
for others it is the discovery of higher states of consciousness.

1
To present a single standard definition of psychology is difficult because of the wide
range of topics it is concerned with. Ethnologically, the term psychology comes from the
Greek words, psych or psyche, which means mind, soul or spirit and logos meaning
study. Literally, psychology means the ―study of the mind, soul and spirit‖. For quite
some time, psychology was defined as the “study of mental activity and mental
processes.”
Looking at the variety of meanings attached to it, psychology as a field of study
has gone a long way from the time was a part of natural science, and philosophy to a
distinct and separate science that is today. As a formal academic discipline psychology as
a young science is a source of excitement for study because it has a highly stimulation
subject matter to investigate, that is, human activity. For our frame of references, we shall
adapt for definition of modern psychologist as the study of human and animal behavior.
For the flutter understanding of this current definitions of psychology, let us
examine the important terms in this definition.

Behavior as the Concern of Psychology

We now come to the word behavior in our definition pf psychology. What does it
mean to say psychology studies behavior? In the past, we define behavior as anything a
person or animal does that can be observed in some way by others. We can see that was
defines as ―any response made by man or any movements of the body that could be seen
and heard‖ Sevilla et. al (1997).
In the recent years, however, our definition of behavior has broadened to involve
those activities of man that can be measures in some way. Internal mental like feelings,
attitudes, thoughts and other mental processes though cannot be directly observed, but
there are ways to measure them. Psychologist can and do make inferences on how mental
processes which may be behind the behavior. In this way, internal events can be studied
as they manifest themselves through what people do- their behavior. It is through
behavior that we can actually study and come to understand internal mental processes
that would otherwise be hidden from us.
Thus, when we define psychology as the ―science of behavior‖, behavior here
includes those internal mental activities. Thoughts, perception, feelings, emotion,
attitudes, and values are included when we are referring to the term ―behavior‖.
Behavior is the very subject matter in psychology. The central concern of
psychology is the study of all aspect of human and animal behavior. There are also many
levels of behavior from simple to complex, conscious and unconscious, normal to
abnormal, deliberate, or undeliberate. Psychologists are interested in all types of
behavior. They agreed that behavior should be point of emphasis in psychology and man
is the unit of study.
For purpose of comparison, there are two general types of behavior, namely:
1. Overt Behavior- are those activities or actions of man that can be observed
directly by others even without the use of some special devices and instruments.
They are also called as ―public behaviors‖ examples are: cheating during
examination, smiling, eating inside the canteen, reciting before the class, reading
this module.
2. Covert Behavior- are those activities or responses made by man which are not
directly observed to others. However, there are ways found by psychologist to
convert these hidden behaviors into overt behavior. Here, Psychologists employ
special devices or instruments to make these behaviors available for objective
measurement. Examples of these are our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes, beating
of the heart, thinking, telling a lie, and feeling nervous. In these examples,
psychologist use psychological tests and other instruments to measure them.

2
HUMAN AND ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
Perhaps another question that may occur to you is why does psychology study
animal behavior? What has ―an animal behavior‖ to do with psychology? Actually the
main concern of psychology is with human behavior. However, there are a number of
advantages gained from the study of the behavior of animals as this helps us in our
understanding of human behavior. First, Bustos et.al in their introductory book in
Psychology (1984) reported that where there is considered danger or risk in conducting
investigations on human subjects, they are first tried on animals. Sevilla et. al (1997) also
suggested that we can do important experiments with animals that we cannot do with
human beings.
Second, there are many similarities between animal and human behavior. Our
―nearest relative‖ in the animal kingdom are the lower form of animals. Animals display
some kinds of behavior which human also displays. Hence, a study of animal behavior
will be valuable to the study of human. Information obtained from experiments with
animals could be generalized to human beings.
Third, human beings can‘t be kept in experimental laboratories for further
observation of their behavior. Human beings cannot be treated like pigeon, chimpanzee,
or guinea pigs. Human beings can‘t be manipulated either.
At present, there are significant advances of treatment of psychological disorders,
visual defects and pain as a result of animal research.

Psychology is both a Science and Art

Is psychology a science? A science is systematic body of knowledge gathered by
carefully observing and measuring events, usually taken from experiments set up by the
scientist to produce events being studied. These facts and information are arranged and
organized systematically in order to explain particular phenomenon. Based on this
definition of science, psychology qualities to be a science. Psychology is classified as
both social and behavioral science.
As a science, psychology is systematic. It investigates, gather facts, arranged and
organized them as related to the understanding of behavior. In psychology, the things and
events were observed and analyzed systematically in various ways, mainly be classifying
them into categories and establish the general laws and principles to describe, understand,
control and predict human behavior. The efforts of many research workers over the last
century have provided a body of knowledge and of scientific principles, which is the best
foundation for developing an understanding of behavior.
As a science, psychology focuses on research through which investigator collect
quantify, analyze and interpret data describing animal and human behavior, thus shedding
light on the causes and dynamics of behavior pattern.
As a science, psychology is based on empirical facts and not merely from one‘s
opinion. Psychology gathers facts from naturalistic observation, experiments, and actual
events. Psychology does not create facts. It draws tenable conclusions from actual
observation and experiments.
Art is application of knowledge to practical problems. it is a skill, a lack for doing
things, which is acquired by study, practice and special experience. Psychology has its
applied side principles is hard won skill. For you to make psychology an art, you should
be able to apply psychological principles to the things that happen in your life.
For us to make psychology an art, we must able to apply all theories and
principles which we have learn in psychology to the actual conditions of life. We need to
absorb psychology in our lives to make it an art. A student in psychology must not only

3
learned the theoretical concepts about psychology but in the same time he/she must apply
them in his/her day to day activities.

The Goals of Psychology

Specifically, psychology as a science, has the following objectives to accomplish
according to Wrightsman (1979),
1. To describe behavior
2. To understand behavior
3. To control or change behavior
4. To predict behavior
Psychology described behavior by classifying psychological data into meaningful
categories either qualitatively. Here, the various behaviors are classified in systematic
way. How do people differ in their behavior? What do people do? Questionnaires,
surveys, interviews, and other techniques are used to make systematic observations of
behavioral differences between individuals. Psychologist tells us what people do anyhow
differ in their behavior.
To understand behavior, psychologist assembles the known facts about behavior,
gain insights into relationships, among observable behaviors, derived principles and
model that will explain behavior, and interpret facts about behavior in terms of behavior
in terms of general principles which can be applied for some practical purpose.
To predict behavior, psychologists do not on supernatural gift. Instead, they rely
on a variety of techniques. They based their scientific prediction of nature behavior on
their understanding of relationship between conditions and situations.
Control of behavior will go hand-in-hand with prediction. In general, if we can
predict the occurrence of phenomenon because certain condition exists, then we can
produce the behavior by creating the necessary conditions.

HISTORICAL BEGINNING OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology did not grow overnight into a scientific research discipline. Interest in
the study of behavior dates back to the ancient Greek philosophers, but the methods they
used was not scientific. Philosophers led the early beginnings of psychology.
During this period, there was the mind-body problem, which was wrestled to
many philosophers. Several ideas flourished regarding this issue which encouraged the,
to establish the science of psychology to study the soul, mind and spirit. Being
philosophers, they used speculations and assumptions without verifying their assumptions
against reality. This period was regarded as the Pre-Experimental period because no
experimentation was conducted during this period. Nevertheless, these philosophers had
contributed much to the interest in understanding human behavior, which formed the
basis of scientific inquiry to the interest in understanding human behavior, which formed
the basis of scientific inquiry later.
From 14th century to 1879, no experimentation was over conducted. The only
significant finding was that of Aristotle who based his conclusion concerning mental life
of man on observation and experiences. Aristotle‘s laws of association were the first
systematic treatises in psychology that earned him a title as the ―Father of Psychology‖
For thousands of years, philosophers have tried to understand behavior. The
Greeks developed the empirical method, an approach that was sharpened by the
empiricists of the seventeenth century. The scientist of the Renaissance also made their
contributions by introducing the idea that observation could be further objective through
measurements. German psychologist and physicist of century used measurement
techniques to study sensation and thus foundation of scientific psychology.

4
 After many years, the first laboratory devoted solely to psychological research
was founded in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt. The opening of Wilhelm Wundt‘s laboratory in
Leipzig, Germany in 1879 is usually taken as the beginning of modern psychological
research., and also marked the formal birth of psychology as a modern science. Because
of this, Wundt earned the recognition as the ―Father of Modern Psychology‖. Within a
few years, psychological laboratories were opened at major universities in Europe and the
United States, many of them headed by Wundt‘s students.
Furthermore, the man who did more than any other to set the direction of modern
experimental psychology was John Watson who expressed skepticism about studying any
aspect of behavior that cannot be objectively observed. Watson proposed that
psychologist study only the behavior of the organism, an approach that led the movement
of behaviorism. Today, psychology stressed the study of behavior, not just mental
processes.
On the whole psychology has a long past but a very short history.

MISCONCEPTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY
When we say misconception, it means a wrong belief, false statement, or wrong
notion. There are many misconceptions about psychology and psychologist. A student
studying psychology for the first time does not approach the subject totally unprepared.
Indeed, he is likely to come to well-prepared with scattered bits of misconception and
misinterpretation regarding psychology as a science. The following are some of these
misconceptions.
1. There is a mystery in psychology- one false notion is that psychologist can read
minds people or can estimate one‘s character at a glance. This is a false statement.
Psychologist cannot read minds of people. the task of psychologist is to
administer and interpret psychological of personality test. Through their skills,
trainings, sensitiveness, and a careful reflection of what they observed,
psychologists are able to look into the real thoughts and feelings of the person.
Because of this ability, many people seemed to believe that they have magical
powers to do it. But this is not true. There is no magic nor mystery in
psychological test. A psychological test is tools to measure hidden behaviors. The
psychologists just infer these unsolvable behaviors by the result of psychological
tests.
2. Psychology is entirely common sense- a lot of people that psychology is entirely
common sense, which means that if you have a very good common sense, this is
enough to make you a psychologist. All of us have common sense. Common
sense is the inborn or the native capacity to reason out, to judge an action to make
a decision. Common sense is pre-requisite for studying behaviors. It is our guide
in day to day living. However, common sense alone, without formal educational
training in psychology, is adequate to arrive at a sound explanation regarding
human behavior. Common sense, if unchecked by scientific research, can be a
queen of superstitious beliefs. It is not entirely logical but insufficient to study
human behavior scientifically. There are statements accepted by common sense
but not accepted by psychology and vice versa. The science of psychology
deepened and harnessed our common sense in order to arrive at a valid and
correct inferences regarding human nature behavior.
3. Psychology is related to pseudo-sciences- some believed that psychologist are
authorities on such things as spiritualism, mental telepathy, fortune-telling, card-
reading, numerology, astrology and other false sciences. In America for example,
a psychologist maybe called upon to explain how a certain astrologer could have
predicted some historical events. The sciences of psychology can explain to us
how this false science affects us psychologically but it is not synonymous with
these sciences. We tend to believe in these false sciences despite that they lack
scientific evidences because they reinforced us accidentally. Predictions of these

5
 fields which run counter to the spirits of science. Psychology, as you previously
learned, is a true and objective science. Today, there are also many people without
scientific who make a dishonest living out of a gullible public by setting
themselves as self-appointed psychologist. Psychologist is a science and the
properly trained psychologist is a scientist who uses scientific methods from
scientific investigations.
THE SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY
During the first decades of the twentieth century, psychologist came to hold quite
different views about the nature of mind and the best ways to study it. Internal disputes
occurred due to their different views on the subject matter of psychology. Fundamental
questions were raised about what should be studied in psychology. Should psychology be
the study of mind, should it be behavior or should both mind and behavior be included?
Psychologist have different ideas about what psychology should and should not include,
what psychology should emphasize, and what research methods are best for studying
behavior.
As a result, different schools of the thought were formed. Those who shared
common ideas about the proper subject matter in psychology grouped themselves and
formed one school of thought. These schools of thought were later known as schools of
psychology. What is a ―school of psychology‖? A school of psychology is a group of
psychologist who shared common ideas as to what should be proper subject matter for
psychology. They shared the same ideas about what psychology was and how it was
studied.
These schools of thoughts contributed to the scientific development of
psychology. They set the direction for the research on mind and behavior. These schools
support the idea that psychology is a science and there is a ―system‖ in psychology in
explaining behavior. Thus, these schools contributed to the evolution of psychology as a
scientific discipline.
Enumerated in the following pages are the different schools of psychology.
1. STRUCTURALISM- Wilhelm Wundt and his students developed this school in
1879. They were called structuralism because their main concern was the study of
the structure of the mind. They believed that psychology is entirely the study of
consciousness. They started by stating that all complex substances could be
analyzed through their component elements. They argued that the simple mental
states built up complex mental processes and experiences. They suggested that the
primary task of the psychologist was to evolve laws that governed the formation
of these elements.
Psychology as the Titchner saw it was the study of conscious experiences
which broke down into three basic elements: sensation, after and images.
Structuralist used introspection method in observing conscious experiences and
self-report by trained observer as their methods of investigation.
Structuralism‘s major contributions to psychology need to be
overemphasized. Although it did not prosper well owing to its subjectivity in
explaining behavior structuralism gave psychology a great scientific impetus,
getting name psychology attached to it for the first time and clearly separated
from its parental fields-physiology and philosophy. Structuralism also provided an
extensive test of introspective analysis as the only provided on for a complete
psychology. Finally, structuralism led to the formation of functionalism,
psychoanalytic, behaviorism and gestalt forces with organized due to their
resistance against structuralism.
2. FUNCTIONALISM- this school was developed by John Dewey, James Angell
and William James. It started as early as 1894. This group was concerned with
utility of how conscious processes function in adjustment of man to his
environment. Instead of asking what is consciousness as did the structuralist; the
functionalist asked ―what is the consciousness in his adoption to his

6
 environment.‖ The functionalist focused their study on the adaptive value of
behavior. They did not reject the emphasis which the structuralist had placed on
consciousness nor their methods of introspection. Instead they proposed that there
exist obvious connections between the mind and behavior and that the adoptive
values of the mind should be studied. Functionalism relied on experimentation for
its method of investigation. Some of its major contributions are the practical
applications of the tidings. Outgrows of this interest in application were such
fields of psychology as a child psychology, educational psychology, and
intelligence tests.
3. PSYCHOANALYSIS- this school was led by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and
Carl Jung. They insist in human desired and primitive impulses as the central
factors of behavior. Thus they attribute inner conflicts of the individual to the
repression of desires that remain submerged in his consciousness. Between 1911-
1912, Freud and his adherents Carl Jung and Alfred Adler had their spilt in their
ideas and theories. To Freud, there exists unconscious mental processes that
influence the individual‘s behavior in various indirect ways. His theory was that
of our behavior governed by hidden motives and unconscious desires. In his
efforts to cure persons suffering from mental and nervous disorders, he discovered
that many problems of adults could be traced to childhood experience, which had
been repressed. Basic to Freud‘s theory of unconscious is the conception that the
unacceptable wishes of childhood got driven out of awareness. They became part
of the active unconscious where, while out of awareness, they remain influential.
The active unconscious pressed to find their expression in dreams, slips of speech,
unconscious mannerism, as well as in socially approved behavior like being
artistic in literary or scientific activity. The method of psychoanalysis is ―free
association‖ under guidance of the analyst. This method is a way of helping
unconscious wishes find verbal expression. Classical Freudian theory or the
unconscious wishes was one of the barriers to the acceptance of theories by the
medical and psychological professions. Among its solid contributions to
psychology are (a) Opening up of new areas of investigation, such as unconscious
and sex; (b) serves as an impetus on motivation research; (c) it stressed on
childhood and genetic factors in personally and defense mechanism.
4. BEHAVIORISM- the school was developed by John B. Watson. He argued that
―private mental life‖ of human beings, into which introspection provided a
window, could never studied objectively measured, according to him and other
behaviorist, are overt responses emitted by organism. Responses, according to
their point of view, are elicited by stimuli.
Stimuli or stimulus is anything that can incite the organism into action.
John B. Watson reacted against the introspective study of conscious experiences
by structuralism that he considered too narrow and unscientific. Watson stressed
the empirical approach like those of empirical facts gathered through actual
observation of what an organism does, and what he thinks. According to Watson,
psychology should study observable and measurable behavior, not
unconsciousness. He explained behavior in terms of stimulus-response theory.
This school also stressed the importance of learning and environment. Some of
the major contributions of this were the emphasis on learned behavior.
5. GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY- in 1912, a ―new‖ psychology, the Gestalt
Psychology, was announced in Germany by Max Wertheimer together with his
associates, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffa. Doubting whether behavior could
really be understand if it were analyzed into elements, they maintained that the
understanding of behavior depended on the perception on the configuration, or
patterns of experiences. They believe that the whole has a meaning derived from
the relationship of the parts to each other. To illustrate this Gestalt principle: Take
for example the four equal straight lines of a square. It is only when these four
lines meet together as right angles to enclose a space, that we can call it as a
square. The study behavior, therefore, we have to look at the totality of the
organized experience. The Gestalt exerted a very strong influence on the concept
of perceptual behavior.

7
 These five schools of psychology were the most influential in shaping the course
of temporary psychology that is electric in its approach. Three of the newer schools or
―movement‖ are cognitive psychology, existential psychology, and human psychology.
―Cognitive Psychology‖ is a combination of S-R and gestalt approaches. It is study of
how perception influences behavior and the experience influences perception. Jean Piaget
was one of the leading Cognitive Psychologist. Existential Psychology is concerned with
the individual‘s discovery of self-identity so that he can commit himself, care and love
(Morris 1976). Humanistic Psychology is a protest movement against the behavioristic
emphasis on the study of overt behavior only. Leaders of this movement claimed that
man is not just mechanized computer-like organism responding in a determined way to
the stimuli presented to him. They would like psychology to study man as a distinct
human being. I should be concerned with the ―unique individual‖ case instead of the
average performance of groups. To the humanistic psychologist, psychology as a science,
should focus on ―man‘s subjective internal experience, not on his overt behavior.‖
Psychology should seek that which expands or enrich man‘s experiences.

METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

In our discussion of psychology as a science it was emphasized that the discovery
of knowledge about behavior is based on observation and experiments.
Psychologist used a number of research methods to gather data information about
behavior. There are many well-known methods of psychological research. Although they
are not used at all time, it is important to have knowledge of all these approaches to help
us in choosing the most suitable method to get all facts in particular situation. The
characteristics of each research are briefly discussed here:
1. Correlational Research- this type of research establishes links or association
relationships of variables. The advantages of this approach are: 1) it broadens the
scopes of phenomena being studied, and 2) it may be less artificial than
experiments. The disadvantage of this approach is that one cannot make a cause-
effect relationship from correlational data. An example of correlational data.
There are three methods under this approach. They are naturalistic observation,
case studies and surveys.
Naturalistic Observation- this is the observation of human and animal behavior in the
natural environment of the specie, conducted without directly intervening. What is
important is the subjects do not know they are being observed. Using this method, it is
important that the observer/investigator is not influenced by his own biases when he
reports. Here, researcher makes the most exacting and controlled study they can of
naturally occurring behavior.
Case Study Method- this is an in-depth report on a single individual derived from
interviews, psychological testing and so on. Here, we have to reconstruct the life history
of the individual by interviewing all the people who know the subject. The purpose of
such gathering of all possible information about the subject is to discover the causes of
some emotional or social maladjustment‘s. This method might be subjected to
inaccuracies but the data obtained may become the basis of more precise studies in the
future.
Surveys- surveys are structured questionnaires and interviews most frequently used to
find out about people‘s attitudes or opinions. Here, there is a face-to-face conversation
with the purpose of obtaining factual information for assembling of facts and assessing
the individual‘s personality. One disadvantage of the interview is that it may be
influenced by the interviews opinion and prejudices. To avoid this, the interviewed be
structured or directive. The investigators can ask specific questions and the subject
answers are recorded.

8
Experimental Research- this is the most scientific of all the research methods. Unlike
the correlational approach, it tries to establish causation of cause-effect from its data.
Here, the experimental first selects of the phenomena that he wishes to investigate. The
experiment creates a situation wherein he isolates the outcome of a certain factor from the
outcome of other factors. This method usually employs the comparison of two groups,
the control and experimental group. It also involves two variables- the independent and
dependent variables.
The major advantage of this method is that the precise control of the experimental
methods permits one to make the cause-effect conclusions. However, it is also
disadvantageous because the precise experimental control may make the situation so
artificial that it does not apply the real world. Second, because of ethical or practical
consideration one may not be able to manipulate the independent variables of interest.
For the sake of understanding better the experimental method, let us discuss the
different variables and group involved in this method. The variable that is being
manipulated or varied by the experimenter in termed as the independent variable. This
also the manipulation of the independent variable is termed as dependent variables. This
is also the variable that results from manipulation. Thus, in the example the affiliation is
caused by level of anxiety, the independent variable is anxiety and dependent variable is
the affiliation.
Subject who received the experimental treatment are known as the experimental
group, the group that does not is known as the control group. Control and experimental
groups are similar in most respects. They differ only by the fact that the experimental
group receives the experimental treatment and the control group does not. Thus, any
differences found in the manipulation of the independent variable.
To review the parts of an experiment: Suppose a researcher is interested in the
effect of a drug on the running speed of rats. The experimental group is injected with the
drug and the control group is not. Whether or not the rats received the drug would be the
dependent variable. Suppose that the average experimental rats in two years while the
average age of control rats in three months. The extraneous variable then this experiment
is age.

PSYCHOLOGY AS PROFESSION
Psychology as a profession consists of various fields of specialization each having
its own unique, specific function, and professional practice. It has been said that poets are
born, not made. In psychology, no one is born as psychologist. To be a psychologist is to
occupy a distinct social role that is legitimately and educationally filled in only by people
with specific qualifications. The characteristics that determine whether or not a person is
within the profession of psychology related primarily to their training, the credentials and
their work.
All Psychologists have had some advanced training beyond their undergraduate
degree. This refers to a Ph.D. which requires 4-8 years in graduate school, the master‘s
degree (M.A.) with an average of 2-3 years of post-graduate training. A bachelor‘s degree
in psychology is not considered sufficient for a career as a professional psychologist.
In what employment setting we can find psychologist at work? The most common
work location for psychologist are universities, clinics, institutions such as hospitals,
mental hospitals, prisons, business and industry, schools, government agencies, the
military, labor and employment agencies, social welfare institutions, community and
enforcement agencies. Virtually all areas of life have already been permeated by
psychology because of its nature and roles. The fields of psychology as a profession are
the following:
1. CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY- this field involves the application of clinical
methods like diagnosis and treatments of person who are severely distributed and

9
 those suffering from emotional and adjustment problems as well as breakdown in
behavior.
A clinical psychologist comes closer to our idea own what a psychologist
is. They are ―doctors‖ (Ph.D. in Psychology) who diagnose psychological
disorders and treat them by means of psychotherapy. Many clinical psychologist
practices in mental hospitals, community-mental health center, or in private
practice.
2. COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY- the field is an outgrowth of clinical
psychology. The work of counseling psychologist is quite similar to that of the
clinical psychologist. The differences between them are the counseling
psychologist generally works with people who have milder emotional and
personal problems. Counseling psychologist usually deal with such problems as
choosing a career, parent-child relationship, love, marriage and others. In their
practice, counseling psychologist make use of test to measure aptitude, interest,
and personality characteristics.
3. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY- this field in psychology is pure science. It
employs scientific methodology to study and experiment behavioral processes. It
is also concerned in the precise methods of controlling and measuring behavior,
as well the investigation and experimentation of the psychological aspects of
behavior.
Experimental Psychologist studies how behavior is modified in thinking,
how people retain these modifications, the processing of information in thinking,
how human sensory system works, etc. they do basic research to understand the
fundamental causes of behavior. Experimental psychologist studies the
fundamental processes of learning, memory, thinking, sensation, and perception.
4. INDUSTRIAL OR ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY- this branch
applies the methods and findings of psychology to the problem of industries and
organizations. Intelligence and aptitude tests are use in selecting employees.
Today, many companies use modern version of such tests in their hiring and
placement programs. Psychological methods are also employed by industries to
solve problems of management, employee training, to supervision of personnel, to
counseling of employees, increasing worker‘s efficiency and other industrial
factors that involve human factors.
Industrial or organizational psychologist work as members of consulting
firms that sell their services to companies. their nature of work includes setting up
employee-selection program, recommend changes in the training programs for
another, they analyze problems of interpersonal relationship in the company, run
programs to train company management and employees in human-relation skills,
or they may do research on consumer attitudes toward the company‘s product.
5. ENGINEERING PSYCHOLOGY- this field is concerned with the designing of
machines and equipment that are fitting to man who will operate that equipment.
Here, we will consider the man who will operate the machines so that both man
and equipment can function together with utmost efficiency. An engineering
psychologist will design man, machine systems for maximum human performance
and safety.
6. EDUCATIONAL OR SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY- this branch involves the
application of learning principles in order to enhance the effectiveness of
educational institutions. This field deals with psychological problems in the field
of education. The job of the school psychologist consists of diagnosing learning
difficulties and trying to remedy them. They will use test and information gained
from consultations with the students and their parents. The school psychologist
can also be called school counselors since they are also involved in vocational and
other forms of counseling. They try to pinpoint the problem and suggest actions to
correct it.
Likewise, educational psychologists are involved with more general, less
immediate problems than are most school psychologist. Education Psychologist
are especially concerned with increasing efficiency of learning in school by
applying their psychological knowledge about learning motivation to curriculum.

10
 7. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY- this field tries to discover the
relationships between behavior and biological physiological processes. It studies
man from a neurobiological point of view.
Physiological psychologist is concerned with the relationship of the brain
and the other biological activity of behavior to behavior. While psychologist is a
part of psychology, it is also considered to be part of neurobiology-the study of
the nervous system and its function.
8. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY- this branch concerns itself with the
study of behavior in all aspects of growth and development from its prenatal
beginnings until death. This field studies the stages that cover the entire life of the
individual, the effects of environmental influences upon individual patterns of
development, learning, emotion, sensation, perception, and other behavior
processes.
Developmental psychologists try to understand complex behavior by
studying their beginnings and the orderly ways in which they change with time.
Since most of the changes in behavior comprises a large part of developmental
psychologist‘s work.
9. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY- this field is concerned with the effects of social
influences on the behavior of the individual. It studies how people in groups
interact with one another, how other people affect individuals, and how
perceptions affect our behavior toward them.
The social psychologist studies ways to measure and change people‘s
attitudes and beliefs because these can determine how people will deal with
others. Likewise, they study how man relates with the family and the larger social
institutions. Social psychologists study the determinants of interpersonal
influences and of attitude change that affects social interaction.
10. COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY- this is a new field in psychology that focuses
its specialization on the mental health in the community rather than on the
individual patient. It is concerned in the solution of the social problems of the
community by applying psychological principles, ideas and points of views to
help solve social problems and to help individuals adapt to their work and living
groups.
Community psychologist is essentially clinical psychologists who will set
up programs to reach people in the community who happen to have behavior
problems. These psychologists are a part of the community mental movement.
These psychologists are concerned in bringing ideas from the behavioral sciences
to bear on community problems. we might also call them ―social-problem
community psychologist‖.

IMPORTANCE OF PSYCHOLOGY
What are the benefits a study of psychology can bring to you?
First, psychology deals with many problems of everyday life. And thus, with
many things that you have already experienced, you are therefore in a position to derive
some personal benefits from the study of psychology. Our psychological knowledge can
help us cope with our problems and the demands of our constantly changing world.
Psychology enables us to resolve our problems and develop greater efficiency.
Second, psychological principles can give us rational understanding on ourselves
and those around us. Psychology can teach us discover many things about ourselves and
this knowledge can help us improve ourselves. Psychology helps us look at ourselves
more objectivity.
Third, psychological study can enlarge our ability to understand people more
deeply. The study of psychology offers a way to learn more about why people do what
they do. Knowing these things can help us change our behavior and to make effective and
satisfying relations with other people.

11
 Fourth, a study of psychology will enable us to accumulate knowledge on our
abilities that will guide us choose a vocation intelligently.
Finally, a practical reason for studying psychology is the possibility of finding
professional career as a psychologist. You have learned in our previous discussion the
diversity of professional work in the field of psychology.
If you are interested to become a psychologist, you can start by majoring in
psychology in an undergraduate course, either AB or BS. After graduation, you will be
employed in as researchers, psychometricians, guidance counselors, and teachers, among
others. Then you may proceed to an M.A. or Ph.D. graduate training in psychology. An
M.A. in psychology will qualify you to work as school psychologist, guidance counselor,
and psychometrician in large establishments, etc. to become a psychotherapist or a
clinical psychologist. Ph.D. degree is necessary.

12
 CHAPTER 2
NEUROBIOLOGICAL BASIS OF BEHAVIOR

INTRODUCTION

Our everyday life is full of example showing the role played by the brain in
behavior. Our behavior has a physiological basis. When we rest many forces inside and
outside our body integrates to explain such behavior. To understand the brain's role in our
behavior, we first need to have some knowledge of nerve cells, the connections between
neurons and the neurotransmitter.

This chapter is about the contributions of brain and other biological activity to
behavior, it will present an overview of the major physiological structures affecting our
behavior and the processes that take place in them. Much of our discussion will revolve
around the nervous system which holds a key role in our behavior.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Describe the communication in the nervous system

2. Identify the main divisions of the nervous system
3. Show each part of the nervous system coordinates behavior
4. Discuss the most important parts of the brain and show each part works
5. Point out how the different physiological structure enables us respond to and interact
with our environment.

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

The nervous system is the complex arrangement of highly specialized cells, called
the nerve cells or neurons, which are spread out all throughout the body. Nervous system
acts a communication system that enables to us to respond internal and external stimuli.
Basically, the nervous system has two functions. [1] getting information from outside or
inside the body to where it can be acted upon, usually in the brain [2] getting back
information so that the indicated action can be taken. The nervous system therefore,
provides integration and coordination of all activities in our body. Additional function
than nervous must perform is to store some of the information they have received.
We will approach the study of the nervous system along the following concepts
namely.

NEURONS

The individual cells in the nervous system that receive, integrate, and transmit
information are called neurons or nerve cells. The human brain is estimated to contain at
least 150 billion nerve cells (Morgan, 1986). Each of which is connected to many others.
Neurons are the information carriers of the nervous system. We shall now see how
nervous carry information electrically.
Neurons come in many sizes and shapes but they have certain parts in common.
Each neuron has cell body that contains the machinery to keep the neuron alive. Each
neuron has also two types of fibers the dendrites and axon.
The dendrites are short gray fibers branching out like roots while axons are longer
whitish fibers. Both the dendrites and the axon resemble rope with their ends splayed and
frayed. The register impulses coming into the central blob of the neuron. The axon picks
up the incoming impulses and carries the messages or impulses away from the cell body
toward other neurons or to muscles and glands.

Both units are equally important for normal nerve functioning, but the axon is for
showers an anatomical structure. All nerve cords are made up of the single strands of
many axons, which may reach of several feet. Many axons are wrapped in a fatty jacket
called myelin sheath the mms for faster transmission of information and prevent

13
messages from getting into the wrong track. Like the covering of an electrical cord, the
myelin sheath acts as an insulting material.
According to their functions in the nervous system, Bustos, et al (1985) classified
neurons into three kinds:

Sensory or Afferent neurons- are incoming neurons which impulses from the sense
organs and end these impulses to the brain and spinal cord.
Motors or Efferent neurons- are the outline neurons which carry impulses away the
brain and spinal cord and relay them to the muscles and glands. These neurons can cause
muscles to contact and glands to secrete. These neurons are also responsible for ench
movement and response we make.
Connector or Associative Neurons - are the connecting neurons which connect the
impulse from the axon fibers of the sensory neurons to the dendrites fibers of the motor
neuron.

NERVE IMPULSE

Messages are transmitted by the neurons in the form of nerve impulse. Though
there is no really exact counterpart in the mechanical world for how an impulse moves
along a nerve fiber, it is suffice to say that it is somewhat like an electrical current
moving along in a chemical environment that allows the impulse to travel. Nerve
impulse, then are electrical events of very short duration that move along the axon. When
a neuron is testing and not conducting impulse, it is like a tiny batter that contains a weak
negative battery charge. When the neuron is stimulated, the cell membrane becomes
permeable. This allows positively charged sodium is stimulated, the cell membrane
becomes permeable. This allows positively charged sodium ions to flow into the cell,
thus lessening the cell's negative charge inside.This rapid change to positively is the
nerve impulse. In simplified terms, the nerve impulse is cause by the sudden influx of
certain positive particles from the outside uniting with the negative particles inside the
nerve fiber.

Once an electrical nerve impulse along an axon, it is somewhat like a fire that
travels along a fuse. The hot part of the fuse ignites the next part, and so on down the
fuse. Similarity, in an axon the active portion trigger in impulse in the region just ahead
of it. When an impulse occurs in this region, the region in excited and on continuously
down the axon. As the impulse moved down the axon, the regions that have already fired
are getting ready to fire stimulated. However, the number of times a nerve fiber can
respond each second has a certain limit. After a nerve fiber has responded to stimulation,
there is a period of time in which no further action potentials can be generated. This
period is known as absolute refractory period in which the nerve is completely
unresponsive to new stimulation and it cannot be charged even by the strongest stimuli.

After a few moments, it will gradually undergo recovery but only the very strong
stimuli can make it react. This period is called partial refractory phase. Here, the
receptively of the fiber increase and it can respond more frequently to a strong stimulus
than to a weak one. More nerve liberals will be activated and the frequency of the nerve
fiber response increase as we increase the intensity of the stimulus.

SYNAPSE

Neurons are individual cells with their own membranes and their fibers interface
to form synaptic juncture. When nerve impulse passes along the axon of one neuron to
the dendrite of another, their nerve ending do not actually touch. As the nerve impulse
reaches the end of the axon, it meets a gap that it must jump to get to the tentacle like
dendrites of the next neuron. This gap is called a synapse. A synapse is the functional
contact between two neurons making conduction of nerve impulses continuous from one
to the other. When an impulse arrives at the end of an axon, tiny sacs called synaptic
vessels release a transmitting substance that crosses the synaptic gap and cause the
membrane of the receiving dendritic to reach and produce an impulse the dendrite fiber.
These synaptic functions enable us to respond in a variety of ways, involving many or
few body part.

14
 NEUROTRANSMITTERS

A neuron passes its messages to another neuron by releasing a chemical

messenger into the gaps or synaptic clefs that separates it from other neurons. These
chemical messengers that provide this transmitting service are called neurotransmitter.
This neurotransmitter combines with molecules at the receptor sites of the body. This
combination results to a voltage change in the receiving change in the receptor sites. This
voltage change increases the action potential in the receiving neuron. Neurons transmit
information defending transmitters; a single neuron usually produces only one kind of
neurotransmitters that bind with only specific receptor site. This specifically prevents the
chemical messages from spreading to other neurons that are intended for the path way.

S-I-R DIAGRAM

Studying behavior requires that we know of the physiological structures which

enable us to respond to and interact with our environment. Furthermore, it is essential for
us to know what goes on inside the brain between the time we sense a stimulus and the
time we respond towards it. How does integration take place? The S-I-R Diagram
illustrates how the nervous system integrates the functions of the receptors, effectors and
connectors as well as the processes that the place in them. S-stands stimulus, I- for
integration and R stands for response.

Fig. 2.3 the S-I-R Schematic Diagram

Sense sense organ

(receptor cell) Efferent neuron
Stimulus ↓ Brain (Muscles and Response
Afferent neuron glands)
(transduction)
integration

ORGANIZATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Simply speaking, our body has only one nervous system, however, the nervous
system have many subdivisions. The two main divisions of the nervous system are: (1)
Central nervous System, and (2) Peripheral nervous System. The Central nervous System
includes the brain and spinal cord It also includes all the nerves of conscious response
and voluntary action that link up with the brain and spinal cord. The Peripheral Nervous
System includes all the nerves lying outside the confines of the brain and spinal cord. The
Peripheral nervous System has two subdivisions namely: (1) Somatic nervous System
and (2) Autonomic Nervous System.
The Autonomic Nervous System is again subdivided into two parts - the
Sympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous system. These two are distinguish primarily by
their opposite effects on the body organs. The sympathetic system prepares the body for
fight or flight while the parasympathetic system constricts blood vessels, increase rate of
heartbeat and inhibits stomach secretions, while parasympathetic nerve trunks dilate
blood vessels, slow the heart rate, and increase stomach secretions. Fig. 2.2 below is an
outline of the divisions of our nervous system.

Brain

Central Nervous System

Spinal Cord
Nervous Somatic Nervous System
Peripheral Nervous System

Autonomic Nervous System

Parasympathetic Sympathetic
15
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
As has been stated earlier, the brain and spinal cord composed the central nervous
system (CNS). The CNS connects the sensory and motor fibers within the nervous
system. It is the integrating center for all behavior, as pointed out by Bustos, et. al (1985).
Complex mental activities occur at the brain while those of lesser complexity occur
within the spinal cord.
SPINAL CORD
The spinal cord is a large rope-like segment of nerve tissue extending down the
vertebral column. It has two important functions in out body, namel: First, it serves as a
pathway through which nerve impulses from sensory organs pass to the processing of
impulses from the brain return to the muscles and glands. It begins the processing of
sensory information and provide pathway by which this information can be carried to the
brain Second, it governs certain types of reflex movements. Spinal cord processes
sensory impulses and sends impulses to the effectors without the assistance of the brain.
This is very helpful to us since simple adaptive bodily movements known as reflexes
need to be fast. For example the rapid withdrawal of your hand from a hot object is a
reflex. Instantaneous reflexes are controlled by the spinal cord.
THE BRAIN
Perhaps many of you have heard often enough that the brain acting as control
center for communication network we call our nervous system, is an incredible computer.
The brain is an incredibly a complex structure, its form and function are often described
as being so much more intricate and complex than any existing or imagined computer.
Our brain within the skull appeared like a gray walnut and cauliflower. The brain tissues
are pinkish gray and white and among the most delicate in our body The destruction of
even a small part of the brain begin tissue may mean lasting impairment of even death.
The protection of the brains begins tissue with a mat of hair on the top, back and sides of
our skull. Next, comes the resilient layer of padding we call the scalp, and then the main
line of brain defense is the rounded, bony helmet of skull. The brain's armor does not stop
with the bone. Beneath ate three strong fibrous membranes called meninges that encase
the brain in protective envelope Meninges also overlie the tissue of the spinal cord
Infection or inflammation of these membranes by bacteria or viruses is called
cerebrospinal meningitis. Between two of the meninges is a region laded with veins and
arteries and filled with cerebrospinal fluid. The fluid filled space cushions the brain
against the sudden blows, and collisions. The cerebrospinal fluid circulates not only about
the brain but through the entire central nervous system. Incidentally, chemical analysis of
this fluid is done by inserting a hypodermic needle between vertebrate of the spinal
column. This fluid can provide clues to the nature of brain and nervous system.
The electroencephalography or EEG is a device that can measure the brain's
electrical activity. Electrodes are placed on the scalp and the brain's electrical activity is
then monitored by the EEG machine and transformed into time tracing called brain waves
then. Three new kinds of brain imaging procedures have only recently came into use one
of these procedures involved a computer-enhanced X-ray machine that complies multiple
X-rays of the brain into a single vivid picture. The resulting images are called Cat Scans.
An even newer method that procedures better image of the brain's structure goes by the
name of magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and the images it produces are known as
MRI scans.
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A BRAIN
The brain can be subdivided into three major structures. In ascending order from
the spinal cord up, you may encounter first the hindbrain, next come the middle part of
the midbrain. At the top we encounter the forebrain.

16
HINDBRAIN
Three separate structures make up the hindbrain the medulla the pons and the
cerebellum. The medulla is the structure that attaches to the top of the spinal cord. Its
functions are to control the many essential functions such as breathing and circulation of
the blood in our body. The pons that lies in the brain stem just above the medulla is made
up of large nerve fibers that connect higher and lower levels of the nervous system. The
pins form of bridge of nerve fibers between the brainstem and the cerebellum. Both pons
and medulla serve as traffic control points for the billions of nerve impulses traveling to
and from the brain.
Off to the back of the brain is a large, complex structure called the cerebellum
meaning "little brain". This structure receives sensory and other inputs from the spinal
cord brainstem and forebrain, it processes this information and then sends outputs to
many parts of the brain to help make our movements precise, coordinated and then sends
outputs to many parts of the brain to help our movements precise, coordinated, and
smooth. The cerebellum is the site of body balance and muscle coordination. This
structure is essential for executing and coordinating physical movement. For example, to
rub our tummy and the same time pat the head, or tap the foot and strum the guitar.
MIDBRAIN
In the center, or core of the brain running from the medulla up to the midbrain is a
complex region containing many small clumps or neurons, and a number of long and
short nerve fibers. This region is called reticular activating system. It regulates the
various degrees of arousal from deep sleep to alert awareness of the environment. This
brain structure act as a switch bard, controlling our movements of sleep fullness and
wakefulness. Experiments showed that injuries to this part of the brain may cause a
profound coma, which in some cases, may last for years.
FOREBRAIN
The forebrain is the largest of the three divisions of the brain and occupies the
entire upper portions of the skull. It is also composed of the most complex structures of
the forebrain are thalamus, hypothalamus and cerebrum.
Just above the midbrain a kind of expanded bulb on top of the brain stem, is the
region of the forebrain known as the thalamus. The thalamus lies between the two
cerebral hemisphere and is covered by them. For this reason, it cannot be seem from the
outside, unless the brain is out open to show it. The thalamus contains many groupings of
nerve cells called music. Some of this nucleus receives input from the seeing hearing
pressure, pain, temperature, body position and taste senses. These nuclei found in the
thalamus have a really function. Thus, the thalamus serves as a relay station for all
sensory information (except for smell) headed for the brain. It plays an active Role in
integrating sensory information, and event transform and modifies input before sending it
to the cerebral cortex.
Lying below the thalamus is a small but vital area of the forebrain known as the
hypothalamus. It is important to psychologist since it contains nuclei and fiber tracts
which are related to motivated behavior of a biological sort. Certain structure in the
hypothalamus is related to specific motivated behaviors. The hypothalamus plays a role
in the regulation of the internal environment of the body like blood temperature, the
concentration of salt in the blood and the concentration of chemical messengers, called
hormones. The hypothalamus has connections with the autonomic nervous system and
the pituitary gland. When conditions in the internal environment change from the
optimum, or homeostatic level, certain hypothalamus neurons become active and send
information to other parts of the nervous system and the pituitary gland. Many of the
activities and kinds of behavior regulated by this part of the brain are timing of heartbeat,
sleep, appetite metabolism and the arousal and decline.
Most of what you look at the brain is the outside of a large structure known as the
cerebrum. What we usually mean by brain, is the part of the brain called cerebrum. This

17
is the brain structure that is responsible for our most complex mental activities. It is
cerebrum that permits us all our distinctly human activities thinking, speaking reading
and writing.
The cerebrum is divided into two halves known as the right and left cerebral
hemispheres. These two hemispheres communicate with other by means of a wide band
of fibers called the corpus callosum. The nerves from the let half of the body are served
by the right hemisphere and the right half of the body by the left hemisphere. Damage to
one side of the brain affects the other side of the body.
Each hemisphere is covered by the cerebral cortex, (thin, folded sheets of
neurons averaging about 2 ½ millimeters in thickness and containing billions of neurons.)
Since the cerebral cortex is composed mostly of neurons, it is a gray matter. As you look
at the outside with many ridges and valleys. About two-thirds of the cerebral cortex is in
the sulci and fissures of the brain and thus cannot be seen when we look at the processes,
it is convenient the functions of the cerebral cortex in behavior and mental processes, it is
convenient to divide it into sensory area, motor area and association areas. Different
surface areas of the cortex are responsible for specific sensations. Cortex functions are
localized.
Each of the cerebral hemisphere is also divided into four lobes the frontal,
parental occipital and temporal. About 40 percent of the human cerebral a cortex is in the
frontal lobe. The areas of the cerebral cortex responsible for motor functions are located
so that various parts of it are concerned with movement of particular bodily structures.
Visual sensation is represented by the occipital lobe, hearing and taste in the temporal
lobe, touch pain, and pressure inputs reach the parietal lobe.
When frontal - lobe association cortex known as prefrontal cortex is damaged,
two general types of personality change occur, (1) increased impulsiveness, lack of
restraints, and immaturity in social relationship and (2) increased apathy, loss of
initiative, and drive, and a reduction in emotional expression. Damage to the right parietal
association cortex may result in neglect of the left side of the body and the environment.
Accuracy in representing spatial relationship impaired. After damage to the left parietal
association cortex, the patient may have problems with reading, writing, mental
arithmetic: short-term memory impairment is also may also occur. An inability to
recognize objects to touch may result from parietal-lope damage in either the right of left
hemisphere, impairment of the ability to recognize a tune or a face, for example and
attention problems are sensory symptoms of temporal - lope association cortex damage.
If the left temporal lobe is damaged the understanding of speech and written language
will be impaired and the speech of the patient while fluent will be deficient in conveying
meaning.
We shall now look into the differences between the left and the right cerebral
hemisphere.
In the recent years, it was believed that the hemisphere was the dominant
hemisphere, with the right hemisphere playing a much less important role Evidence for
this belief came from several sources, which all seemed in indicate the left hemisphere
played the dominant role with respect to language. This will also explain why most of us
are right - handed. For example the damage to an area in the frontal lobe ( ones of the 4
lobes of the cerebrum ) as Broca's area was associated with speech defects. Also damage
to another area located in the temporal lobe was bound to be associated with difficulty in
speech comprehension. Both of these areas are located in the left cerebral hemispheres.
However, a study was conducted to determine the effects if the two cerebral
hemisphere are disconnected. Two patients were studied whose corpus callosum had been
surgically served so that the two hemispheres could no longer communicate with each
other. The tests were contracted so as to ensure that the stimuli presented to one
hemisphere were not available to be other hemisphere.

18
 It was observed that the two hemispheres operate independently of each other but
subjects. For example objects viewed only from the left visual field, which is interpreted
by the right hemisphere, could not be verbally identified, but could he identified when
presented to the visual field. Similar findings were obtained for unseen common objects
held in this hand when they were held in the right hand. This would indicate that
necessary words were stored in the left hemisphere
The study also demonstrated that the left hemisphere is primarily responsible for
language and right hemisphere was dominant with respect to visual and spatial task. For
example, in performing puzzle-assembly and drawing tasks, the subjects of the study
could not name unseen objects held in the left hand, which indicates the right hemisphere
was processing information all long. It can be conducted from this study that neither
hemisphere always dominates. Rather, each has functions that it performs best. Both
hemispheres are almost sharing in accomplishing as ingoing task.
Thus, evidence shows that the cerebral hemisphere is specialized to perform
different functions. One hemisphere, usually the left is specializes for the processing of
language. The right hemispheres have an advantage over the left hemisphere in patter
subjects to artistic subjects‘ recognition and spatial abilities.
To find out whether you are a left brain or a right thinker, listed below are the
characteristic of left brained and right-brained individuals.
Left - Brained
Logical and rarely jump to conclusions
Try to find out reasons behind other people's behavior
Prefer mathematical and scientific subjects to artistic subjects
Punctual and has a good sense of time
Rely on the evidence when making a decision
Good in explaining things
Feelings are under control
Not particularly
Enjoy planning new things in detail
His files and references are in perfect order
Loves to analyze things
Deals with numbers or with words

Right - Brained
Intuitive reach conclusions without following all the detail of an argument
Rarely see the motivation behind other people's behavior
Prefer artistic subjects to mathematical and scientific subjects
Poor in explaining things
Let their feeling show
Very fond of music
Enjoy doing new thing on the spur of the moment
Rarely bother to file thing
See thing as they are
Relies on intuition and instinct, gestures to describe thing
Do not enjoy numbers, word games, and puzzles

PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

Peripheral nervous System is the other division of the nervous system composed
of all the nerve cells outside the brain and spinal cord. This is not a coordinating system.
Its main function is to conduct impulses to and from the central nervous system. There
are two divisions in this system: (1) somatic and (2) autonomic.
The somatic systems are the nerve fibers that connect the spinal cord to the
striated muscle and the sensory nerve fibers. These system activity the voluntary muscles
responsible for our movement. There are 43 parts of spinal nerves. The cranial nerves

19
serve the receptors and effectors of the head. The spinal nerve serves the chest, trunk, and
extremities.
The autonomic system direct self-regulating activities such as digestion and
circulation, activities of the glands internal organs and the smooth involuntary muscles.
This system is especially important in emotional behavior. There are two subdivisions of
the automatic system: (1) the sympathetic division and (2) the parasympathetic vision.
The sympathetic system consists of nerves and ganglia along each side of the
spinal column, It is active in emotion-activating the vision controlled secretion of
adrenaline hormones. Our body used the sympathetic division in situation e organism in
response to pain, anger or fear thru the where one is in a state of fear, heightened
emotionally, violence, extreme cold and emergencies.
The parasympathetic system is composed of cranial nerves in the brainstem and
the sacral nerve before the lower back. Parasympathetic division controls the daily
functions of out bodily organs. This system generally conserves bodily resources. After
an emergency has passed, the parasympathetic division returns the body to its normal
level of functioning. Thus the functions of these two systems can be described in terms of
cooperation and cooperation (Kahayon & Aquino, 1999). For example, when the
sympathetic system speeds up the heart rate, the parasympathetic slows it down. On the
other hand, if the sympathetic is dominant in excited activity, the parasympathetic system
acts in quite activity.

20
 CHAPTER 3
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the individual
change from conception of death. We are the most immature being at birth and requires
the longest period of development before self-sufficient.
Today, more psychologists are integrated on how human being develop. They
likewise focus on the different characteristics of the different periods of life. They treated
early years of life lengthily because it is at this age that the foundations for later
development are established.
This chapter will present to you the typical characteristics at various, levels of
development. Understanding the different phases of life can give us better perspectives of
others and ourselves as we go through each phase of the life cycle. Each stage has
peculiar characteristics and needs worthy of our attention and study.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Differentiate between growth, maturation and development
2. Illustrate the ways by which heredity and environment govern growth and
development
3. Discuss important characteristics of each of the ten stages in the life span
4. Trace the important development charges that occurs along from prenatal
5. Appreciate the crucial of development that takes place before and after birth

DEFINITION OF GROWTH, MATURATION AND DEVELOPMENT

We sometimes mistakenly used terms growth and development interchangeable.
Actually, both items entail changes but not all kinds of changes can be classifies as
development. For clarity, we will define each of these terms:
Growth, according to Kelly (1965), is the progressive increase and continuous
advancement of the child from birth to maturity. Hurlock (1978) considers growth as
quantitative changes. It refers primarily to the changes brought about by increase in size
chest circumference, lengthening of the bones, increase in height, increment of bodily
tissues, organs and structure. Growth is evident not only in an increase in height,
increment of bodily tissues, organs and structures. Growth is evident not only in an
increase in height, increment of bodily tissues, organs and structures. Growth is evident
not only in an increase in quantity but also in enlarged capacity and changing
proportions, as well as structural and functional changes. Growth can be measured and
quantified.
Maturation refers to the process of change (usually growth) of an individual
which occurs primarily as a function of aging and time. It is the unfolding of traits
potentially present in the individual because of heredity. Maturation is the process at
which these hereditary potentials appear at a certain level of development. It takes place
universally without the need of stimulation. It excludes the effects of practice and
experience.
Development is a process that produces a progressive series of changes that are
orderly and coherent and which lead to, and end with maturity (Hurlock, 1978).
Development is a process that brings about qualitative changes leading to maturity.
These qualitative changes come is the form of changes in the nature of the
functioning of an organ, resulting in an improved efficiency and accuracy of
performance. Development does not consist merely of adding inches to one's height, but
it is a complex process of integrating many structures and functions.

SIGNIFICANT FACTS ABOUT DEVELOPMENT

To understand the pattern of development, certain fundamental and predictable
facts must p be taken into consideration. Each of these facts has important implication
which will be explained below:

21
 1. Development is not random, it is a systematic, empirically accessible, and
predictable. This means that the stages that we go through from birth to death
follows a definite pattern, they will never occur in reverse order. Although all
individuals are different, they follow definite and predictable patterns of
development that are similar to all.
2. Development occurs in context. No human being develops in isolation.
Traditional views or developmental looked at the changing individual in a
static world. Current development psychologists emphasized a dynamic and
interactive relationship between the changing individual and the changing
world.
3. Development is the product of the integration of maturation and learning. This
means that the individual cannot learn until he is ready. Maturation is a natural
process that takes place without the need of stimulation from the environment.
However, it is essential to provide an opportunity to learn when the individual
is ready as well as appropriate environment to develop optimally.
4. There are individual differences in development. This means that each
individual follows his own development pattern. Some are "We go develop
smoothly and move in spurts while others are ―Late matures." We go through
the different stages of development at our own rate and pace which may differ
from that of others.
5. Developmental is 100% nature and 100% nurture. Truly. No psychology
function is ever inherited as such. Hereditary influences are mediated by and
occur in the content of a facilitative environment.
6. Development is essentially of good things. It is progressive, it moves towards
a positive and. The goal of developmental changes is to enable us to adapt to
our environment, achieve greater competency, and to become the person, both
physically, that one wants to be.
7. Each phase of development has a characteristic trait. We have to view each
development stage as having its own unique characteristics which distinguish
it from another stage. Normally one stage prepares us to the next stage.

FACTORS GOVERNING DEVELOPMENT

According to Hildreth (1972), people are not and cannot be equal in development,
because they are biologically unequal to begin with, and the resulting interplay with
environment forces make for still greater differentiation.
As individuals, our development is determined by the interaction between two
factor heredity and environment. This "nature-nurture" duality intrigued a lot of people.
Some argued that the hereditary components are the primary determinants of behavior.
On the other hand, other groups claimed that environmental influences provide the reason
for behavioral differences. It is not for us to take issues here but to relate both factors in
our understanding of human behavior. First, we will define each factor of development.
Biologically, hereditary, is the transmission of genetic characteristics from
parents to offspring. Specifically, it is the process by which biological traits are
transmitted through the parents to the offspring and directly determining physical
constitution and traits. These traits and characteristics include bodily structure, height,
bone structure, color of hair and eyes, skin color, sex, basic rates, and patterns of growth
that are fixed for each individual and the nervous system. In short, heredity referred to us
nature; refers to the biological predisposition.
Environment, referred to as 'nurture' refers to surrounding conditions, influences,
and forces that modify and exert an influence on growth and development (Kelly, 1965).
These external conditions include the physical, mental, and moral agencies which
surround us, the domestic, educational and social influences which we come into contact,
and had an influence on our behavior and development. Environment can be classified as
internal, intracellular and external.
Both factors are equally important in our development. Heredity supplies the raw
materials upon which environment acts. Environment is the field in which the individual's

22
heredity provides potentialities for behavior while the environment determines whether
these potentialities will be realized. Inherited traits and tendencies may be accentuated,
altered, controlled and even eliminated by environment. Heredity, however, determines
and limits the tendencies within which the individual will grow and develop. We owe our
possibilities from heredity, and to the environment we owe the realization of these
potentialities.
Hence, it is correct to say that every individual development is the result of the
interaction of heredity and environment. Each of these factors indispensable, according to
Sevilla, et. al (1997). The individual‘s behavior development is shaped by the active
interplay of these two factors.

MECHANISMS OF HEREDITY
Ovulation is a preliminary stage of development limited to the female sex cells. It
is the process of escape of one nature ovum during the menstrual cycle. It is believed that
the two ovaries alternate in producing a ripe ovum during each menstrual cycle. Kahayon
(1999) in her General Psychology Book 1 reported that an average fertile female
produces about 400,000 eggs or so every 28-days or more. Once the ovum is ripened, it
is, it is being released from one of the follicles of the ovary, and ovum find its way to the
fallopian tube.
Fertilization is the next stage of development preliminary to the beginning of a
new life. It is believed that is usually takes place within the first twenty-four hours after
the ovum has entered the fallopian tube. Fertilization is the process whereby sperm cell
(male sex cell) unites with an egg cell (female sex cell). Now life begins with the union
of the male sex and a female sex cell. The result of this union is called zygote. Only one
sperm cell succeeds in faradizing the egg cell and after this union happens, a thick was
enclose the zygote so that no sperms may further penetrate.
Both egg and sperm cell contain 23 pair chromosomes. Here, every individual, at
conception received 23 chromosomes from each parent or 46 all. Chromosomes are the
colored bodies found within the nucleus of each cell in the body. Each chromosome
contains genes, the real carries of hereditary traits. These 46 chromosomes that form 23
pairs are duplicated as the cells divide and are thus found in every cell of the body.
Chromosome and genes occurs in pairs each pair come one from the sperm cell and one
from the egg cell. Each contributed to the new individual, who will share the
characteristics of both parents but will not be exactly like either of them.
The total number of genes is a complex nucleic acid called DNA
(deoxyribonucleic acid) identified as the primary genetic substance. It is this DNA which
gives special (ribonucleic acid) carried out these instructions. Through DNA, genes
working pairs, direct the development of some particular behavior and characteristics of
the body. Chromosomal anomalies and inherited anomalies may result if there are
changes of a single gene (mutation) defective or "broken gene‖ imperfections in DNA.
We cannot tell what genes a person has inherited simply by looking at him. The
observation characteristic that we see in a person tells us his phenotype or genetic
characteristics, seen and unseen, dominant and recessive. For example, an individual We
ho has a dominant gene for brown skin and a receive gene for fair skin has phenotype
(appearance) of brown skin but a genotype (genetic makeup) of brown skin (seen) with a
recessive gene for fair skin (unseen).
If both members of a gene pair are dominant, the individual will manifest the trait
determined by the genes. If one is dominant. and the other is recessive, the individual will
show the form of the trait determined by the dominant gene but will also carry the
recessive gene. A recessive form of the trait will be expressed only if the genes
contributed by both parent are recessive. Morgan reported that brown eyes are dominant
over blue eyes, curly hair is dominant to straight hair, dark hair is dominant to blond or
red hair etc.
We inherit many physical traits and mental traits. Some of the physical traits
known to be hereditary are skin color, color and shape of the eyes, color and texture of
the hair, size and shape of the nose, quality of the teeth, shape of the lips, size of the ear.
Height body build shape of the face, and even physical directs like polydactyly. Mental

23
traits that can be inherited are level of intelligence, special talents, as well as mental
defects like mental retardation.
When a ripe ovum is fertilized by one. sperm cell the result will be single
individual. However, if the fertilized ovum (zygote) splits into two, identical twins
develop. Approximately one-third of all twins are identical as reported by Hurlock
(1973). Since they come from the zygote, consequently they have the same sex
chromosomes and genes. If two or more ova are released simultaneously and are
fertilized by different sperm cells the result will be fraternal twins, triplets, or other
multiple births, because the chromosomes and genes of the two or more zygote from
which individuals of non- identical multiple birth develop are not the same their mental
and physical make-ups or even sex are different.
Finally, determination of the individual's sex is the second important happening at
the time of conception. Sex depends on the kind of sperm cell that unites with the ovum.
The mother produces eggs of one kind, each with a large X sex cell. The further produces
sperm of two kinds in equal number since half of sperm cell have the X chromosome and
half chromosome. The first is one with large X sex chromosome and second small Y sex
chromosome. If sperm cell with X enter egg, the two X's will result to a girl. If sperm cell
with Y sex chromosome enters with egg cell, XY will result to a boy. Hence, the
chromosome of the father determines the sex of the child.

STAGES IN THE LIFE SPAN

The different stages of development can be classified in varied ways. In this
material, we will adopt the classification used by Hurlock (1975).
The different stages of development can be classified in varied ways. In this
material, we will adopt the classification used by Hurlock (1975).
Prenatal Period: conception to birth
Infancy: end of the second week to end of the second year
Babyhood: two to six years
Early childhood: six to ten or twelve years
Late Childhood: six to ten or twelve to thirteen or fourteen years
Puberty or preadolescence: ten or twelve to thirteen
Adolescence: thirteen or fourteen to eighteen years
Early Adulthood: eighteen to forty years
Middle age: forty to sixty years
Old Age or senescence: sixty years to death

1. PRENATAL PERIOD

This is the first developmental period in the life span and next to the shortest of all
the development periods. This period begins at conception and end at the time of birth
approximately 270 to 280 days long calendar months.
The prenatal period has the following characteristics that makes it important
though it is relatively a short period:

a. The hereditary and endowment which serves as the foundation for later
development is fixed, once for all, all this time.
b. Favorable conditions in the mother's body can foster the development of
hereditary potentials while unfavorable conditions can stunt their
development even to the point of distorting the pattern of future
development.
c. The sex of the newly created individual is fixed at the time of
conception
d. Proportionally great growth and development take place during this
period than any other time throughout the individual's entire life.
e. This is the time when significant people in the individual's life are
forming attitudes toward him. These attitudes will have marked influence
` on the ways they treat him, especially during the early, formative years of
his life.

24
 The prenatal period is divided into three subdivisions. The period of the ovum,
which extends from conception to the end of the second week; the period of the embryo,
which extends from the end of the second to the end of the second mouth; and the period
of fetus, which are then developing rapidly, can be distorted by unfavorable conditions in
the prenatal environment.
Among the physical hazards of the prenatal period are: malnutrition of the mother
certain diseases like German measles contracted during the period of embryo, alcohol and
Smoking endocrine irregularities, blood incompatibility and the use of drugs or pills.
These are usually the, most serious because of. their long-term effects.
The most common and serious among psychological hazards of the prenatal
period can affect the unborn child is maternal stress, unfavorable attitudes toward the
child-to-be wanting to have an abortion or scorn for the child.

2. INFANCY

This period is by far the shortest of all development periods. It begins with birth
and ends when the infant is barely two weeks old. In spite of its shortness, infancy is
divided into two periods: [ 1 ] partunate period extends from birth to 15 to 30 minutes
after birth, and [ 2 ] neonate period, from the cutting and typing of umbilical cord is now
a separate, independence individual who makes necessary adjustment to the new
environment outside the mother's womb.
The following are the important characteristics of this period.
A. Infancy is the time of radical adjustments. The infant must adjust to life outside
uttering walls of the mother where it has lived for nine months. These adjustments
include temperature changes, breathing, sucking, swallowing, elimination.
B. Development at this time shows no progress. Because the necessary for making
radical adjustment to the postnatal environment, the baby may even retrogress. He loses
some of his birth weight and a tendency to be less strong and healthy.
C. Infancy is a hazardous period. Both physical and psychologically. Physically, it is a
hazardous because of the difficulties of making adjustments to the totally of new
environment. There is an evidence of high infant morality rate in this period. Psychology,
infancy is hazardous because it is the time when the attitudes of significant people
around.

The infants are crystallized. When these attitudes are unfavorable for whatever reason,
they are reflected in the treatment to the infant that militates his successful adjustment to
postnatal life. On the other hand, if attitudes of significant people are favorable, they will
treat the infant in ways that encourage good adjustment.
D. Infancy is the preview of later development. We can possibly predict what the
individual's future development will be on the basis of the development apparent at birth.
The newborn's development provides a clue as to what to expect later on.
Among the major adjustments infants must make in infancy are adjustment to
temperature changes, breathing, sucking and swallowing, eliminating urine and fecal
elimination. Difficulty of adjustment to these may result to loss of weight, disorganized
behavior or infant morality.
While each newborn infant is different they all have the same common
characteristics such as size, body proportion, lack of body homeostasis, two types of
activity-mass and reflex, inability to communicate except through crying, undeveloped
sensitivities except for smelling and taste, undeveloped emotions, a limited capacity for
learning, and blurred state of consciousness. The helplessness of the plateaus in
development are also common among infants.
The mother's attitudes are especially important because then can directly affect
the care the baby receive. The infant's behavior influences the mother's behavior, if this is
unfavorable to begin with, it will become increasingly so, and the results is that the
infant's adjustment problems are worsened. Those who are born prematurely, those of
multiple birth, those who are damage at birth, unwanted babies these infants maybe
regarded unfavorably and these attitudes are apt to influence the way they treat the infant.

25
3. BABYHOOD
This period occupies the first two years of life following the brief two-week
period of infancy. During this period, there is a gradual but pronounced decrease in
helplessness.
Every day the individual becomes more independent, so that at the end of second
birthday, the individual is quite a different person that when babyhood began. The
outstanding characteristics of babyhood are the following:

a. Babyhood is the true foundation age. During this period, many behavior
patterns, attitudes and patterns of emotional expression are being established.
b. Babyhood is an age of decreasing dependency. This decrease in the
dependency on others results due to the development of body control in which
the body is now able to sit, stand and walk, and manipulate objects.
Independence also increases as bodies become able to communicate their
needs to others.
c. Babyhood is an age of rapid growth and change. In this period, babies
grow rapidly, physically. With this rapid growth comes a change not only in
appearance but also in capacities. The baby gradually becomes less top-heavy
than he was an infant, and the trunk and limbs seem to be more in proportion
to the large head intellectual growth and change also parallel physical growth
and change. The baby this time can recognize and respond to people and
object in the environment. At the end of this period, the baby is able to
communicate his needs and wants in ways that others can understand.
d. Babyhood is the beginning of socialization. Here, babies show their desire
to become part of the social group by putting protests when they are left alone
for any length of time and by trying to win the attention of others in any way
they can. They develop strong emotional ties on their mothers that they count
more attention and affection from them.
e. Babyhood is hazardous age. Certain hazards are more common during
babyhood than at other ages. Among the physical hazards are illness and
accidents. Because behavior patterns, interests and attitudes are established
during babyhood. Serious psychological hazards can result if poor foundation
are laid at this time.
f. Babyhood in an appealing age. Adults find most babies appealing because of
their big heads, protruding abdomen, small thin limbs, tiny hands and feet.
When they are dressed in baby clothes, they become more appealing. Others
find small babies appealing because of their dependency and helplessness, and
easy to manage.

As to the development tasks of babyhood all babies are expected to learn

to walk to take solid foods, to have control of their organs for elimination able to
communicate and comprehend what other communicating to them relate
emotionally to their parents and to siblings and achieved reasonable physiological
stability (especially hunger rhythm and sleep). Of course, not all of these
developmental tasks will be completely mastered by the baby during this period
but the foundations for them should be laid.

4. EARLY CHILDHOOD

Childhood is fairly long period in the life span-roughly eleven wears for girls and
twelve nears for boys and so, we divided childhood into two separate periods early and
late childhood.
Early childhood extends from to six years, it begins at the conclusion of babyhood
and ends at about the time the child enters schools. Most parents consider early childhood
as "problem age‖ because of the behavior problems that become more frequent than the

26
physical-care problems of babyhood A young child is often stubborn, disobedient.
pessimistic and antagonistic individual.
Certain characteristics of early childhood that set it apart from other periods are:

1. Parents often refer to early childhood as "toy age". Since young children
spend much of their waking time playing with toys.
2. Parent consider early childhood ac "problem age". Since young children are
demanding independence which, in most cases they are incapable of handling
successfully, Young children have frequent temper tantrums. Negativistic and
suffer from jealousies.
3. Educators refers early childhood as preschool age. Even when these
children to go to nursery or kindergarten school, they are labeled as preschoolers,
not schoolchildren. In the home day-care center, nursery school, or kindergarten,
the pressures and expectations young children are subjected to are very different
from those they will experience when they begin their formal education in the
first grade.
4. Psychologist consider early childhood as exploratory age. Because many
young children want to know their environment how it works and how can be a
part of it, young children exploring their environment by asking too many
questions from the adults around them.
5. Early childhood is an imitative age. No other time in the life span is imitation
of the speech and gesture/action of others more pronounced than it is during early
adulthood. We will treat early childhood rather more lengthily because is at this
age that the foundations for later development are established.

One of the most difficult development task of early childhood is to learn to relate
emotionally to parents, sibling and other people. Certain basic wants and needs must be
fulfilled if young children are to be happy. Parental acceptance of annoying childish
behavior and parental guidance in learning to behave in a socially more acceptable way is
an important contribution to successful adjustment in early childhood. Likewise,
spending time with them, doing thing they want to do and showing appropriate
expressions of affection to them can give happiness during the early childhood years.
Finally, early childhood can be a happy period in life when there is avoidance of ridicule
or unnecessary criticism which dampen young children's self- confidence.
According to Hurlock (1975), the developmental tasks of early childhood are the
following: learning to walk, learning to take solid foods, learning to talk, learning to
control the elimination of body wastes, learning sex differenced and sexual modesty,
achieving psychological stability forming simple concepts of social and physical really,
learning to relate oneself emotionally to other people, learning to distinguish right and
wrong and development a conscience.

5. LATE CHILDHOOD
This period extends from the age of six years to the time the individual becomes
sexually - mature. The beginning of this period is marked by the child's entrance to first
grade and for most children, this is a major change in the pattern of their lives. Entrance
into first grade is milestone in every child's life.
The important characteristics of this period are:
1. To many parents, late childhood is the "troublesome" age. Because this
time children are no longer willing to do what they are told to do and they are
more influenced by their peers than by their parent and other family members.
2. Educators call late childhood as "school age". Because this is the time that
the children are expected to learn certain essential skills considered necessary
for successful adjustment to adult life.
3. Psychologist consider late childhood as the "gang age". Because the major
concern of the children at this time is acceptance by their agemates and
membership in a gang.

27
 4. Late childhood is a period of slow and relatively uniform growth until the
changes of puberty begin.
Most older children, especially boys, are careless and irresponsible about their
clothes and other materials possession. Older children do not adhere to family rules
unless parent threaten to punish them.
This is also the time when family fights are common among siblings. The boys in
the family pick on the girls and ridicule them, a pattern of behavior that comes from their
association with peers outside the home. When girls retaliate quarrels ensure in which
there is much name calling or even actual physical attacks.
This is also the time when the children form the habit of being achievers,
underachievers, and overachievers. Their intelligence increased as a result of increased
learning opportunities. Also, the interests of older children are broader than those of the
younger children. Likewise, older children's vocational choice is based on what the
children regard as glamorous, exciting, and prestigious.
Developmental tasks of late childhood include: learning physical skills for
ordinary games; learning to work well in the peer group, becoming an independent
person, building wholesome attitudes toward oneself, learning to get along with
agemates, learning an appropriate sex role, developing conscience, morality and scale of
values, developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating and developing
concepts necessary for everybody living.
Physical hazards of late childhood are obesity, a tendency to be accident —prone,
awkwardness and homeless. The psychological hazards are mainly those that affect the
child's social adjustment because they lead to unfavorable self-devaluation and social
evaluations. The three A's of happiness are acceptance, affection, and achievement which
are important conditions that contribute to the happiness that will continues as children
grow older.

6.PUBERTY
This is the period in which the child changes from an asexual to a sexual being.
This is the time; physical changes occur and the individual becomes sexually mature and
is now capable of producing offspring. This period occurs when the individual's age is
from ten or twelve to thirteen or fourteen.
The most important characteristics of the period are:
a. Puberty is an overlapping period. Because it encompasses the closing years
of childhood and the beginning years of adolescence. Children are called
pubescent adolescents.
b. Puberty is a short period. Children will pass through puberty from two to four
years only. Children who pass through puberty in two years or less are regarded
as early matures' or fast matures while those who require three to four years to
complete the transformation are regarded as ―late matures." Girls, as a group,
tend to mature rapidly than boys.
c. Puberty is a time of rapid growth and change. It is one of the two periods in
the life span (the other one is prenatal) that are characterized by rapid growth and
marked changes in body proportions. These rapid changes that take place during
puberty led to confusion, to feeling of adequacy, insecurity and in many cases
unfavorable behavior. Aside from body changes, the developing child
experiences, there are also changes in status, appearance and clothes, possessions,
range of choice, and changes of attitude toward opposite sex.
d. Puberty is a negative phase. The negative here suggests the "anti" attitude of
the individual toward life or he seems to be losing some of good qualities
previously develop. These negative attitudes and behavior are characteristic
mainly in the early of the pubescent period and the negative phase is over when
the individual becomes pronounced in girls than in boys.
e. Puberty occurs at a variable age. Puberty can occur at any time between the
age of 5 or 6 and 19 years; however, the average girl becomes sexually mature at
13 and the average boy a year later. These variations in the age which puberty
occurs create many personal as well as social problems for both boys and girls.

28
 The menarche, or the first menstruation, is commonly used as a criterion of
sexual maturity among girls, but this is not the first nor the last of the physical changes
that occurs during puberty. When the menarche occurs, the sex organs (primary sex
characteristics) and the secondary sex characteristics have also started to develop.
Among boys, a popularly used criterion of puberty is noctural emission. During
the penis something becomes erect, semen, (the fluid containing sperm cells) is released.
However, not all boys experience these phenomena.
The cause or causes of the physical changes that occurs at puberty were at present
time attributed to the excretion of the sex hormones in both boys and girls. The amount of
hormones excreted increases time passes, and this eventually leads to maturing of the
structure and function of the sex organs. During the puberty growth spurt, four important
physical changes occurs which transform the child child's boy into that of an adult: They
are [1] change in body size, [2] changes in body proportion, [3] the development of the
primary sex characteristics are the sex while secondary sex characteristics are the
physical features that distinguish males from females.
The puberty tends to be one of the most unhappy periods of the life span because
of the physical changes that affect well- being as well as attitudes. Few children pass
through puberty without developing unfavorable self- concepts that will be revealed in
their behavior. They either become withdrawn from others, of become aggressive and
defensive, and reiterating for what they regard as unfair treatment. Developmental tasks
in puberty include the following and acceptance of the changed body and acceptance of
the socially approved sex roles.

7. ADOLESCENCE
This period is the beginning when children become sexually mature and ending
when they reach the legal maturity. This period is divided into periods, early and late
adolescence. Early adolescence extends from 13 to 16 or 17 years and is often referred to
as "teen years", and late adolescence covers the period from then until eighteen. Late
adolescence is thus s short period.
Certain attitudes and behavior patterns are characteristics of adolescence. These
characteristics are:
a. Adolescence is a transitional period. During this period, the individual's
status is vague. He is too old be considered a child but too young to be considered
an adult. Thus, there is confusion about the roles the individual is expected to
play. This ambiguous status contributed to the adolescence's "identity crisis".
b. Adolescence is a time of search for identity. Adolescence begin to crave
identity and are no longer satisfied to be like their peers in every respect, as they
were earlier. This identify, which the adolescence seeks to clarify is who he is,
what is his role in society, what kind of life he wants etc. This search for identify
affects the adolescent's behavior.
c. Adolescence is a time of unrealism. Most of adolescents look at life ‗rose-
tinted glasses‘. Their aspiration in life are unrealistic, too idealistic for themselves
and for their families and friends and see themselves and others as they would like
them to be rather than as they are.
d. Adolescence is a problem age. While its true that every stage in life has its
problems, those of adolescence are often especially difficult because all
throughout childhood, their problems were met and solved by their parents and
teachers. As a result, many adolescents are inexperienced in coping with their
problems alone.
e. Adolescence is the threshold of adulthood. Adolescence are anxious to shed
the stereotyped of teenagers and to create the impression that they are near- adult.
Aside from dressing and acting like smoking, drinking using drugs and engaging
in sex.
f. Adolescence is a period of change. Physical changes, as well as change in
attitudes and behavior are rapid in adolescence. These rapid changes that
accompany sexual maturing make your adolescents unsure of themselves. They
have strong feeling of instability which are often intensified by the ambiguous
treatment they received from parents and teachers.

29
 Moreover, changes in the adolescents' body, his interests and the role the
schools group now expects him to play, create new problems for him. To the
young adolescents these may seem more, numerous and less easily solved than
any he has and to face before. He will suffer from feeling of inadequacy and
inferiority if he has not solved his problems but will try to hide them by a self-
assured attitude.
As the adolescents' interest and behavior patterns change, so do values.
What was important to him as a child seems less important to him now that is a
near adult. They no longer think that they are careless and irresponsible.
g. Adolescence is a dreaded age. We stereotype as unreliable. Sloppy,
irresponsible individual who are inclined toward destructiveness and
antisocial behavior. Most adults believe that adolescents must be guided and
supervised in their lives. Most adult have poor opinions of them that make
their parents that results to 'communication gap —a barrier between them and
their parents. In most cases, their parents are the last ones to know their
problems which prevent them from turning to their parent for help in solving
their problems.

All the development tasks of adolescence are focused on overcoming childish

attitudes and behavior patterns and preparing them for adulthood. It is hoped that during
this period, the young adolescents will lay foundations on which to build adult attitude
and behavior patterns. Specific development tasks are: accepting one's physique and
accepting masculine or feminine role, gaining emotional independence from parent and
other adult, achieving assurance of economic independence, selecting and preparing for
and occupation developing intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civic
competence; desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior, preparing for marriage
and family life; and building conscious values with an adequate scientific world picture.

8. EARLY ADULTHOOD
This period extends from 18 to 40 years and by far the longest period in the total
life span. It is this period that individuals had completed their growth and are now ready
to assume their status in the society as adults.
The following are the brief descriptions of the outstanding characteristics of early
adulthood stage;
a. Early adulthood is the "setting down" age. Carefree days are over for girls
and boys and adulthood is now the time to settle down and assume responsibility
of adult life. For boys, this meant setting into a line of work that would be their
career for the rest of their lives. For girls, they are expected to assume the
responsibility of mother and homemaker. The young adult is expected to play new
roles as that of spouse, parent and breadwinner. As they settle down, these
individuals develop a pattern of behavior which will be characteristically theirs
for the rest of their life.
b. Early adulthood is the "reproductive age". Becoming a parent in one of the
most important roles in the lives of most young adult. Those who were married
early concentrate on their role as parent and becomes grandparents before they
completed their adulthood. Those who opted to finish their first their college
degrees spent the major part of their adulthood playing the role of parents.
c. Early adulthood is the "problem age". From the beginning of adulthood until
the early mid-thirties, the individual is preoccupied with problems they are
unprepared to cope with. While they are now able to vote, they own a property, to
marry without parental consent, etc., this "new-found freedom" is also creating
unforeseen problem the job.
d. Early adulthood is a period of social isolation. Opportunities for social
contact outside the home and associations with the peer of groups during
adolescence wane as the young adult entered into marriage and become employed
to work for the family. Because of this social isolation, many young adults

30
 experience loneliness when responsibilities of raising a family and their work
commitments isolate them from their friends.
This isolation increased as they complete with others in order to rise on
the vocational/career ladder. To achieve success, the friendliness of adolescence
was replaced by the competitiveness of the young adult aspiring for success.
e. Early adulthood is a period of emotional tension. While the individual is
trying to get the lay of the new lad in which he finds himself, he is likely to be
upset emotionally. By the early of mid-thirties, however, he should have solved
these problems well enough so that he is generally emotionally stable and calm.
Emotional tension is often expressed in worries. What the young adult worries
about, however, will depend on what adjustment he is facing at the time and how
much success or failure he is experiencing in meeting these problems.
f. Early adulthood is a time of value changes. Many of the values developed
during childhood and adolescence are revised in adulthood as the individual‘s
social contacts with people of different ages broaden and as he considers his
values from a more standpoint. Changes in values are usually toward more
conservative and traditional views than toward new, more radical ones as was true
during adolescence
g. Early adulthood is a creative age. No longer saddled by the restrictions
placed on his behavior by parents and teachers, the young adult is free to be
himself and what he wants to do. What form creativity will take in adulthood
depends upon the individuals interest and abilities and the activities that gave him
the greatest personal satisfaction. Some find a creative outlet in hobbies, while
others choose vocation in which they can express their creativity.

9. MIDDLE AGE
This period extends from age 40 to 60. It is also period in the life span and
divided two division - the early middle age, which extends from 40 to 50, and advanced
changes that started to early forties became apparent.
a. Middle age is dreaded period. Next to old age, middle age it is the most
dreaded period in the life span and this stage is difficult for the adults to admin
until the calendar and the mirror forced them to do so. Most adults dread the
middle age and become nostalgic about their younger years and wish that they
could turn back the hands of the clock. Adults find it difficult to accepts the
cessation of their reproductive life the traditional beliefs concerning the physical
and mental deterioration.
b. Middle age is a time of tradition. This is the time when the individual leave
behind the physical and behavioral characteristics of adulthood and new
behavioral and physical characteristics will prevail. This is the time when men
undergo a change in virility and women a change in fertility (Muedler, 1958).

Sooner or later, every adult must make adjustment to physical changes and must
realize that the behavioral patterns of their younger years have to be radically revised.
Adjustment to chanced roles is even more difficult than adjustment to changed physical
conditions and changed interest. Men must adjust to the change that impending
retirement and physical conditions of housewife and mother, for that of a worker in
business or perhaps an ―isolate‖ of a formerly busy home.
c. Middle age is a "dangerous age". "Dangerous age" here is interpreted in
terms of the male who wants to have a last fling in his life, especially in his sex
life, before old age catches up with him. Middle age can be dangerous in other
respect too. It is a time when individual break down physically as a result of
overwiker. Over-worry, or careless living. The "middle age revolt" of men which
coincides with the menopause in women, may stain the husband-wife relationship,
some lead to separation or divorce. The incidence of mental illness rises rapidly in
middle age. Especially among men. We will discuss this later.
. d. Middle age is a time of evaluation. This is the time when men and women
normally reach their peaks of achievement, and thus, this is also the time that they
will evaluate their accomplishment, if he has commit himself to a career at age 20,

31
 it is expected that at this stage, he will now review those early commitments and
hard work that preceded it Normally, a man reaches his peak between 40-50, after
which he rests on his laurels when he reaches the early 60's (Aquino, 1991)
e. Middle age is an "awkward stage". The middle-aged person is like as
adolescent who is no longer "young" but is not yet "old‖. Middle age people try to
be inconspicuous by dressing as possible and yet adhere to the prevailing style.
This conservatism rules their choice of material possession such as homes, cars,
and their patterns of behavior. The more inconspicuous they are, the less out of
place they feel in a society that worship youth.
f. Middle age is a time of achievement. Individuals, upon reaching middle age,
either become very successful or accomplish nothing more. Individuals generally
reach this peak during prestige. Middle is a time of financial success, social
success, and also authority and prestige. This is the time when leadership roles are
assigned to adults. The 50‘s are also the years when the individual are granted
recognition from the various professional societies.
g. Middle age is the time of the ‗empty rest‘. This is the time when the children
no longer want to live under the parental roof either due to the latter marriage or
having home to establish their careers. Most adults find it difficult to adjust to a
pair-centered home. Husband and wife common interest to their children want and
they are thrown together to adjust to each other's interest.
h. Middle age is the time of boredom. They say that they by the time you are
40- everyone, including you knows that you can do whatever you are doing,
however, it is also work and with a family life that offers little excitement.
Women also, who have spent most of their adulthood caring for the home and
raising children wonder what they will do for the next twenty or thirty years.

The development task of middle age includes; achieving adult civic and social
responsibility, establishing and maintaining an economic standard of living assisting
teenage, children to become responsible and happy adults; developing adult leisure-time
activities, relating oneself to one's spouse as a person; accepting and adjusting to the
physiological change of middle age; and adjusting to aging parents.

10. OLD AGE

This period extends —from sixty years to death. Sixty is usually taken as the
dividing line between middle and old age. This is the last stage in life span and people
who reach the age of 60 above are referred to as "elderly" and ―old" when they reach the
age of 70 onwards. Just like other period in the life span, old age characterized as:
a. Old age period of decline. Decline here comes partly from physical and partly
form psychological factors. This physical cause of decline is change in the body
cells not due to a specific disease but to the aging process. The term "senility" is
used to refer to the period during old age when a more or less complete physical
breakdown takes place and when there is mental disorganization. The elderly here
becomes careless, absentminded, socially withdrawn and poorly adjusted,
motivation plays a very important role in decline. Deterioration is much faster
when an individual does not have motivation to ward of aging.
b. There are many stereotypes of the aged. The most common stereotype of the
aged individual is that of a person who is worn out physically, and mentally, who
is unproduction accident-prone hard or live with, and overly sensitive. Because of
the unfavorable stereotypes, people generally looked at aging as a negative phase
in the life span.
c. There are individual differences in the effects of aging. People age
differently because they have different hereditary endowment, different socio-
economic and educational background, and different patterns of living. It is
impossible to classify anyone as "typically‖ old person. Of course, as a general
rule, physical aging precedes mental aging, though sometime it reverses.
d. The elder have a minority- group status. Old people are excluded to some
extent from interaction with other groups due to unfavorable social attitude
toward the aged. There are even times the elderly are taken advantage of by

32
 unscrupulous people, especially elderly women who are not strong enough to
themselves.
e. Aged people desire for rejuvenation. Because of the minority- group status
accorded to most elder persons. It has naturally given rise to a desire to remain
young as long as possible. Today, medicine is taking over the task of trying to
ward off old age, however, recent experiment has shown that it is impossible to
make aging people young aging.

The development tasks of old age are: relate more to the individual's
personal life span that to the lives of others, adjusting to decreasing physical
strength and health, adjusting to retirement and reduced income, adjusting to
death of spouse; establishing an affiliation with members of one's age group;
meeting social and civic obligations; and establishing physical living
arrangement.

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Early childhood is the ideal age to learn skills since young children enjoy
repetition and are willing to repeat an activity until they have acquired the ability to do it
well. Second young children are adventuresome and are not held back of hurting
themselves or of being ridiculed by peers, as older children often are Third, young
children learn easily and quickly because their bodies are still pliable.

Language Development
During early childhood, there is a strong motivation on the part of most children
to learn to speak since speaking is an essential tool in socialization. Children who can
communicate easily with their peers make better social contacts and are more readily
accepted as members of the peer group. Likewise, learning to speak is also their tool to
achieve independence. Children who cannot make themselves understood are likely to be
treated as babies and fail to achieve independence.
The speech of young children is egocentric in the sense that they talk mainly
about themselves, their interests, their families, and their possession. It is only toward the
end of early childhood that these children talk about other people as well as about
themselves. Most young children make unkind, derogatory comments about other people
and about their actions and thing. They engage in name-calling especially where they are
angry. Boasting about their actions and things. They engage in name-calling especially
when they are angry. Boasting about their material possessions is very common at this
stage.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Their emotions are especially intense, "out of focus" and they are easily aroused
to emotional outburst. There emotionally is characterized by temper tantrums, intense
fears and jealousy. This emotionally can be traced to fatigue due to prolonged play,
rebellion against taking naps and the fact that they eat too little. Most young children feel
that they are capable of doing more than their parents will permit them to do and work
revolt again against the restrictions placed upon them. They become angry when they
find are incapable of doing what they can do easily.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Moral development in early childhood is on a low level. The reason for this is that
young children's intelligence does not yet reached to the point where they can apply
abstract principles of right and wrong. They are not able to comprehend the why and
wherefore of morals standards. They merely learn how to act without knowing why they
so do. Children may be told not to do something one day, but by the next day or even that
day, they may have forgotten what they were told not to do. Piaget called early childhood
as "morally by constraints". In this stage of moral development, children obey rules
automatically without using reason on judgement and they regard adults as omnipotent.

33
The way young children view it, a wrong act result in punishment, and the right act is
rewarded.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The kind of social contacts young children have been more than the number of
such contacts. If young children enjoy their contacts with others, their attitudes towards
future social contacts will be more favorable. Young children find social contacts with
members with their Own sex more pleasurable than those with members of the Opposite
sex. Between the ages of 2-3 years, children play independently beside other children
rather than play with them if any contacts are made with other children, they tend to be
fictional rather than cooperative. This is their preliminary social activity.
Later, they begin to play with other children by the time they are four years old.
They are conscious of the opinion of others, and they try to show off to gain attention. If
the remaining years of clearly of early childhood they polish off the rough edges of their
social the remaining years of early childhood they polish off the rough edges of their
social behavior and learn new patterns of behavior that will make more acceptable to
their peers.

34
 CHAPTER 4
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

INTRODUCTION
Imagine yourself sitting in a secluded beach at sundown with a good friend. You
make a bet as to who can detect the first evening star. Seeing the first evening star us a
sensation made possible through our senses. It is though our senses that we know about
the world around us. To appreciate the importance of the sensory processes in behavioral
experience, imagine what it would be like to be without one or more of your senses.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

In this chapter, we will consider the sensory systems and their related sensation
before discussing the perceptual process that modify sensory input.
At the end of the chapter, you would be able to:
1. State clearly the difference between sensation and perception.
2. Discover how the sensory system work in real life.
3. Illustrate some of the uses and applications of the principles of Perceptions‘.
4. Point the role of sensation and perception in the differences in individual
behavior.
5. Appreciate the use of the different senses to us.

DEFINITION OF SENSATION
Sensation refers to the psychological arousal of a sense organ by stimuli and
carries this stimulation to the brain. The moment there is immediate awareness when a
receptor stimulated, sensation occurred. Our simple experiences are all sensations. It is
through that process of sensation that we are able to obtain information about the world
around us.
The different sense organs in our body help us know about the world. Our various
sense organs are the means by which we become aware of our environment. They
provide our first contact with objects. Without our sense organs, there will be no message
or impulses to be transmitted an integrated by the nervous system.
Sensory experience starts when a stimulus is applied to any of our sense organs.
The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin are the five most known senses, which are located
in various parts of our body. Each sensory organ is consists of sensitive elements called
receptor which in turn convert the physical energy into an activity in the nervous system
in the process called transaction. Those coded messages in the form of nerve impulses
will now be conveyed to the brain. The whole process is called sensation. In short are the
raw stuff of which experience is made, though our senses, we make contact with people
and events around us.
To summarize our discussion here, it is correct to say that our sense organs and
message runners, and the brain is the headquarter and decision–maker.

4 CHARACTERISTICS OF SENSATION
There are several essential conditions involved in any sensory experience. The
following are some general characteristics of sense receptors.
1. Each sensory organ is stimulated by a specific form of external or internal energy.
For example, the eye is stimulated by electromagnetic energy called light waves,
the ear is stimulated by sound waves and skin senses of touch and pain are
stimulated by pressure.
2. The process by which information is transmitted to the brain is the same for all
senses. For our sensation to be stimulated to be useful, the energy, whatever its
form (either soundwaves, light wave‘s etc.) must be changed first by the sense
organs into a form that the brain can understand. This conversation process is
called transduction. It takes place at the receptor‘s cells, which received the
energy produced by the stimulus and convert it into electro chemical energy, the
brain language.

35
 3. Before any sensory experience can be evoked a minimum of sense-receptor
stimulation is required. This minimum requirement is called absolute threshold.
For example, a sound must reach certain intensity before it can be heard.
Absolute threshold is the approximate point at which stimulus becomes strong
enough to produce a response in an individual. The sensitivity of the sense
receptor also involves a certain amount of difference is called difference
threshold. Difference threshold are the smallest changes in stimuli that a person
is able to detect. For example, holding a 50-watt electric bulb and 100-watt bulb,
between a noise and whisper, or a shout from a whisper.
4. Our sense receptor has the ability to adjust to a particular stimulus. This is known
as sensory adaptation. This means that a sense receptor will no longer be sensitive
to a certain period of time. For example, the wonderful smell you encounter upon
first entering the bakery seems to have declined considerably the time purchased
and leave.

OUR SENSE ORGANS

A sense organ is a nerve pathway, one sends of which (the receptor end) responds
in a certain condition effecting our bodies, and those end reaches to apart of our brain
that informs our conscious mind of what has happened or is happening. A sense is
thus distinguished from the body‘s countless other nerve pathways by the fact that our
brain consciously registers its impulses themselves are no different from those of the
autonomic nervous system.
While remaining aware of the limitations of the traditional list of five sense
organs, let us now analyze what they can do and how they operate:
1. THE EYE : OUR SENSE OF SIGHT

The eye is the sense organ for our visual sensation and the stimulus, which it is
sensitive, is in the form of electromagnetic rays known as light waves.
Before we can see anything, light waves must be present. There are three characteristics
of light waves that directly affect how we perceived visual objects, namely wavelength
for color, amplitude for brightness and purify for saturation.

THE PROCESS OF SEEING

Getting light rays entering the eye to properly focus on the retina is the job of the
lens. It accomplishes this task by either thickening of flattering its curate, process called
accommodation. Controlling the amount of light entering the eye is the job of the iris. It
accomplishes this task opening or closing the opening is the center of the eye called
pupil.
The structure that transduces the information contained in light rays into neural
impulses that are then send to the brain called the retina. All of the axon carrying these
neural impulses exit the eye at a single opening in the retina to the optic disk. Since the
optic disk is actually a hole in the retina, this part of the retina cannot sense incoming
visual information and for this reason it is called the blind spot.
The specialized receptor cells that are primarily responsible for visual acuity and
colors vision are the fovea. The specialized receptors cells that lie outside of the fovea
and towards the periphery of the retina called the rods. The rods are primarily responsible
for the peripheral vision and for night vision.
Both dark and light adaptation are accomplished through chemical reactions in the
rods and cones. This reaction occurs more quickly in the cones, so they are quicker to
show both dark adaptation and light adaptation.
Light rays striking the rods and cones initiate neural impulses that are transmitted
to the bipolar cell and then to ganglion cells. From here the visual information is
transmitted to the brain via the axons running from the retina to the brain, collectively
known as the optic nerve. The processing of visual information begins within the
receiving area of a retinal cell called the receptive field.

36
 2. THE EAR ; OUR SENSE OF HEARING

The ear, like the eyes is a complicated structure. Its major parts consist of the
auditory canal, middle ear, and inner ear. The outer ear includes that rather oddly shaped
and folded piece of flesh and cartilage from which earrings and hung, and more important
is the external auditory canal, a tunnel leading from the ears opening to the tympanic
membrane or eardrum.
The middle ear includes the inner surface of the three tiny, bony ossicles named
the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup. These bones respond to the vibrations in the ear
that are the basis of sound, vibrate themselves, and transmit their vibrations to the inner
ear, where the sense receptors for hearing are located, and the auditory nerve to the brain
begins.
The middle ear is connected to the back of the throat (pharynx) by the Eustachian
tube. This tunnel between throat and the middle ear makes the pressure on the outside of
the eardrum. Without it, or if the Eustachian tubes becomes clogged, the throat membrane
of the eardrum would always be in imminent danger of bursting.
The inner ear is completely filled with fluid which is jostled by the ossicles
―knocking‖ on a thin membrane called the oval window, separating the middle ear from
the inner ear. Another flexible membrane, the round window, serves restrict the motion of
the inner ear fluid when the movement is too stormy. Whiten ear is a bony structure
coiled like snail shell about the size of the pea. This is called the cochlea. Following the
spiral of the cochlea. There are some 20,000 of these hairs within the cochlea, responsive
to almost as many degrees of movement of the fluid. These thousand of nerve ending
merge of the core of the cochlea and exit from its floor as the nerve bundle of the
auditory canal.

THE PROCESS OF HEARING

Our ear has a special equipment to prepare vibrations for reception by the organ
of Corti, the true sense receptors for hearing. This equipment consists of structures that
amplify the vibrations reaching the ear, or more rarely, damping or decreasing the
vibrations caused by very close assurances.
Sound waves are really vibration in the ear that reach the eardrum at the narrow
end of the funnel-shape auditory canal. Those vibrations set of the membrane of the
eardrum vibrating ever so slightly. Behind the eardrum, the first ossicle encountered is
the hammer, which is attached to the eardrum by the projection descriptively called the
hammer-handle.
From the eardrum, vibrations travel up the handle and the set of hammer
vibrating. The hammer in turn, sets the anvil vibrating, and the anvil, then stirrup. The
stirrup then knocks like the impatient caller on the oval window of the inner ear, and then
the vibrating oval window stirs the fluids within the cochlea. This chain of events account
for the tremendous amplification of the vibrations so that we are literally able to hear
even a pain drop.
Loudness of sound waves can be measured in decibels and whose highness or
lowness of pitch can be measured by their frequency in cycles per second. Regarding
human hearing capacities the frequency range of human hearing is 20 to 20,000 Hz.
Human hearing is most sensitive to a frequency range 1,000 to 5, 000 Hz. Sound with 90
to 120 decibels can cause damage to human hearing. Tiny muscles in the middle ear relax
of tighten the eardrum and adjust to changing volumes of sound. We have to some degree
built-in, automatic protection against the assaults of noise pollution, but not nearly
enough. Human eardrums are not made to withstand the sound of jet planes taking off.

3. THE TONGUE ; OUR SENSE OF TASTE

The tongue is our sense organ for taste. Flavors of foods are largely enjoyed
because of this sense of taste. Without this sense, the kind of food would simply taste flat
and eating would become merely a function in order to survive. Delicious foods would no
longer appeal to us without our tongue. The sense receptors on the tongue and within the
nasal cavity work very closely to give us our sense of taste. The tongue is made up of a

37
neuron that ends in a highly organized group of taste cells called taste buds. These nerves
ending, numbering in hundreds to thousands, merge into two nerve bundles travelling
away from the tongue to the brain‘s ―taste center.‖
There are four kinds of taste cells, distinguished by the type of taste messages
each sends to the brain. They are salty, sweet, sour and bitter. All four types of taste buds
are found in all areas of the brain. In general, sensitivity to sweet is most felt at the tip of
the tongue, the sour on the other sides of the tongue, to salty about halfway back along
the sides of the tongue, and bitter buds are densest at the back of the tongue. Each of the
approximately 10,000 taste buds in the human adult tongue has 15 to 20 taste cells
arranged in bud like form on its tip. These cells continuously reproduce themselves every
seven days. It is believed that as we get older the number of taste buds decreases. Hence,
older people are less sensitive to taste that do children.

4. THE NOSE : OUR SENSE FOR SMELLING

Our smell receptors are clustered in an area about half-inch wide on ceiling of the
nasal cavity. The stimuli for the sense of small or olfactory sense are gases that enter the
nose. All the chemical detectors and require moisture in order to function. In the nose,
airborne substances must first be moistened by mucus from the olfactory glands before
they can stimulate olfactory epithelium, which is located in the upper reaches of noise. If
the air contains an odorous gas, certain reactions occur in the cells of the epithelium,
causing nerve impulses to go to the brain. The nerve ending pass upward through the
sieve-like ethmoid bone, separating the nasal cavity from the brain and connect to the
olfactory bulb, which is the ―nose brain‖ - tiny part of the cerebrum in man, but quite
large in dogs and other mammals. That‘s why animals like dogs have keener sense of
smell than us.
Only a few molecules of gas are needed to enter the nose to be smelled. Our nose
is extremely sensitive and adapts very readily. For example, a strong odor that bothers us
at the beginning is no longer felt notice after a short time because our sense of smell has
become adapted.
5. THE SKIN : OUR SENSE OF TOUCH
Our skin is our sense of touch which is equally important because it will enhance
our changes for survival. If we are unable to respond to pain or pressure stimuli, then it
would be possible that we are covered by wounds and bruises first before we became
aware that we were hurt. It is our sense of touch that will ordinarily warn us and tells us
what is happening at the surface of our bodies. Our skin is a giant sense organ that covers
our body.
Our skin has four sensory functions: pressure, pain, warmth and cold. Much of
what we receive from the skin sense result in such ―simple‖ sensation as itching feeling
of hot and cold, or painful sensation of injury. The skin senses are capable of telling us
much more than this. We can for example, identify object by touch.
The skin is not uniformly sensitive. It is sensitive at some points and not so
sensitive at others. These are different receptors for pain, pressure, warmth and cold so
still others sensitive pain or pressure stimuli. Our sense of movement, called kinesthesia
is registered by receptors in the joints and muscles. Our sense of balance is registered by
the vestibular system, which consist mainly of the semicircular canals located at the inner
ear. Neural messages from the vestibular system are integrated with message from other
sense, particularly the kinesthetic and visual system to, provide our sense of balance.

DEFINITION OF PERCEPTION AND FUNCTION

The part of this chapter dealt with sensation; however, the sensory-input pattern
provides only the raw material for experience. There re active processes that transform
this sensory information into what we actually experience which we call perception. In
other words, perception can be defined as:
- Whatever is experienced by a person
- Refers to the way wordbooks, sounds, feels, or smells to person
- The going of meaning to stimulus received by the sense organ
- Interpretation of sensation

38
In our daily life we often interpret the sensory information that we perceive. For example,
we interpret people‘s facial expression, the conversation that we hear, or the barking of a
dog as the presence of the stranger. This process of interpreting and event into
meaningful experience is called perception. Although sensation and perception are
closely link with each other, they are not synonymous. Sensation provides the sensory
input, while perception convert it into meaningful information. Generally, as a rule,
sensation occurs before perception.

The function of perception can be briefly summarized as:

1. Perceiving serves the function of converting the raw sensory input into useful
information. It helps us to know what is out there and what is going on with
our bodies. In short perception enables us to deal more effectively with our
environment in a relation to our motives. It serves as a guide to ours actions.
2. Perception is a matter of identifying the environment reference of the sensory
input anticipating its properties. This reference is the object of the event that is
being perceived. To identify something is to place it in some category of
equivalent objects, and by implication, distinguish it from other categories.
Once a pattern of sensory input has been identified as falling into a category,
various expectations and anticipation regarding the object or event are brought
into play.
For example: ―If this is a cow, then it will eat grass, give milk, run from
barking dog, and so on. As a result of learning, we have a vast fund of
information about the properties of objects and events.
3. Perception serves as an encoding process. In order to simplify our perceptual
load, we have to encode sensory input. To encode something is to put it in
category. For example, we see a building to encode it as a house. By encoding
information, we achieve tremendous ideas or concepts. We are spared of the
pain-stalking analysis of detail and more prepared to deal with the situation
according to what to expect of thing in category. Also a vast amount of
recurrent experiences enables us to build a set of concepts.

IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION
People differ in their perception because they differ in the ways they process
sensory inputs to give rise to what they experience. Different individuals will differ with
their reactions to the color of uniform, pop music, television program, and cigarette
smoking. The same stimulus will evoke different reactions or different stimulus would
lead to the same reactions. Why is this so? This is because different individuals give
different meaning to what they see, smell, taste, touch and hear. It is these different
meaning that bring different reactions and different perception.

ATTENTION AND PERCEPTION

At any given moment, our sense organs are bombarded by a multitude of stimuli,
yet we perceive only a few of them. For the most part, we perceive only those aspects of
the environment to which we attend to. We do not perceive everything at once; rather we
select certain objects to perceive while ignoring others. Attention is the term given to the
perceptual processes that select certain inputs for inclusion in our conscious experiences
or awareness at any given time.
To illustrate the nature of attention, consider your perception at a baseball game.
While you are dimly aware of the tangle of players at the field, it is the ball carrier and
his movement that stand out. Your attention is focused on him. At the same time, sensory
inputs are coming in from your cold feet, from your stomach as a result of the hotdog you
ate, or from the behind you who is smoking a cigarette. The crowd is also cheering.
While the play is going on your re probably not aware of any of these sensory inputs that
are in the margin of your attention. Only when the play is finished or time is called do
you perceive how cold your feet are, how uneasy your stomach feels, what a strong feels
the cigar has, and how noisy the crowd is.

39
 Attention is determined by the following personal factors as well as the number of
stimulus conditions that help determine its direction. The attentive process may view on
these standard points.
1. Adjustment of sense organs
2. Adjustment of posture
3. Muscle tensions

Adjustment of the sense organ maybe really observed in the tracking movements
of the head to facilitate perception of the sound sensation. Sniffing is also an obvious
adjustment of smelling: or tasting, we sometimes touch a substance with the tip of our
tongue and then move it around do that if falls on various parts of the mouth and tongue.
In adjustment of posture, it is readily evident when one strains forward in
his seat during a lecture or stops to look at something on the ground. Muscle tensions
involved in any adjustment of posture, although these changes are not at time obvious for
general observation. For example, when efforts are made to distracts objects attending to
a task, there is an expected decrease in their energy expenditure to compensate for the
destruction, some of which are attributed to increase tension.
FACTORS OF PERCEPTION
The most widely held view of perception is that it is bipolar in nature that is
perception is dependent upon the interaction of the individual with the stimulus. The
stimulus characteristics of the external and internal cues.
EXTERNAL FACTORS: STIMULUS CHARACTERISTICS
The following are the characteristics of the stimulus that influence perception.
1. Nature of stimulus – this means that whether the stimulus is visual or auditory,
and
2. Location of the stimulus – the best location of the visual stimulus for attracting
attention is directly in front of the eyes in the center of a page. When this location
is not possible in newspaper or magazines, a position in the upper portion of the
page is favorable than one in the lower portion, in the left-hand sides receives
more attention than the right-hand side. In the most cases objects which are placed
at the center are easily perceive than those located at then those located at the sites
or at the sides.
3. Novelty of the stimulus – most of us attend anything that novel or unusual. For
example, sounds, smells, and tastes to which we are accustomed to may go
unnoticed, but strange stimulus is observed immediately. A stimulus becomes
novel when it is in contrast.
4. Intensity, size, color of the stimulus and whether moving or steady – the more
intense are perceived first than the less intense. For example, intense can be
illustrated by the blaring of the loudspeaker or a brilliant lighted sign. The size if
the stimulus is also a determining factor, especially when it is too big or too small.
Also, the principle of contrast is involved here. For example, in a group picture,
the smallest of the biggest in the group is easily noticed as contrast to the
majority. Certain colors are also attention-getting than others like between
tangerine and light yellow. Tangerine is more attractive than light yellow. Moving
object is more likely to catch attention that stationary once.
5. Contrast – as the term implies contrast mean as intensified differences from the
immediate surroundings. For example, the use of the uniforms by policeman,
army men and medical doctors. They are easily identified in the group by their
uniforms. In camouflage activities, the reverse id done. One wears that should
blend with the environment, like detectives who wear plain clothes to avoid
detection.
6. Continuity – stimuli that maintain a flow of regularity are better perceived than
discontinuous irregular stimuli. The law of continuity holds that linkage of
individual more striking, or more satisfying when they are constructed by
perceptual processes in simple economical way. This principle of the economy of
organization is what the Gestalt psychologist call the law of pragnang which
claims that the perceiving organisms seek regularity, symmetry, simplicity and
stability in its experience.

40
 7. Grouping – grouped stimuli those that appear together in the time and space are
more easily understood and organized than those that appear without such
arrangement. Gestalt psychologist suggested that we group and interpret stimuli
conceptually in accordance with the four laws; proximity, similarity, closure, and
continuity.

1. Law of proximity – says that the elements that are near each other are
perceived as a group.
2. Law of similarity – states that when parts of the stimulus configuration are
perceived as similar, they will also be perceived as a group belonging
together.
3. Law of Closure – states that any stimuli that might a continuous, close
contour can be automatically organized into a figure by human perceptual
processes. An example of grouping is ―when you study history‖, you
might find that chronological arrangements of events, or grouping of
events according to a theme enhances learning. Taxonomy in zoology and
botany is more easily learned when grouping is employed.
8. Closure – it is possible for an individual to ―finish‖ a stimulus present to him.
Previous experiences facilitate closure. With one look at an incomplete form,
generally we can psyche and logos perceive it as a circle, square and triangle.
9. Perceptual Constancies – size, shape and color remain constant to the perceiver
regardless of the position of the object from the perceiver. The tendency to
experience stable perceptions in spite of constantly changing sensory input called
perceptual constancy. There are three perceptual constancies in vision. They are
size, shape and color. Example of size constancy is a jeep moving away from an
individual maybe seen as becoming smaller and smaller, but to the perceiver the
size of the jeep does not really change: or near objects as seen in the mirror appear
bigger than its normal size.
Generally, the color of an object is perceived as such regardless of
whether it is perceived on a rainy day or sunny day. Daytime or night time and
even under colored lights. For example, a white piece of paper appears whether
viewed under light or dark conditions. Also, your light blue sweater always looks
like blur whether indoor or outdoors. This tendency to see an object as being of
the same color is called color constancy.
Positions could also affect perception. The shape of an object may seem to
vary with the changes in its position simply because the angle of the retina warps
from where the objects is viewed. For instance , a rectangular window looks
rectangular even if the person is rarely on a position where the sensory input is
truly rectangular. Another example, is the retinal image warps as you track a
basketball through the air but the ball always appear perfectly round. This
tendency to see objects shape as unchanging regardless of the angle at which it is
viewed is called shape constancy.
10. Figure – Ground relationships – these are the relationship between the stimulus
and all other stimuli surrounding it. The main stimulus is called the figure while
the other stimuli it comprise the ground. The factors that determine which of the
two adjacent areas will be perceived as figure or ground include size, location and
shape of the object.

In vision the figure is usually in front or on top of what we perceive as a background.

The background flows around the shape of the figure. Other sensory experiences may be
perceived as figure or ground for example, a person who is eating a meal that taste salty
will perceived as figure on a ground. Also, most music is heard as a melody (figure)
surrounded by other words.

INTERNAL FACTORS: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERCEIVER

It was stated earlier that perception is bipolar. The bipolar nature of perception
may explain why people differ in their perception of an object or an idea. Subjectivity

41
mat characterized one‘s perception as it is a product of the past experiences, motives,
interest, culture, frame of reference, etc. all these factors are discussed individually
below.

1. Past experience – experiences that are rewarding and punishing tend to color our
perception. For example, our perception of the teacher is affected by our past
experiences with the teacher or anyone associated with them a teacher mat be
really kind, but one perceived as ―terror‖, changes that he will be perceived as
such no matter what even if he is not.
2. Motives of organism – perception is highly selective. We tend to perceive more
those objects stimuli are remote. For example, a man who wants to assume a
domination role is likely to attend to advertisement on power. Or a student is
more attentive to the statement: this item will be given in our next examination,
since this directly related to his motive to pass the subject.
3. Interests – the immediate or long term interests of an individual and his various
dominant motivational system are clearly potent internal determinants of attention
for him. We attend more to those aspects in our environment that we are
interested in. For example, the hair stylist will most likely notice quite different
aspects of a person‘s hair, face that a voice teacher.
4. Culture – culture plays an important role in people‘s perception. Within a
particular culture, however variations also exist. For example, people with
―kaingin‖ culture may perceive cutting down trees as the natural thing for
survival. However, this is perceived by others as destructive to environment and
prohibited. Also, Filipinos perceived ―pakikisama‖ as development facilitating
trait in their culture, while non-Filipino may look at it as deterrent to national
development.
5. Frame of Reference - refers to the interrelated characteristics of stimulus from the
external environment and qualities of the perceiver that jointly formed in
determining perception. This is not only valuable in the perception of oneself butt
is even more valuable in social perception and in decision-making. For example,
one who is good looking may perceive others as ugly using himself as frame of
reference or a five-foot person may consider himself short in comparison with six-
footer.
6. Set – is a temporary tendency or expectancy to respond in a certain way fashion.
This tendency may change as the subject is confronted with different instructions
of the rewards. At any single time, human beings can only be aware of a very
limited number of stimuli. When we say we cannot do things at the same time, we
recognized that we couldn‘t pay attention to two stimuli at the same time. For
example, a television advertisement is unlikely to get your attention when you are
sleepy.

42
 CHAPTER 5
CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS ALTERED STATES

INTRODUCTION

The phenomena of consciousness are too pervasive and too important to be

overload Psychologists have followed many different approaches and develop many
different theories in their attempt to understand consciousness.
This chapter will bring to your awareness the importance of consciousness and the
various effects of its altered states on individual health and behavior.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Give the meaning, classification and functions of consciousness.
2. Describe the sleep and waking cycle of man.
3. Compare and contrast REM sleep NREM sleep.
4. List some effects of hypnosis and medication.
5. List and describe major types of abused drugs and their effects.
6. Identify which drugs carry the greatest risk of tolerance, physical and
physiological dependence.

A. MEANING AND CLASSIFICATION AND CONSCIOUSNESS

Many psychologists defined, consciousness as our awareness of internal and external

events. Gazzaniga (1980) defines consciousness as ―a state or equilty ecbeing of being
aware of internal thought processes or of external objects‖, Hilgard, et,al (1982) consider
consciousness as state of being aware of one‘s surrounding. Consciousness is limited in
two ways. The first limitation lies in the fact the most of the activity in the word around
us and within our bodies takes place without our being aware of it. This lack of
awareness comes in part from the relatively narrow change of our perceptual capacities.
Because each of our sensory channels is limited, our consciousness is likewise limited. In
other words, consciousness is limited by the inaccessibility to the human mind of certain
stimuli. A second limitation of consciousness is the narrow extent to which our minds can
process diverse information simultaneously. So many sensation, feeling, thought and
memories are accessible at any given moment that attending to all of then would
overwhelm and perhaps leave us unable to act at all. But much of the information that is
available to consciousness is automatically screened out, allowing us to attend some thing
by becoming unaware of others. In other words, the second limitation is due to
constraints on the focus of human attention.
There are two modes of consciousness, according to Hilgard, et.al (1982): (1)
passive, receptive states and (2) active, productive mental states, when we sit back and
listen to music, or when we indulge in fantasy, we are in a passive, receptive state of
consciousness. You are in an active, productive mental state when your consciousness
initiates in producing ideas and guiding your behavior on begin on something valuable.

B. FUNCTIONS OF CONSIOUSNESS

Mandler in Silverman (1979) identifies five adaptive functions of consciousness

namely:
1. It permits us to choose our course of action on the basic of the most probable or most
desirable outcome.
2. It enable us to make long-term plans, combining large numbers of variable and
possibilities.
3. It involves the retrieval of information from memory which is essential to making plan
and to acting on them.
4. In involves braking down and storing new information into units that can be easily
learned and remembered, which permit us to communicate what we know to other, as
well as to use previously learned material to solve presents problems.
5. It intervenes to find a solution when some other system fails.

43
 C. STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness exists at different levels or states of consciousness. Many

psychologists today fell that there at least three major levels of consciousness. They are:

Level of Consciousness Appropriate Activity

1. Automatic process - daydreaming and well-practiced skills
2. Controlled process - high concentration
3. Deepest layers -some processing

We can be highly conscious, not so highly conscious or semi-conscious, barely conscious

or unconscious. Consciousness is constantly changing and t stream. We get through
several states of awareness during the day- waking up drowsy, getting more aware of our
thoughts after breakfast, losing alertness after lunch, and approaching sleep with even
much less awareness.

B. THE SLEEP AND WAKING CYCLE

Sleep is important to us because our mental and physical conditioning can

deteriorate if we go without sleep for extended periods. Our mind during sleep remains
relatively active; it is especially active during dreams.
Sleep research is conducted electronically monitoring various bodily activities,
such as brain waves, heart contractions, and eye movements, while persons actually sleep
in a specifically prepared laboratory setting. Through the use of a television camera or a
window, researchers also observe the subjects during sleep. Data collection usually
begins after allowing the subjects to adjust to the novel sleeping movement.
The daily, or 24-hour rhythm is called the circadian rhythm and is responsible for
the regulation of sleep and wakefulness. This is accomplished through the regulation of
several body processes, including body temperature. When we begin to fall asleep, body
temperature decreases. When we continue into deeper sleep, body temperature continues
to decrease. When we begin to be awaken, our temperature begins to increase.
Scientists are still uncertain how the 24-hour circadian cycle is maintained, but
there is evidence that the day-right cycle affects in the activity of the pineal gland which
in turn secretes both a neurotransmitter and a hormone. These secretions are closely
related to the day-night cycle. There is also evidence that most persons tend to drift from
a 24 -hour cycle to 25 - hour style when isolated from a day – night clues. The day-night
cycle. Setting out of time with circadian rhythms can really affect the quality of sleep.
This is commonly found among persons suffering from jet lag. Research on jet lag has
shown that there are two kinds of alternations in circadian rhythms. One kind called,
phase-delay shift which occurs when the day is lengthened. Sense there another kind
called phase-advance shift which occurs when the day is shortened. Sense there are
already seems to be a natural tendency to shift to a 25 – hour circadian cycle; most people
and make it easier to make a phase-delay shift. This explains why air travel is likely to be
less disturbing when flying in a westerly direction.
The sleep cycle representation of one of the 90-minute biological rhythm and is repeated
approximately four times during an average night of sleep. NREM sleep dominates the
early part of the sleep period but REM sleep and dreaming dominate the later stages of
sleep. As one progresses through the night, the dept of NREM sleep tends to
progressively decrease.
Not only newborns sleep more frequently and for more total hours during a day
than do adults, they also spend greater proportion of time than REM sleep. As they grow
older, children moved toward longer but less sleep. NREM sleep dominates the early part
of the sleep period but REM sleep and dreaming dominate the later stages of sleep. As
one progresses through the night, dept of NREM progressively decrease.
Not only newborns sleep more frequently and for more total hours during a day
than do adults, they also spend greater proportion of time in REM sleep. As they grow
older, children moved toward longer but less frequent sleep periods and the total
proportion of REM sleep declines from about 50 percent to the adult level of about 20
percent.
Sleep and wakefulness are apparently under the control a several neutral structure
and neurotransmitter, however, two appear to stand out from the rest. The neutral
structure that is essential for both sleep and wakefulness is the reticular formation or

44
reticular activating system. While there are at least four neurotransmitter that appear to
influence he sleep wakefulness cycle, chronic sleeplessness results when the supply of
neurotransmitter serotonin is depleted. Regarding the effects of different kinds of sleep
deprivation, the major effect of both complete and partial sleep deprivation is weariness
or sleepiness.
As how much sleep as we required, it varies across individuals. The same with
napping requirement. It varies across with individual.

D. STAGES OF SLEEP

EEG recording reveal that there is a relationship between brain waves and level of
consciousness. There are four principle bands of the brain wave activity, based on the
frequency of the wave patterns: alpha, beta, theta and delta. These wave patterns and
their description are listed below:

(a) Alert (13-24 cps) beta

(b) Drowsy (8-12 cps) alpha
(c) Shallow sleep (4-7 cps) theta
(d) Deepest sleep (1-4 cps) delta
(e) Rapid Eye Movement (REM)

Sleep involved five stages namely:

1. The individual is fully awake, and alert with eyes open. The beta wave (fastest)
are predominate.
2. The individual is drowsy and relaxes by closing his eyes. Slower alpha waves are
predominant.
3. The individual drifts into the first stage of shallow sleep. The brain waves become
less regular and a few theta (slow) waves are present.
4. The individual is in the deepest layer of sleep and are slow waves called delta
waves begin to predominate.
5. This stage is called rapid eye movement (REM) where dreams are most common.

The four stages of sleep that do not involve rapid eye movement are collectively
called NREM sleep. During NREM sleep, one first descends into stage I sleep and then
continues to descend into stage 2, 3, and 4. Each descend is accompanied by slower brain
wave activity, along with declines in body temperature, heart rate, respiration rate, and
muscle tension.
What particularly differentiates NREM sleep from rapid eye movement sleep or
REM sleep is that during REM sleep, the brain wave patterns resembles that of a person
who is wide awake. However, REM sleeps is a paradoxical sleep. It is also during the
REM sleep that dreaming is most likely to occur.

E. PREVALENCE, CAUSES AND TREATMENT OF INSOMNIA

While practically everybody will suffer from occasional bouts of insomnia, it is

estimated that chronic problems with insomnia occur in about 30 percent of all adults.
There are three basic types of insomnia, which are easily remembered because one type
occurs at the beginning of sleep, one type during sleep; and the third type at the end of
sleep. Thus, one type involve in difficulty in falling asleep; one type involves persistent
early awakening.
There are a number of different causes of insomnia, but perhaps the most common
one results from stressful problems that generate excessive anxiety. Another frequent
cause results from physical problems, such as ulcers and back ailments, which cause pain,
and asthma, which interferes with proper breathing. Certain Drugs are also implicated in
insomnia. Since there are many different causes of insomnia, it seems reasonable that
there is not a single form of treatment. However, researchers agree that the most
commonly used form of treatment, sleeping pills, is not the treatment of choice. Evidence
shows that while sleeping pills do promote sleep, they also interfere with the REM part of
the sleep cycle and can lead to a host of other problems.

45
  To avoid problems with sleep, the following habits are suggested:
1. Do not nap during the day.
2. Avoid drinks containing caffeine.
3. Eat moderately during the evening hours.
4. Establish a regular bedtime that coincides with the drowsing in the circadian rhythm.

Temporary problems in going to sleep do not indicate that one is becoming in

insomniac. These temporary problems often correct themselves. Numerous methods can
be used to facilitate going to sleep, but a common feature in all of them is that they
generate a feeling of relaxation. Some methods generate a feeling of boredom, which is
skin to relaxation. The important point here is that one does not concentrate on the heavy
events in life when attempting to go to sleep.

G. DREAMS, HYPNOSIS AND MEDIATION

Calvin Hall analyzed the content or more than 10,000 dreams and concluded that
the content of most dreams in mundane. Moreover, he found out that dreams seldom
involve events that are not centered on us. Hall also found that dreams tend to be like
soap operas in that they revolve around such common----, misfortune, sex, and
aggression. According to Freud, our dreams reflect ‗day residue‘ which means that dream
content is influences by what happens to us in our daily lives. Other factors that may have
an effect on our dreams are external stimuli like dripping water, ringing phones, etc.
There are three theories as to why we need to dream. The first theory was that of
Sigmund Freud which states that dream serve the purpose of fulfillment. The second
theory is cognizant of the fact that dreams are not restricted by logic and reality dreams
therefore allow us for creative problem solving. The last theory does not consider dreams
to be of cognitive significance. Dreams are simply the by – products of psychological
processes.
While there are some persons who claim they dream, what is really happening is
that they cannot remember or recall their dreams. Generally, the dreams that people are
able to recall are those that occur just prior to waking from REM or dream sleep.
Determination and practice can improve one‘s ability to recall dreams. A dream whose
action actions takes place over 20 minutes. Most people dream in color, although a
minority of persons claim they never do.
Freud believed that dreams require interpretation to get at their through meaning
because this meaning, which he called the latent content, is symbolically encoded in the
obvious plot of the dreams, which he called the manifest content. Freud‘s theory believed
that dreams carry hidden symbolic meaning and dream interpretation is a very
complicated affair. Calvin Hall makes the point that dreams require some interpretation
simply because they are mostly visual. However, because of their subjective nature, any
interpretation of dreams is probably best done by the person experiencing the dream.
Folklore has it that dreaming of one‘s own death can prove fatal. So far there are
no cases of persons reporting fatal dreams. Moreover, a good many people have
experienced vivid dreams of their own deaths and lived to tell about it.
Hypnosis was originally discovered by Mesmer. He used hypnotism to cure
illness. Later, Braid gave hypnosis its name and respectability. Braid used hypnosis as
euthanasia. At present, hypnosis continued to be exploited by charlatans and has
remained a subject of scientific research.
According to Hilgard hypnosis proposed by Barber and Orne is that hypnosis is a
form of role – playing in which one half of the consciousness communicates with the
hypnotist while the other half remains hidden, even from the hypnotized subject. IN this
case, pain perceived by the “hidden” part of consciousness is not reported to the ―aware‖
part of the consciousness. This divided state of consciousness proposed by Hilgard is not
a civilian experience in everyday life.
Another theory of hypnosis proposed by Barber and Orne is that hypnosis is a
form of role – playing in which the subject are simply acting out the role of a hypnotized
person. In hypnosis, the hypnotized person is in a sleeplike state and highly suggestive to
the demands of the hypnotist. The following are some of prominent effects that can be
produced by hypnosis:

46
 1. Anesthesia - reduces awareness of pain.
2. Disinhibition - engaging in acts one would not ordinarily do.
3. Hallucination - perceiving things do not exist or failing to
perceive things that do exist.
4. Sensory Distortion - claiming that sour foods taste sweet.
5. Amnesia - claiming to forget what occurred during the
induction period.
6. Posthypnotic Suggestions - carrying out suggestions following the hypnotic
induction.

Mediation is another deliberate attempt to alter consciousness. Here, the subjects

focus attention on a very limited range of stimuli. Yoga, Zen, and transcendental are
some forms of mediation. Certain physiological changes may occur during mediation.
One of the most prominent of these changes is that EEG brain waves which change from
the rapid betas waves to slower alpha waves. This change is accompanied be a decrease
in metabolic rate, such as the heart rate and oxygen consumption. All of these
physiological changes are characteristics of a normal state of relaxation. This state is not
unique to mediation.
It can be concluded that the claims of mediation do have some merit in that it
produce physiological changes associated with relaxation and physiological benefits in
terms of improved mood and lessened anxiety. These changes can also be induced by
other commonly used methods for inducing relaxation. Moreover, the claim that
mediation can produce a unique state of pure consciousness has not been supported by
scientific research.

H. ALTERING CONSCIOUSNESS WITH DRUGS

Taking a specific drug will not always have the same effect on a specific person.
This is because drug effects have multi factorial causation: individual, environmental and
drug factors can combine in many ways to produce the final effect. Moreover, as one
continues to take a specific drug, a greater amount of the drug is required to achieve the
same effect.
When a person must continue taking a drug to avoid withdrawal illness, addiction
or physical dependence is said to occur. When a person must continue taking a drug to
satisfy intense emotional craving for the drug, physical dependence is said to occur. The
three rickets drugs in terms of tolerance and physical and psychological dependence are:
(1) narcotics or opiates, (2) sedatives, and (3) stimulants.
A narcotic is a class of drugs derived from opium. While these drugs are
effective at relieving pain, they can also produce a state of euphoria. This is the principal
reason why opiates and narcotics are attractive to recreational users.
A sedative is a class of drugs that are known for its sleep – inducing (sedation)
and behavioral sedation effects, resulting in tension reduction and a relaxed state of
intoxication. While there are several different drugs in this class, the barbiturate is most
widely abused.
Stimulants are a class of drugs that produce an arousal in the nervous system.
These drugs are known for their ability to produce an energetic euphoria. These drugs
range from mildly arousing ones like caffeine and nicotine to strongly arousing ones like
cocaine and the amphetamines.
Hallucinogens are a class of drug known for their ability to distort sensory and
perceptual experiences. The drugs in this class are LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. Other
psychoactive drugs include alcohol and cannabis. Cannabis includes marijuana which can
produce a mild awareness and distorted sense of time.

I. HOW PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS EXERT THEIR EFFECTS

All psychoactive drugs exert their influence through their effect on the central
nervous system (CNS). To do so, they must first get into the cerebrospinal fluid by means
of the bloodstream. Once they affect their specific targets in the CNS, the drugs are
eventually metabolized, inactivated or eliminated at different rates, depending on the kind
of drug.
Psychoactive drugs affect the CNS by altering the neurotransmitter activity at the
synoptic level. Like neurotransmitters, psychoactive drugs are attracted to selective sites

47
in the synopses. Some psychoactive drugs mimic the effects of naturally occurring
neurotransmitters while others act by increasing or decreasing the availability of selective
transmitters. For example results by amplifying the effect of naturally occurring
neurotransmitters GABA. GABA is a group of neurotransmitter which have an inhibitory
effect at the receptor sites, while alcohol produces similar results by amplifying the effect
of naturally released GABA. When these two drugs are taken together, their combined
depressive effect on the CNS may be greater than the sum of their individual effects.
Drugs interacting in this way are said to be synergetic.
There are three major ways in which drugs may affect physical health. The most
dramatic way is when a person takes too much of a drug and dies of an overdose. Another
way is when usage directly damages bodily tissue, and this is referred to as direct effect.
The third way is when drug usage results in accidents, improper eating and sleeping
habits, infections and so on. These are collectively called indirect effects.
There is a good evidence of a linkage between excessive drug abuse and mental
disorders. For many drugs, it is unclear whether use leads to poor mental health or poor
mental health lends to drug use. However, some drugs are known to cause specific mental
disorders. Korsakoff syndrome for example, along several mental disorders, is known to
follow the excessive use of alcohol. Also, the onset of psychotic- like state that includes
hallucinations, paranoia, and hyperactivity has been shown to follow excessive use of the
two stimulants drugs, amphetamine, and cocaine.

IMPORTANT TERMS TO REMEMBER

To test your mastery of the material in this chapter is to see whether you know
what is meant by the following terms:

Circadian rhythms Consciousness Dream

Electromyograph (EEG) Sleep Hallucinogens
Psychological dependence Hypnosis Insomnia
Meditation Narcotics NREM sleep

48
 CHAPTER 6
LEARNING THROUGH CONDITIONING

INTRODUCTION
A chapter on learning is especially important because we, Filipinos, put so much
value on education and learning. We have a very strong desire to learn in order to be
educated. More than this, learning is one of the components of psychology.
This module focuses on learning and the different theories of learning. It will
discuss the key elements of learning. The last portion of this chapter discusses memory
and forgetting and conditions affecting learning.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Define learning, especially to processual type of learning.
2. Describe classical and operant conditioning and the key elements on these forms
of learning.
3. Explain the principles of classical and operant conditioning.
4. Show how learning is transferred to actual conditions.
5. Present the process od encoding, storing, and retrieving information, including the
theories of forgetting.
6. Profit from knowing some conditions affecting learning.

A. DEFINITION OF LEARNING
Learning may be defined as a process through which one‘s capacity or
disposition is changed as a result of experience. It is relatively permanent change in
behavior that occurs as a result of experience (Hilgard, 1972). While most of us viewed
learning as both a process. This idea suggests that it is not the product but the process that
is important since the products of learning include. Both what one is capable of and what
he is predisposed to.
Changes resulting from development such as growing older are not considered as
learned behavior. Changes in behavior resulting from other factors aside from
experiences are not considered as learning.

B. THEORIES OF LEARNING
One way of understanding learning is by studying the different theories of
learning.
These theories explain how people learn. They are systematic interpretations of
observations about learning. They attempt to explain the ―how‘s‖ and ―why‘s‖ of
learning. Generally, theories of learning are classified into two: (1) stimulus – response
or association theories and (2) conditioning or non-association theories. The
association theories include: Thorndike‘s connectionism classical conditioning,
operant conditioning, and social learning.

B.1 THORNDIKE‘S CONNECTIONISM THEORY

Thorndike gave to us his two laws of learning, the Law of Exercise, which states
that stimulus-response (S-R) connections are strengthened by practice or repetition. His
other law is the Law of Effect which simply stated that the S-R bonds or connections ate
strengthened by rewards or satisfaction. An organism willingly approaches a reward or a
―satisfier‖. Use of these laws continue to be widespread in schools. Drills are example of
this law of exercise, while giving of high grade and honors use the law of effect.
B.2 CLASSICAL OR RESPONDENT CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning is a type of learning that occurs when two stimuli are
paired are associated closely in time. Ivan Pavlov‘s conditioning is the best example of
respondent learning. This type of conditioning involves the formation or strengthening of
an association between a conditioned stimulus and a response through a repeated
presentation of the conditioned stimulus together with an unconditioned stimulus which
originally elicited the response.
To understand this better, let us define first each of the four variables involved in
classical conditioning.
1. Unconditioned Stimulus (US)- is any stimulus that has the ability to elicit a
response without previous training.

49
 2. Conditional Stimulus (CS) – refers to a stimulus which initially does not
elicit the response under study but comes to do so by being paired with the
unconditioned stimulus.
3. Unconditioned Response (UR) - is the original response to an unconditioned
stimulus.
4. Conditioned Response (CR) – is the learned response to a conditioned
stimulus.

Let us now demonstrate classical conditioning in the experiment of Pavlov. In

involves a dog in a soundproof room. These are two stimuli here – the bell, and the
second stimuli is the food. The bell rung in the room but this not elicit salivary response.
The bell is the conditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus in this study is the
meat, since it elicits the salivary response without training. It occurs naturally and does
not have to be learned or acquired through conditioning. The bell (CS) is then presented
together with the food (US) which elicits salivation. The pairing of the bell with the food
is repeated several times. This is now the conditioning process. After a certain point, the
bell is called conditioned response (CR). Salivation to the meat powder is known as the
unconditioned response (UR).

FOUR BASIC LAWS OF THE PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING

1. Law of Excitation – this law is also known as the law of acquisitions. This
happens when a previously neutral stimulus acquired the property of eliciting the
conditioned response. For example, the buzzer (CS) elicits salivation (CR)
2. Law of Internal Inhibition – the conditioned response will not be elicited if the
conditioned stimulus is not simultaneously presented with the conditioned
stimulus. thus, salivation will not occur if the ringing of the buzzer does not
simultaneously occur with the presentation of food during the conditioning
process.
3. Law of External Inhibition – excitatory or inhibitory processes conditioning can
occur when new and distracting stimuli are presented and then removed. The
inhibitory processed occurs when after the conditioned stimulus is presented at
the same time with the conditioned stimulus is presented. Pavlov noted a decrease
in the magnitude of the conditioned response; hence the effect is extinguished and
a novel or distracting stimulus is introduced, the conditioned response reappears
and this reaction is called excitatory.
4. Extinction – this is also called unlearning. This occurs when the conditioned
response is no longer elicited by the conditioned stimulus because the conditioned
stimulus was constantly presented without the paired stimulus. For example, when
food is not presented after a series of presentations of the buzzer, salivation is mot
likely to happen.

Other concepts involved in Classical Conditioning are:

Stimulus generalization – Here, the conditioned response is not only elicited by the
original conditioned stimulus but by the other stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus.
For example, in an experiment of Watson, the subject was not only afraid of the white
rabbits, but he learns to be afraid also of white cats and white dogs which have similar
characteristics with white rabbits.
Spontaneous recovery – Here, a conditioned response which does not appear for some
time reoccurs without further conditioning. In the experiment of Pavlov, if the dog is
brought out if the experimental setting and then brought back, it may salivate (CR) at the
sound of the buzzer (CS).
Higher conditioning – This is the process by which a conditioned stimulus may become
an unconditional stimulus. This may be done by pairing the buzzer with the raising of one
arm. In higher order conditioning, the buzzer becomes the unconditioned stimulus, and
the raised arm which will eventually elicit salivation will become the conditioned
stimulus.
Many problems in life like phobias and other emotional responses are the result of
classical conditioning. For example, phobias are learned, they can also be extinguished.
Also, the principles of classical conditioning can be applied to solve problems.

50
B.3 INSTRUMENTAL/OPERANT CONDITIONING
This type of conditioning is based on the concept and idea of B. F. Skinner.
Skinner insists that only observable behavior is the appropriate concern of the
psychologists. And so, the psychologists should study only behavior as it is and nothing
more. He tried to look to lawful processed in behavior with the use of rats and pigeons.
In the Skinner‘s experiment a hungry rat is placed in a square box. The box is
plain except for a small lever or bar that project form the wall. The bar is attached to a
food magazine which increases a food pellet every time the rat presses the bar. Since the
rat is hungry it will actively explore the environment and it is the process initially presses
the bar by reinforcement to the pressing behavior. Reinforced, the rat will keep on
pressing the bar no longer ―accidentally‖ but ―intentionally‖. In this state, the rat is said
to have been conditioned.
From the description of the Skinner experiment, one can define operant
conditioning as the process of strengthening the S-R pattern by immediately following
the response with reinforcing stimulus.

B.4 PRINCIPLES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

Some of the phenomena related to operant conditioning are:
1. Reinforcement – this is a event that increases the probability that a particular
response will increase in frequency. For example, the animal‘s rate of swinging
increases then followed by food. Food here is the reinforcement.

Responses may be reinforced the by presentation (positive) or removal (negative)

of particular consequences. Thus, reinforcement may either be positive or negative. The
presentation of positive reinforcers increases the like hood that a particular response will
occur. For example, when a student is rewarded for his high grades, he is likely to
increase and consistently follow his rewarded behavior. This is an example of a positive
reinforcement. The withdrawal 9of negative reinforcers will also increase the like hood
of a particular behavior.
Reinforcers cam also be primary and secondary. Those that are innately
reinforcing are usually effective to satisfy basic psychological needs are called primary
reinforcers. Food and water belong to this group of reinforcers. On the other hand,
secondary or conditioned are not innately reinforcing. Their power to reinforce behavior
is acquired and not innately present. Money, grades, tokens, praises are examples of
secondary reinforcers. They are most effective when they immediately follow the
responses they are intended to increase.
2. Schedule of Reinforcement – reinforcement may be delivered in a continuous or
on some intermittent schedule. Hence, it may be given on a fixed or variable
schedule.

In the continuous schedule, the reinforcement follows every correct response.

This is the quickest way to each new response. We have to remember that only correct
responses are to be reinforced. Undesirable responses should not be reinforced, lets this
undesirable response increase in its occurrence.
When reinforcers are given only after a particular number of responses have been
made, this is called ratio schedule. Under this, we have two types: (1) fixed-ratio
schedule, and (2) variable-ratio schedule. If a reinforce is given after a definite number
of correct responses, this is called as fixed-ratio Schedule (FR). This is illustrated by
laborers who are given their wages on a weekly schedule. When the reinforcement is
given after a varying number of responses, we have Variable-ratio Schedule or (VR).
Gambling is an example of this schedule.
Unlike the ratio schedule, the interval schedule is dependent on time. For
reinforcement to be considered under this type, two conditions must be met. First, the
particular interval of time elapses since the last reinforcement. Second, a correct response
must occur after the first interval. Both time and responses must be considered. In the
ratio schedule, only responses are taken into consideration. The time element is
immaterial. In the interval schedule, time is a basic consideration.
Interval schedules are also of two-kinds: the fixed-interval schedule and
variable-interval schedule. In the fixed-interval schedule, reinforcement is given after
a fixed-time or duration. For example, a child is given chocolate only after eating
vegetables. The giving of the chocolate is dependent ever time (time) on the eating of
vegetables (response). This is an example fixed-interval schedule of (FI).

51
 The other interval schedule is called variable-ratio schedule. Here, the
reinforcement is administered invariably without any fixed time. When compliments are
not given every time, a correct response is made and instead are given sparingly, they are
not given on a variable-interval schedule or (VI)

3. Shaping- is the process by which new responses are formed in an operant

conditioning. This is achieved by reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the
desired behavior. In day-to-day life, there are many instances of shaping behavior. For
example, a child who is learning to walk by himself. First, he is learning to balance
himself and stand alone. This is reinforced by the mother‘s smile. After a while, the child
is then held by the arm of his mother and made to take one or two steps, after which he is
left to make a step all by himself. When he does it, the mother shows her approval by
smiling or nodding that reinforce the child‘s behavior.

4. Extinction - this withdrawing or terminating the reinforcement resulting to the gradual

decline in response frequency until it goes back to is pre-conditioning frequency. Here,
response rate decreases and the behavior may eventually stop occurring. Extinction is
usually employed to terminate an undesirable behavior. To illustrate this, let us take the
case of smoking behavior. For those who smoke, the pleasure derived is apparent. In this
experiment, smokers were given shock treatment after smoking. A gradual decrease in
smoking behavior was found after the shock treatment. After several sessions, smoking
was extinguished.

5. Punishment - in operant conditioning, punishment may occur in two ways: (1) the
presentation of the unpleasant event, like slapping or spanking a child after the child's
display of undesirable behavior; and (2) the removal of pleasant event as in withholding
an allowance if the child does not study. Both decrease the frequency of the undesirable
behavior. There are 6 guidelines to make punishment more effective:

a. If possible, punishment should be delivered immediately after the

behavior.
b. Since undesirable side effects increase with the intensity of punishment, it
should only be as strong as needed to be effective.
c. To be effective, punishment should be given to children after each
instance
of behavior.
d. If the reason for the punishment is given to children, the punishment tends
to be more effective.
e. Punishment tends to be more effective if alternative behaviors are
reinforced at the same time.
f. For the most part, physical punishment should be avoided because it tends
to provide a model for, and hence to increase, aggressive behavior.

On the whole, there are three areas in which operant conditioning have influenced
our everyday lives. First, parent's tendency to prefer reinforcement over president.
Second, the use of positive reinforcement in the world of business. Third, programmed
learning, and individualized instruction including the procedure of using learning
objectives.

B.5 SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Bandura and Walter (1963) disputed the role of reinforcement in learning. They
view learning as occurring in the absence of reinforcing, they emphasize observational
learning which includes self-instruction and self-reinforcement. They believe that there is
a reciprocal relationship between behavior and the conditions that control it. Moreover,
individuals create their own environment. Thus, their theory also maintained the
importance of the stimulus-response connection in social learning. Thus, there are two
important concepts around which social learning revolves - modelling and imitation
process.
Social learning theory seemingly explains many of our behaviors. The way we
talk and walk - our gestures - may have been exposed to. No wonder children talk like
their parents and many times their movements even resemble those of their parents. The

52
social learning theory points out the crucial influences of television and radio programs.
Movies and other forms of mass media which becomes sources of models for children
Just like Skinner, Bandura believes in the importance of consequences and thinks
the personality is largely shaped through learning. According to Bandura, we tend to
imitate models that we see being reinforced, even though we experience the
reinforcement vicariously rather than directly.

Bandura further identified four processes that are crucial components of observational
learning. These are:

1. Attention - paying attention to a model's behavior and consequences.

2. Retention - retaining in memory a mental representation of what one had
observed.
3. Reproduction - having the ability to reproduce.
4. Motivation - having the inclination, based on one‘s assessment of the likely
payoff to reproduce the observed behavior.

On the whole, observational learning is so important because first, it extends

classical and operant conditioning to include not only direct experience but indirect, or
vicarious experience. We learn not only from experiencing classical and operant
conditioning ourselves but by observing the conditioning that others may experience.
Second, the traditional view of learning is that it does not occur unless one is reinforced.
In Bandura's view, reinforcement is essential to performance but not to learning. We may
learn, without being reinforced, simply ordinarily tends to weaken the behavior it
follows, punishment also provides a model of aggression. Thus, strengthened aggressive
behavior.

B.6 COGNITIVE MODELS OF CONDITIONING

Can learning be explained fully by the association or S-R theories? Are the S-R
theories not simplistic to explain the processes in human learning? These are two
questions that individuals often ask to find answers to question on learning.
The cognitive theory offers an alternative. Basically, this theory focuses on the
cognitive structures rather than on stimulus-response connections as the crucial actor in
learning. Two persons who contributed much to the growth of cognitive learning are
Wolfgang Kohler and Edward C. Tolman.
Human beings, especially have the power of looking into relationships involved in
a problem and in coming up with a solution. Just recall all times you had a problem and
although you tried to exhaust all means, the problem remained unsolved. Suddenly, some
new idea came to our mind, and you find it to be the solution to your problem. This is
called insight learning. To Kohler, insight involves a sudden restructuring or
reorganization of the organism's perceptual world into a new pattern or Gestalt.
Another cognitive model is that of Tolman, who came up for his sign learning
theory. In this theory, there is an acquired expectation that one stimulus will be followed
by another in a particular context. Expectations rather than responses are acquired.
Tolman insisted that humans do not simply respond to stimuli but rather act from
belief and attitudes. Behavior is, therefore, goal-oriented and defined by a purpose. It is
either going towards something or getting away from something.

TRANSFER OF LEARNING
Education is based on the assumption that learning can be transferred. This means
that the learning of one task has an effect on the learning of another.
Two kinds of learning transfer are possible. Positive transfer occurs when the
learning of one task facilitates the learning of another. This is so when learning
mathematics
enhances the learning of physics. Negative transfer occurs when prior learning detracts
from subsequent learning. For example, knowing how to play the piano may make
learning to play the organ more difficult. Likewise, prior learning of English may pose a
real problem in learning of English may pose a real problem in learning Filipino.

53
FACTORS THAT MAKE TRANSFER OF LEARNING POSSIBLE ARE AS
FOLLOWS:
1. Learning to learn- Learning to learn is emphasized in present-day schools and is
considered just as important as the acquisition of facts. One‘s ability to learn will help
him to keep on learning in various situations.
2. Mastery of principles - When principles are mastered, it will be easy to apply them to
new situations. The principles learned in radio repairing, if mastered, may easily facilitate
the learning of other tasks.

C. MEMORY
THE PROCESS OF MEMORY
To be able to transfer learning or use any information we have learned, we should
first be able to store it in our memory. Memory is defined as the totality of past
experience that can be remembered (Chaplin, 1973). Whatever has been learned cannot
be retrieved unless it is filled or stored in our memory, and the ease of retrieval when we
need it will depend on how the information has been stored. If we remembered nothing,
we would continually learn from scratch each new situation.
To understand how we remember and why we forget, we need to examine at the
process of memory. There are three basic human memory processes. They are: (1)
encoding, process of putting information, (2) storage, process of holding onto the
information, and (3) retrieval, process of getting the information back out.
C.1 ENCODING OF INFORMATION
Craik and Lockhart (1972) proposed three levels for encoding incoming
information, namely: structure, phonemic and semantic.
Below are some three-word sequence which illustrates the three levels of encoding
information.

(a) cat IN tree -This processing is semantic in which we immediately give the
meaning to the whole.
(b) cat BAR czar - This processing is phonemic in which the words sound alike
(.c) Can Cap Car - This processing is structural because the words look alike

From this theory, it is correct to say that most people remember the sequence in
semantic processing because the words in this sequence have greater meaning than other
two sequences. Semantic memory is an aspect of memory dealing with knowledge. It is
based on word meanings to arrange information into organized patterns. It refers to
organized knowledge we have about words and other verbal symbols, their meanings and
things to which they refer. Our recall depends on the way we organized the material to be
recalled.
A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that the retention of stimulus words
would increase the subjects moved from structural to phonemic to semantic encoding. It
was also hypothesized that processing time would be longest for structural encoding next
longest for phonemic encoding, and shortest for semantic encoding. Results of the study
regarding time to respond showed that the structural has the fastest response time; next
fastest response time in phonemic and slowest response time was semantic. However,
semantic has the greatest word retention, followed by phonemic and structural got the
lowest word retention. These results supported the hypothesis that a deeper level of
processing requires a longer time for processing but are better remembered.
To enrich encoding process, there are three techniques to do this. First, the
materials can be easily remembered through associations that aid recall. For example, the
words run fast cat is better remembered that the words work slow tree because the words
run fast cat allow us to make richer and elaborate associations among them than the three
other words. Second, the use of visual image and a system of places help us recall
immediately. For example, the word apple is easier to remember than the word prevails
because it is easier to form a visual image of the apple, thus allowing the storage of both
the word and image. Third, the self-referent encoding in which we are most likely to
remember information when it is relevant to ourselves.

54
C.2 STORAGE OF INFORMATION
TYPES OF MEMORY
Psychologists classify into three kinds:

1. SENSORY-INFORMATION STORAGE(SIS) Sensory memory allows for retention

of a large amount of information for a brief period of time. The retention for vision is less
than one second. For example, when you see a flash of lightning against a dark sky, your
eye receptors can hold the image for only one second. For other sense, such as hearing
and touch, it may last up to two seconds. In other words, sensory memory allows us to
retain almost in coming information long enough to allow further processing. Sensory
memory is a store for briefly retaining almost all incoming information. This is the
shortest type of memory.

2. SHORT-TERM MEMORY (STM) is a type that lasts longer than SIS but does not
last very long. The duration of STM is from a few seconds up to 20-30 seconds (Lugo
and Hershey, 1982). For example, dialing a telephone number and forgetting it after
dialing just the first number. In STM, only limited information can be stored there at
once. Though we can maintain the information in STM by continuous rehearsal, but
eventually distraction is inevitable. To increase stimuli in STM, we grouped separate bits
of' information to categories or larger chunks. There are seven chunks that can be held in
STM. For example, it is easier to store the telephone number 298- 1376 than the number
298137 because first number is divided into two chunks.
3. LONG-TERM MEMORY (LTM) is a type of information that we can store in our
brain for years and be able to retrieve when needed, without needing rehearsal. There are
two views regarding the durability of information in LTM. One is that no information is
ever lost, and the other is that some information is lost. Those who "favor" in "no-loss"
view explain forgetting as a failure of retrieval. The information is still there, we just
can't get it out. Information in the LTM that has many associations is most easily
remembered and more easily located when you pull it out for use.
Some researchers believe that there are at least two general kinds of long-term
memory storehouses. One kind of stores factual information and is called declarative
memory. The other stores information needed for actions and skills and is called
procedural memory.
It has also been hypothesized that the declarative memory can be subdivided into
semantic memory and episodic memory. Semantic memory is a kind of memory which
acts like an encyclopaedia, storing all the factual information you possess. Your
knowledge of the law of gravity is semantic memory, storing all your personal
experiences. Your memory of your last birthday is an episodic memory.
C.3 RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION
There are three methods that can be used in the retrieval of information from
long-term memory: retrieval cues, context cues, and schemas. For instance, in trying to
recall the name of a high school classmate, you get the feeling that his first name began
with an E and start saying names like Emmanuel, Edmund() and so on. You used
retrieval cues here to retrieve information. Likewise, you attempt to recall the high
school classmate by imagining the history class in which he sat next to you. This type of
retrieval is context cues. In schemas, you try to recall the name by remembering that this
person was on the swimming team and he won the first place in the 100 meter freestyle
race.
If you want to recall an earlier experience in as rich a detail as possible, try to put
yourself in the same, emotional state and mood. Since many of us used schemas to move
information in and out of long-term memory, it is not too surprising that retrieval
information may be altered by schema. This is the general idea behind the reconstructive
native of memory. While research evidence clearly shows that schemas do cause
alterations in memory, it is difficult to tell whether the alterations are caused by

55
reconstructural errors (while errors occur during the retrieval process) or constructive
errors (when errors occur during the encoding and storage process).
C.4. IMPROVING MEMORY
There is no doubt that student like you would want to improve your memory,
especially when preparing for exams. Strategies for enhancing memory include the
following:

1. Mnemonic device. These are memory tricks to aid memory. This strategy does not
employ visual imagery. This strategy is illustrated by the following examples:
a. International business machines is easily identified but its acronym IBM.
Knowing the first letters of the words that make up the name of the object helps in
recalling the words.
b. Most people can remember their one phone number because of extensive
overlearning. Frequent review firmly fixed the information in our brain.
c. It is wise to use ―tip of the tongue‖ occurrences when attempting to retrieve
information, thus taking advantage of retrieval cues.
d. Using the phrase ―My Very Excellent Mother Just Sell Nuts Under Protest‖ or
remember the names and positions of the planets illustrates the use of acrostic.
e. Juan dela Cruz studies much time, but he always breaks study periods. Juan
dela Cruz realizes the importance of distributed practice.
f. Since you are going to the store, your roommate asks you to bring her bar of
Ivory soap, a box of Kneenex, and a Kitkat chocolate bar. You then make up a
story that begins… ―On my way to the Ivory Coast to check on the latest
shipment of Kneenex." You are making use of narrative method as a mnemonic
device.

2. Chunking. As mentioned earlier, chunking is grouping items together which can be

remembered only as one bit of information. All you need to remember is the key word
retrieval cue that will trigger the other items of information each chunk. For example, a
shopping list of 12 items can be categorized into three chunks as vegetables, fruits, meats
to facilitate remembering.

D. FORGETTING
When there are lapses in memory, forgetting will occur. Forgetting is the temporary or
long-term of material that has been learned. It is the failure to retrieve information out of
memory. There are three theories of forgetting, each of which is presented below.
D.1. Trace Decay Theory of Forgetting. This theory holds that retrieval failure may be
due to impermanence of the memory storage itself. The best example of this theory is the
sensory store memory (SIS) and to a lesser extent in short term memory (STM). As you
have learned, SIS is very short lived. They are easily forgetting as soon as they are
replaced by a new sensory input, unless they are rehearsed and can be moved to LTM.
This is the oldest theory of forgetting when stated that memory traces decay when it is
not rehearsed, and once decay has occurred, memory ―dies out‖ and "fade away" STM
items also fades away when they are not moved to LTM.
To summarize in proactive interference, previously learned materials inhibit the
learning of new materials. Likewise, in retroactive interference, learning of new materials
inhibit previously learned materials.
Breakdowns in retrieval process can occur when the encoding specificity
principles is violated. We are able to retrieve materials if we have retrieval cues to remind
us of it. When we forget, it is because we lack the necessary cues or we violate encoding
specificity. For example, when one attempts to retrieve semantically coded word by using
phonemic cues.
Some breakdowns in retrieval process could be attributed to the individual's
purposeful suppression of information by unconscious forces. This is called motivated

56
forgetting in which people desire to remember only pleasant events and motivate
themselves to forget the unpleasant ones. This is psychological amnesia.
Amnesia (loss of memory) cases to head injury have provided clues about
physiological basis of memory. There are two basic types of head- injury amnesia: (1)
anterograde amnesia, in which memory after the brain injury is lost. (2) retrograde
amnesia, in which memory before the injury is lost.
In anterograde amnesia, the individual is unable to remember new information
for any length of time. The person cannot remember something that has been said to him
even if it was told to him only a few seconds before. In retrograde amnesia, events
immediately preceding the injury are forgotten. They may be because of the shock that
prevents the brain from transferring the items from STM to LTM.
E. CONDITIONS AFFECTING EFFECTIVE LEARNING
We will end this chapter by pointing out some conditions which affect effective learning.
(1) Motivation - Our motives want, interests, and attitudes at any given moment can
make our learning experience meaningful and worthwhile for us. We learn best when our
needs are meet. We also learn best when our needs, both physiological and psychological
have been met.
(2) Mental Set - Merely "reading a lesson‖ is not an efficient way to learn. To be
efficient, study must be purposeful and directed toward specific goals. Whatever it
is, the presence of a specific goal assures a mental set that is more conductive to learning.
With the active intent to learn, you are much more likely to more effectively than if you
merely give passive attention.

(3) Emotion - When involve in learning, emotions can facilitate or block

retention.
An act learned with satisfaction tends to be repeated (rehearsed),
and to store it in LTM. Conversely, what is learned with dissatisfaction
tends to be repeated, therefore, rapidly forgotten. The effectiveness
of learning is also affected by one‘s attitude forward what is being
learned.
(4) Rehearsal - After learning an item, rehearsal, or repeating what you have
learned
to yourself over and over again, is needed to store the item in long
term memory. Review is also an effective form of rehearsal.
Recitation is an important method of rehearsal. Practicing active
recitation to yourself is an independent study that can be an
effective way of fixing learning permanently. And if you follow
active recitation by regarding, it will give you a chance to correct
immediately any inaccuracies in your learning.
(5) Meaningfulness of Learning – Between non sense material and material that
makes sense to you, you will find it easier and remember material
that is meaningful.
(6) Degree of Learning – Interference with thoroughly learned materials is less
likely.
They are remembered better than partially learned materials. Well-
learned materials also interfere less with other learning,
retroactively or proactively, than do poorly learned materials.
When we continue to study after we have learned all required
materials, we are engaging in overlearning. Retention of
overlearned material is greater. The more overlearning the greater
the retention.
(7) Distributed and Massed Practiced – it is better to break up the learning time
into
several short periods. Gradual learning persists for a longer time.
When the material is easy and short, it is advantageous to learn the
entire sequence at one time. If your goal is permanent mastery of
meaningful material, distributed practice is your answer. However,
if your aim is merely to pass a test, you would do better with
massed practice before the test. This is probably why ―cramming‖
is popular among students. But remember that while it may allow
you to pass the test, it does not give you permanent mastery. You
need to ―cram‖ again for another test.

57
SUMMARY

Learning is defined as any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as

a result of practice and experience. A simple form of learning is classical conditioning in
which a conditioned stimulus paired several times with unconditioned stimulus now
evokes by the unconditioned stimulus. This is what is learned in classical conditioning.

Several theories if learning that attempt to explain how people learn were
discussed in this chapter. These theories were presented into two categories: (1) the
stimulus responses or association theories and (2
) cognitive or non-association theories. The association theories include Thorndike
connectionism, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning.

Classical and Operant conditioning are entirely different from each other.
Thorndike is known for his law of exercise and law of effect which are still widely used
in education. The law of effect states the S-R connections are strengthened by rewards.
Both classical and operant conditioning reinforces, which can be positive or negative.

Memory is essential to learning. If we remembered nothing, we would continually

learn from scratch in each new situation. There are three kinds of memory: SIS, STM,
and LTM. The memory of a specific event can be influenced by many factors operating
in each of the memory stores.

We can improve memory by chunking or by using mnemonic devices,

overlearning and frequent review. Breakdowns in the retrieval process can result to
forgetting. There are two theories of forgetting: the decay theory and the interference
theory.
IMPORTANT TERMS TO REMEMBER
To test your mastery of the material in this chapter is to see whether you know
what is meant by the following terms

learning memory classical conditioning

encoding process conditioned stimulus (CS) unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
average process conditioned response (CR) unconditioned response (UCR)
retrieval process short-term memory stimulus-information memory
raneous variable reinforcement extinction
punishment stimulus generalization operant conditioning
cognitive reinforces negative reinforcement shaping
mixed ratio (FR) variable ratio (VR) fixed interval (FI)
variable interval (VI) long- term memory rehearsal
overlearning chunking semantic memory
episode memory phonemic memory structural memory
emata retrieval cues forgetting
amnesia retroactive interference proactive interference

58
 CHAPTER 7
THINKING

INTRODUCTION
During most of our walking hours, and even when we are asleep and dreaming, we
are thinking. There is no single moment in our lives that we stop to think. As you read these
words, you are thinking, and even if you stop thinking about what you are reading, perhaps
as to what you are going to do tomorrow, you will still be thinking.
In this chapter, you will find out more of what goes on in people when they think,
and how language and concepts are involved in thinking.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Enumerate the basic elements of thinking.
2. Apply the steps of problem-solving method.
3. Characterize the thinking style of creative persons.
4. Use reasoning and problem-solving method in solving life‘s problem more
effectively.

A. MEANING AND NATURE OF THINKING

Thinking has been defined as the organization of ideas mediated by symbols,
language, and observation of events. More formally, we might say that thinking consists
of the cognitive rearrangement or manipulation of both information from the
environment and the symbols stored in long-term memory. From another viewpoint,
thinking is the form of information processing that goes on during the period between a
stimulus event and the response to it. Wrightaman (1979) considers thinking as a process
by which we use or manipulate representation symbols. He uses the term
―representational though‖ to describe the capacity for representing in the mind things
or events that are physically absent through the use of symbols, which maybe, words or
visual images.
In the dictionary, the meaning of the word ―think‖ is “to produce or form in the
mind.” As a noun, thinking is a “mental reaction or thought”. When we are thinking,
we form something in our minds, and we mentally process information. Marx (1979)
explains that when one is thinking, he is able to manipulate objects and events in the
absence of these objects and their response relationships. This is done through the
symbols that corresponds to them in mental processes such as images and words.
Images and words are symbols used in much of our thinking. Thinking is the
manipulation of the persistent thought processes in the form of symbols. (Bustos, et. al.,
1985)

B. ELEMENTS OF THINKING
Let us now deduce from the foregoing presentation of the nature of thinking the
basic elements of this process and analyze each one more clearly. What are the signs
that human being think?
1. IMAGES. In part, thinking consists of imagining and visualizing things. We
form images of situations. People very remarkably in how much they use the
image in their thinking. When we use images to think, they are not usually
complete “pictures in the head”. Most images represent only certain features of
past experiences. In general, images are abstractions of certain features of

59
 previous experiences. However, there are also images which are extremely
detailed in which they are referred to as “photographic memory”.

2. LANGUAGE. We used language in our thinking. For most of us, a good deal of
our thinking involves the use of word symbols and the rules of grammar to join
the words into phrases and sentences (Morgan, 1986). The words, their
meanings, and the rules for joining them together are stored in our semantic
long-term memories. When we think with language, we draw on this store of
information to use language as a tool of thought.

3. CONCEPTS. Concepts are important class of language symbols used in

thinking. A concept is a symbolic construction that represents some common
and general feature or attribute of objects. The term concept is a general idea that
results out of many experiences. Concepts are based on generalizations. For
example, the concept ―man‖ is generalized from a number of observations about
various kinds of men – the similarities of which are rational beings. The rational
quality is then generalized to all men. Because concepts are ways of classifying
the diverse elements about the world around us, they are fundamental steps in
higher forms of thinking. Without this kind of ordering, it would be impossible
for us to deal with the enormous amount of stimulations that surround us.
Concepts are convenient tools to use in thinking about the world and in solving
problems.

4. INNER SPEECH AND MOVEMENT. There are many observable changes in

the behavior of an individual when he is experiencing a thought process. People
make small movements of the vocal apparatus when they think and carry on their
thinking by talking to themselves. This lead psychologists to the idea that
thinking is an inner speech, a kind of ―talking to yourself under your breath‖.
John B. Watson (1978) believes that ―we think with our whole bodies‖. Inner
speech and movement are aids to understanding. They may not be essential and
necessary but they are helpful in thinking.

C. LEARNING CONCEPTS
We are not born with concepts, many of our concepts are required slowly and with
more effort. Discrimination learning plays a role in the formation of some concepts.
This type of learning occurs when some responses are rewarded, or reinforced, and
other responses are not rewarded. To illustrate, suppose a teacher says “flower” as she
holds a flower, her pupils will learn the word, and start to learn the concept. Repeated
showing and naming of a flower and being rewarded with a “Right” and saying
“flower” will enable pupils to learn the concept.
Another way of acquiring new concepts is by definition. You have learned
many concepts in this learning kit by having them defined for you. And of course the
use of dictionaries that will tell you what words and concepts mean. A definition helps
us acquire new concepts.
Third, by seeing examples of a concept in different context, we often learn the
different features of the concept. Even if we do not know the meaning of a word but see
or hear it used in different contexts, we usually develop a fairly accurate idea of its
meaning.
The following are factors that can affect concept formation (Sevilla, et. al.,
1997)
1. If a person is allowed to rearrange, redraw, or reorganize the materials
containing common properties, he is more likely to learn or discover the
appropriate concepts.
2. If a person is told to try to discover a common element, that is to search for the
concept, he does better than if were not given such directions.

60
 3. People usually learn faster if they have all the relevant information available at
the same time instead of being given only a slice of information at a time.
4. Anything that is done to make the common property of the concept stand out
aids concept attainment whatever obscures or embeds the concept in irrelevant
details retards it.
5. If a new concept appears to be similar to a known concept but it is also quite
different in some important respects, people may have trouble understanding it.
To capitalize on transfer, the teacher must point out both the similarities and
the differences between related concepts.

D. PROBLEM SOLVING
Problem-solving is an important kind of thinking. What is a problem? In
general, it is any conflict or difference between one situation and another situation we
wish to produce our goal. Here, the person feels difficult because of the conflicting
situation that hinders him to achieve his goal. This requires thinking to solve the
problem. The thinking that we do in problem solving goal-direction in which we will
try to think our way toward the goal that we wishes to attain.
In everyday life, there are situations that require problem solving. If you were
in such a problem situation, what would you do? There steps that we go through in
solving our problems. Bustos et. al., (1985) enumerates the four major steps in problem
solving.
1. Define the problem. Try to figure out what the problem really is, analyze the
circumstantial background in which the problem arose.
2. Formulate hypothesis. After you have an insight of the problem search for the
underlying sources of the problem and formulate educated guesses or hypothesis.
3. Data gathering. Verify hypothesis by data gathering procedures. Test the idea to
see if it really works. If it does not, start all over again or look for a better solution
to the problem.
4. Problem-solution. The solution to the problem is produced at this stage. You have
gained a novel solution through thinking.
Problem-solving therefore, is an integrated practical application of a
number of thinking process. The following are individual factors that influence
success in problem-solving:
1. Intelligence. The brighter the person is, the better he is at solving
problems. Children of low IQ experienced more failure and inefficient problem
solving than children of higher IQ.
2. Motivation. Curiosity motives and related motives to explore and
manipulate get people into problems and often they become interested in solving
them.
3. Set. The way are used to doing things (habits) produces readiness (set) on
their part to go about a new problem in a particular way or style.
4. Functional fixedness. Our habits and set can predispose to select
appropriate or inappropriate strategies or approaches to a problem. Functional
fixedness is the inability to see new uses or applications of an object which could
hinder the progress in solving problems.

E. DECISION MAKING
Decision making is a kind of problem solving in which we are presented with
several alternatives, among which we must choose. One idea about decision making, is
that people use subjective probability estimates of the likehoods of various outcomes in
an effort to maximize utility (perceived benefit) in making their decisions. Different
people assign different utilities to the same event. The psychological worth of an
outcome varies among people. For instance, given a choice between receiving P100,000
now or P1,000,000, but a person would probably take the immediate P100,000. The
utility of the P100,000 is different for the two people.

61
 Most decisions are risky in the sense that we cannot be sure of the outcome. For
example, in “Pera o Bayong” in MTB show at ABS-CBN, the contestant is not sure
which will be and must take knowledge about the probability of the outcome into
account when making a decision which to take - “Pera o Bayong”. In making complex
real life decisions, we do not know the precise likehoods of various outcomes; we can
only make our own estimates of the probabilities. Given a choice among alternatives, we
take utility and subjective probability into account, multiply them together, and take the
alternative with the highest product.
Weighing alternatives is an important part of many decisions. The decision
maker first makes a list of desired attributes and then gives weights to each of these
attributes on the basis of their perceived benefit, of each attribute and multiplies this by
its weight to get an overall value for all the attribute. Finally, the overall values of the
attributes are summed to give a single weighted value or utility, for each alternative
involved in the decision.

F. CREATIVE THINKING
This is a king of thinking in which the thinker is trying to create something “new
under the sun”. Unlike ordinary solutions to problems, creative thinkers sought
solutions that other people have not thought of before. Creative thinkers invent new
ways of studying nature and new theories to tie the discoveries together. The product of
creative thinking is a new and unique way of conceptualizing the world around us. The
emphasis in creative thinking is on the word new.
In creative thinking, something new is sought. Some new ideas seem to come
suddenly after little progress has been made over a long period of time. This sudden
appearance of new ideas is called insight. Insights are sometimes triggered by lucky,
environmental circumstances which, after creative thinker have immersed themselves
in a problem, direct their thoughts in a new direction. A number of creative people
report that after conscious thought has failed them, insight suddenly appears when they
are doing something completely unrelated to the problem. However, insights do not
really appear of out nowhere. They blossom in fields which have been thoroughly
prepared by study of the various aspects of a problem. They require testing to see if
they really do represent new solutions to problems, -- and this leads us to a discussion
of the stages in creative thinking.

G. STAGES in CREATIVE THINKING

Creative thinking is said to proceed in five stages namely: as presented by

Morgan (1977);
1. Preparation. The thinker formulates the problem and collects the facts and
materials considered necessary for the new solution. Very frequently, the creative
thinker finds that the problem cannot be solved after days, weeks, or months of
concentrated effort.
2. Incubation. During this period, the creative thinker may have experiences that
provide clues to the solution. The conscious thought processes involve in creative
thinking are also at work during this period. Some of the creative thinker‘s ideas
may also fade away as he learns other things.
3. Illumination. The solution to different problems comes very suddenly at this stage,
almost by a magic. The thinker has an “aha” insight experience – a sudden and
completely new idea for a solution. At this point, an idea for solution suddenly
wells up into consciousness.
4. Evaluation. Here, the apparent solution is tested to see if it satisfactorily solves the
problem. Frequently, the insight turns out to be unsatisfactorily, and the thinker is
back at the beginning of the creative process.

62
 5. Revision. At this stage the insight is generally satisfactory but needs some
modification to be really a ―good‖ new idea. The creative thinker revises or refines
his work.

H. CHARACTERISTICS of CREATIVE THINKING

Psychologists identify the following as characteristics of creative people:

1. Creative people are usually intelligent, processing an IQ 120 or above average. They
often have a special talent, in music, arts, mathematics, etc. and other abilities that
they can use in their search for new ideas.
2. They are generally strongly motivated to solve the problems that interest them. They
pursue their intention with strong will and a great deal of energy.
3. They prefer complexity and some degree of apparent inbalance in phenomena. They
prefer instructured complex experiences which others have not yet explored. In this
way, he is able to develop original ideas.
4. They are more complex psychodynamically and have greater personal scope. They
tend to be flexible and they vary in ways they approach problems.
5. They are more independent in their judgements. Creative people tend to ignore
opinion of a group if their own opinion differs from them.
6. They are more self-assertive and dominant. Creative people are impulsive who take
chances. They are more free and less restricted than non-creative people.
7. They have sense of humor. They enjoy creating jokes, ridiculous situations, or
illogical situations. They do not judge situation in jokes in a logical way but an
imaginative way.

63
 CHAPTER 8
MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

INTRODUCTION
Motivation underlies and of behavior. There is no behavior that sis motivated,
whether consciously or unconsciously, internally and externally. In everything that we
do, there is always a reason behind it. Why do we eat? Why do we sleep? Why do we
aspire for a higher educational degree? These questions and many more can be answered
by trying to understand motivation and guide you in your understanding of urges, wants,
needs, desires and motives.
Part II of this chapter discusses an emotion. Most of the affairs or everyday lives
are tinged with feeling and emotion. We often experience different kinds of emotions in
the course of a day. In this chapter, we will look at several of these facts of emotions. We
often experience different kinds of emotion in the course of the day. In this chapter, we
will look at several of these facts of emotion.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Understand the nature and meaning of motivation.
2. Identify and discuss the different classes of motives.
3. Rank motives according to the hierarchy of motives.
4. Appreciates the significance of motivation to everyday living.
5. Understand the nature of emotions.
6. Explain the three importance aspects of emotion.
7. Discuss the positive and negative effects of intense emotions on the personality.
8. Recognize the need for proper emotional control.

PART I – MOTIVATION
A. MEANING OF MOTIVATION
Before going any further, it would do well to know the meaning of certain terms
prerequisite to an understanding of motivation. A need is a state or condition which
indicates the lack of something vital or desired which the organism will strive to obtain.
A want indicates an existing attain goal which will reduce or eliminate an existing need,
or relieve the organism of an unpleasant condition. The drive to improve one‘s social
status is an example. A goal is an object or situation toward which motivated behavior is
directed because it can satisfy a need. A motive is a thought, feeling, or condition which
arouses, maintains and directs behavior toward a goal. Motive is an internal condition
that makes us want for something. It is within us. We do not see our motives but we can
infer its presence from the behavior that we observed. They are powerful tools for the
explanation of behavior.
Motivation has been referred to as the ―why‖ of behavior. Why do we drink?
Why do we sleep? Why do we take pain relievers? Motivation is the study of factors that
caused behavior. It involves the proper balance in our metabolic processes, amount of
oxygen in our body cells especially in the brain, temperature of the body, amount of
sugar in the blood, amount of water in the body tissues, etc.
When water level in the cells runs slow, we say that the body is in a state of need.
We want water, and this will instigate tension and restlessness. The need for water will be
communicated to the brain and the brain will send messages to the muscles so as to
activate a drive. Seeking behavior toward a goal will start. This behavior will continue
until the goal is attained and the need has been satisfied. Satisfaction of the need will
eliminate the drive and restore homeostasis, that is, until the next need arises and another
cycle begins.

64
 To summarize the motivational cycle starts with (1) some motivating state that
compels the person toward the goal, (2) instrumental behavior is displayed in striving for
the goal, (3) realization or achievement of the goal, (4) the motive subsides at least,
temporarily.
B. PRINCIPLES OF MOTIVATION
In order to illustrate how motives operate in our lives, let us examine certain
principles of motivation.
1. Many of our motives and manner in which we satisfy them are learned. We
are not born with the desire to be successful in school, we learn them! How are
motives? It is a general principle in psychology that a behavior that is rewarding is
followed by reinforcement tends to be repeated by the person, while behavior that
is not rewarded will be stop gradually. Thus, a person who comes from a family
that encourages children too well in everything they do will develop a need for
achievement. Also our motives can be learned simply because our society
encourage and rewards them.

2. Our motives are not always conscious. There are times we may say or do a thing
that puzzles us. You have probably asked yourself this question “what made me
say that?” In cases like this, motivated by needs we are unaware of. We usually
represent those motives that pose a threat to ourselves and self-concept, and we
often hide the, in our self awareness or consciousness so that we would not feel
uncomfortable

3. Our motives do change. What we want is more everything. We always desire

better and better for ourselves. As our basic needs are satisfied, other needs appear.
First, we are motivated to seek a job for support, but after getting the job, we
develop the need for security of the job, then the motive to be promoted and
others.

4. Motives can create new values and behavior patterns. You have different and
complex motives but if we combine them together, will form the basis for certain
behavior. For example, your motive for going to school is to satisfy your parents,
to make money in the future and to increase feelings of being worthwhile, Because
of these motives, some changes in your behavior must be instituted and done, to
fulfill, by being self-discipline in order to graduate, by being thrifty to support
your studies or developing the value of education as a means of brighter future.

5. Motivated behavior is instigated. The sequence of behavior can be set by a

deficit within the organism such as lack of water. It may also set off by lack of
food, lack of money, etc. A motives defines the condition under which a behavior
as aroused. Generally, the lack or need of something instigates a motivated
behavior.

6. Motivated behavior is directional. A setting of a behavior needs the organism

toward or way from something. A motive directs behavior toward or way from the
goal. Motives lead, guide regulate behavior toward a direction that satisfies the
motive.

7. Motivated behavior is selective. Based on his past experiences, the motivated

person learned to select that which he perceives in his environment as necessary to
fill his needs or wishes. For example, in buying a gift for a guest speaker, the head
of the gifts committee is prompted to buy her favorite gift or buy it from her
―suki” or from a reputable store.

65
 8. Motivated behavior is satiable. Satiation or satisfaction is reached when a goal,
want is achieved. A well-fed infant stops crying after it has been given milk. Its
condition is changed from restlessness to sleep or any manifestation of comfort.
Satiation of psychological motives occurs when psychological motives come to
play. For instance, some acquisitive persons seem never satisfied with what they
have acquired and they keep on acquiring more.

C. CLASSIFICATION OF MOTIVES
Many have ventured to classify motives, but it seems that motives are commonly
classified into three groups, namely:
1. Physiological or Biological or Primary Motives
These are those which arise from the needs of body tissues and are innately
determined. The physiological motives are also referred to as basic, primary and
unlearned motives. Their origin is the physiological change in the body, such as
departures from the homeostatic level of body processes.
Example: Need for air, water, food, clothing, shelter, sleep, relaxation, relief from
pain, elimination drives.
2. Psychological or Secondary Motives
These are those which arise from our relationship with others. These motives are also
referred to as acquired and learned. They are also called social motives because they
are learned from social groups.
Example: need for affiliation, approval, achievement, power, self-esteem, self-
expression, success, prestige, belongingness.
3. Motives which are either primary or secondary
These motives are in part, based on physiological conditions, but its satisfaction
involves other people in the social context. Sex is both biological and psychological
motive. Sex is different from biological drives because it is under influence of
sensory information from environment. It has a physiological basis but its satisfaction
is socially controlled.
D. FUNCTION OF MOTIVES
The following are the important functions motives play in human behavior.
1. Activates the individual into action. Once a motive is aroused, a state of
restlessness and tension is felt. Motives serve to compel the organism into a stage
of readiness which otherwise would not be present if no motive were present.
2. Lead, guides and regulates behavior towards an incentive so that action is
directed towards a goal. While randomly, action may take place on a hit-and-
miss, trail-and-error method, motives consistently lead toward an incentive. At
any rate, motives serve as a directional purpose.
3. Determines which responses will satisfy the needs and lead to the incentive.
Responses will then be selectively regulated so that only those that satisfy may
reinforced.

E. HIERARCHY OF MOTIVES
How could we evaluate motives as their order of general importance? What
criteria would be the basis of the ranking? Abraham Maslow tried to rank on the criterion
of survival and came up with this well-known three step hierarchy of motives. According
to him, the satisfaction of the basic motives or fundamental needs takes priority over all
others. These motives are related to physiological needs, like safety needs,
belongingness, self aspect, power, achievement. After all these have been met, we shall
be able to strive towards the highest form of motives – the self actualization. Self-

66
actualization is the desire to make best of yourself, to become what you are capable of
becoming.
Hence, the theory of Maslow assumes a hierarchy of motives ascending from the
basic biological motives to a more complex psychological motive that become important
only after the more basic needs have been satisfied. Hence, human needs and motives can
be arranged in a hierarchy ranging from the most necessary requirements for a survival at
the bottom to the most profound expressions of the human potential at the top which is
self-actualization.
MASLOW‘S HIERARCHY OF MOTIVES DIAGRAM
SELF-ACTUALIZATION

ESTEEM NEEDS
Needs to accomplish and to achieve, feeling of competence and self-respect
BELONGINGNESS AND LOVE
Intimacy, need to give and receive affection and love
SAFETY NEEDS
Security, Order, Stability
BIOLOGICAL NEEDS
Air, Water, Food, Clothing, Shelter, Sleep, Rest, Sex

1. Biological Needs – according to Maslow, these are the lowest form of motivation
derived from psychological needs. All other motives spring from these. Because
these needs are easily satisfied most of the time, they are not particularly
important to adults except in case of extreme poverty.
2. Safety Needs – Human beings want to feel safe from danger like predators,
extreme temperature, criminals, and the like. These motives are more important in
children because their sense of security is related to an environment that is orderly
and predictable.
3. Love and Affiliation – Motives for love emerged when biological and safety
motives are satisfied. A person wants to get along well with others. He needs to
affiliate with friends and groups; he needs for acceptance and approval from
officemates and colleagues, and need to feel that he belong to a group
4. Self-esteem – People will learn skill or engage in a profession and other
behaviors that will elicit praise from others and a feeling of self-respect to satisfy
their needs to form a stable self-image.
5. Self-actualization – is defined as having become everything that is one capable
of becoming. Hurlock (1997) calls its self-realization – an urge to do what one is
fitted to do, the urge to become the person, both physically and psychologically,
that one wants to be. This is the highest form of motivation. As need of self-
actualization is satisfied, the individual experiences a sense of fulfillment; he is
consistent to his achievements. Self-actualizers are healthy individuals who differ
significantly both qualitatively and quantitatively from the average.

PART II – EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR

A. THE NATURE OF EMOTION
The ordinary person thinks he knows what emotion is. He does not doubt what is
meant by fear, elation, and grief. But if we were to analyze emotions, we would realize
that it is not easy task in view of the complexity of human emotions. Psychologists have
found it difficult to come to any agreement on what emotion really is. Various theories or
view point have been developed and proposed by different psychologist; still not one of
these theories is comprehensive enough to explain all aspects of emotion.

67
 Psychologists consider emotion as a response of the entire organisms to a
stimulus. It is viewed not as single entity but as combined reaction of a person, involving
physiological changes, observable changes in behavior, and subjective experiences. Thus,
emotion has been generally defined as ―a complex or stirred-up state of the human
being, reflected both in external and internal bodily changes.‖
B. ASPECTS OF EMOTION
The measure and identify emotional reactions, studies in psychology have
subjected its important aspects to analysis and investigation namely: (1) physiological
change, (2) observable behavioral changes, and (3) subjective experiences.
1. Physiological changes in emotion.
Physiological are significant part of any emotional reaction. An
emotionally upset individual is aroused all over and various reactions occur
throughout his body. Changes in the conditions of the internal organs, blood,
chemistry, and brain waves result from the interaction of the receptors, muscles,
and nervous mechanism.
2. Observable changes in behavior.
Most of us manifest our emotional arousal through behavior such as facial
expression, vocal expressions, and bodily movements. When we observe
emotions in other people, we usually pay more attention to the facial expressions
and vocal expressions. Oftentimes we are able to tell whether a person is angry,
afraid, sad, or happy by the expression of his face and the tine of his voice.
Smiling and laughing, for instance. Most often indicate joy while crying
indicates sorrow or anger.

3. Subjective experiences in emotions.

When a person gets emotionally aroused, the most obvious aspect of his
emotions is the feeling that he experiences. He may say he feels happy, elated,
afraid, sad, or excited. Such as experience is a subjective event which only the
person who is experiencing the emotion can report on it. In psychology, these
emotional feelings are referred to as the effective states pleasant or unpleasant
dimension.
C. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES IN EMOTION
A number of bodily reactions accompany emotional states. During emotional
arousal in an organism, physiological changes take place resulting from activation of the
sympathetic division of the nervous system as it prepares the body for an emergency
action. Physiological changes are significant part of any emotional reactions. An
emotional upset individual is aroused all over and various reactions occur throughout his
body. The following are the physiological changes that accompany emotional arousal.
1. Galvanic Skin Response – whenever emotions are aroused, electrical changes
take a place in the skin. These can be detected by a galvanometer. The galvanic
response is a sensitive indicator of changes in emotional state.
2. Blood Pressure And Volume – there are changes in blood pressure and changes
in the distribution of the blood between the surface and the interior of the body.
There is blushing in the embarrassment, or a flushed face and neck. Blood
pressure is measured by sphygmomanometer.
3. Heart Rate – the rate is accelerated. This acceleration is a common familiar
experience which can be measured by electrocardiograph (ECG).
4. Respiration – There is an increased breathing rate and very irregular breathing
gasping for breath and sighing are kinds of changes during an emotional
excitement such a respiratory change occur in a variety of ways. At times
breathing may speed up or at the times slow down. Sometimes it becomes shallow
and at other times, deep. In measuring respiratory changes during emotion, I/E

68
 ratio has been used to measure. This indicates the ratio between the time taken to
inhale and exhale.
5. Pupillary Response – the pupil of the eye tends to dilate during an emotional
excitement, the eyelids are raised and the eyeballs protrude.
6. Salivary Secretion – Emotional excitement produces a drying or rather dryness
of the mouth as there is a decrease in saliva or a change in its consistency.
7. Gastrointestinal Motility – The moment of the stomach and intestines are
affected by the strong emotion, Nausea, constipation or diarrhea may be the effect
of emotional excitement.
8. Blood Composition – during an emotional state, the activities of these adrenal
glands greatly influence our physiological responses. The hormones secreted by
the adrenal glands cause a rise in heart action and cause the liver to release
glycogen. As soon as the glycogen enters the blood stream, it is converted into
sugar and taken into different part of the body, especially the skeletal muscles.
This explains the unusual strength the person has, as in lifting very heavy objects
during emergency.
9. Muscle Tension and Tremor – tremor accompany tense muscle.
10. Pilometers Response – in a certain emotional upsets, the muscle at the base of
our hair contract, making the hair on the skin stand on the end and cause goose
pimples or goose flesh. Goose pimples appear and sometimes give a creepy
feeling.

D. EMOTION AND HEALTH

Our emotions, if properly directed and expressed, will motivate us to action and
give us enjoyment, strength, and endurance. Emotions, particularly the intense ones a
fear, anger and love energize or motivate behavior. It has been stated that when we
derived satisfaction from an activity, we are motivated to avoid the activity. The
emotional component of the behavior acts as reinforcement for the behavior and causes
either its repetition or inhibition.
PLEASANT EMOTIONS as love, joy and happiness are sources of pleasure and
enjoyment, as such; they sustain and contribute to our emotional, as well as physical
health. Emotions also enable us to perform our activities at top speed with maximum
strength and vigor because of the stored energy released during strong emotion. Such
strength and endurance sustain us in our activities for longer period without developing
fatigue easily and allow us to perform temporary “feats of strength”.
UNPLEASANT EMOTIONS, on the other hand, can have negative effects on
our health, efficiency, and personality. Frequent are prolonged experiences of the strong
emotions as anger, fear, jealousy, anxiety and worriedly to alteration of normal bodily
functioning. It can result a loss of appetite restlessness, sleeplessness, headaches and
diarrhea. In the long run, there will general wear and tear of the heart and arteries and the
adrenals and other organs will be injured.
INTENSE EMOTIONS can also have inhibiting effects on our thought
processes as thinking, remembering, reasoning and learning. Under strong emotions, we
may be tend to be. They can be so disturbing that we may be unable to concentrate on the
activity at hand.
Unpleasant emotions as anger, fear, worry, and anxiety if repeated often enough,
lead to the development of undesirable emotional habits and patterns which in due time
will sink into our consciousness and influence our future behavior.
Prolonged emotional strain can cause us also to develop undesirable traits and
make our personalities negative, unattractive and unwholesome. Constant fear, anger,
worry, and anxiety create an unhealthy atmosphere for us, thereby affecting our
relationship with others.

69
 EMOTIONAL CONTROL, as pointed out in the preceding section, emotions
have their positive and negative effects. Since emotions are normal experiences in our
everyday lives, we have everything to gain by them is we can experiences them without
serious consequences to ourselves and to others. What we only need is emotional control.
What is emotional control? Emotional control does not mean inhibition or
repression of our emotions. Rather, it means directing and managing emotional
experiences such that they will not have negative consequences. Emotional control calls
for deliberate efforts on our parts to overcome disruptive emotions through redirection
and modification. Achieving emotional control is one indication of emotional maturity.
To achieve emotional control, Guilforf (1964) gives the following suggestions
1. Avoid emotion-provoking situations.
2. Change the emotion-provoking situations.
3. Increases skills for coping with the situations.
4. Re-interpret the situations.
5. Keep working toward your goal.
6. Find substitute outlets.
7. Develop a sense of humor.

70
 CHAPTER 9
PERSONALITY

INTRODUCTION
Perhaps the term "personality" is not new to you since it is often used in everyday
situations. However, these everyday uses of the term are quite different from the meaning
psychologists to the term personality.
Personality is one of the most difficult concepts in psychology. The layman
understands this term to bodily posture, manner of or others use this term to refer to
public figures, as in a "major televisions personality". But, is this the right meaning of the
term?
This chapter will present a discussion of the nature of personality in the context of
existing theories that attempt to explain its nature.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
l. construct our own definition of personality
2. enumerate and explain each of the elements of personality
3. describe some important features of its development
4.familiarize with the different theories used by psychologists in viewing personality

A. THE MEANING OF PERSONALITY

No single definition of personality is acceptable all psychologists. Definitions of

personality vary from one theorist to the next, but most agree that "it consists of distinctive
patterns of behaviour that characterize a person's adaption to the situations of his or her
life". Hilgard (1979) defines personality as the arrangement or configuration of individual
characteristics and ways of behaving that determine one's unique adjustment to his
environment.
To psychologists, "personality" refers to the total person. It is the expression of what
you are and what you do. It is the core of each individual, the product of all the responses
that are expressed in everyday living — in the home, the school, the office, in the street,
etc. It includes the things that you say as well as think in the many different situations
that you as those psychological factors that determines one's characteristic behaviour. This
totality is so arranged in an individual that sets him apart from the rest.
Expressed another way, personality is the reflection or interpretation of your inner self
to other people. It is the impression you make on other people. For this point of view, you
are like an actor on a stage before an audience that will inevitably evaluate your
performance. Personality is the "mask" which you present to the world. These attitudes
of others toward us become an essential part of our own personalities. Personality then, is
"the individual 's interpretation of himself as expressed in his behaviour". His behaviour
causes others to respond to him favourably or unfavourably.
Personality is the embodiment of feelings and behaviour which make man the unique
that he is (Avelino and Sanchez, 1996). Sewey and humber 1996 define personality as the

71
way an individual is interrelated through his ideas, actions and attitudes with the many
nonhuman of his environment, and his biological heritage.
Personality has been defined also as the "overall pattern or integration of a person's
structures, modes of behaviour, attitudes and, aptitudes, interests, intellectual abilities, and
many other distinguishable personality traits (Avelino and Sanchez, 1996). Personality is
the conglomeration of the individual's overt and covert behaviour. It includes the many
factors of his being, his physical self, character traits, habits, moral values, principles and
philosophies of life. Despite the many aspects of personality, it is essentially unitary.
Finally, personality refers to the qualities within a distinctive Patterns of behaviour
that characterize each individuals unique adaption to the situations in his life.
Personality are the behavior patterns a person shows across situations or the
psychologicalcharacteristics Of the person that led to those behavior patterns.

B. ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY
In any description of a person, the details, features, traits, and patterns of behavior
that characterize him fall into certain broad spheres may be identified separately as
physical, emotional and social. These four, plus the person's over-all value system,
constitute elements of personality. Let us briefly identify each element.
Posture, body build and size, complexion and facial expression, as well as the
appropriateness and condition or clothes,comprise the physical appearance of the person.
How the person talks, the range of ideas he expresses, and the things he talks about,
as well as his values and mental alertness give evidence of his intellectual capacity.
A person's emotional make-up is shown by his likes and dislikes, whether he is
aggressive or docile, how he responds when things become difficult, whether he is
usually calm and self-reliant, how quickly he is given to anger, whether he can take a
joke, what kind of a sense of humor he possess, and the like.
Another sphere of the personality deals with social qualities — how well the person
conducts himself with other people, and how well he observes the rules of etiquette
that govern society.
The values system is the person's attitudes toward life, his moral principles, his
beliefs. Each person's philosophy of life and his value are the result of meaningful and
satisfying learning experiences from which inner feelings and beliefs develop.
The five-old classification, however, should not lead you to assume that personality
can be divided into exact pieces, like a pie. Although separate aspects of an individual's
behavior are distinguishable, it is his total behavior which is evaluated as his personality.

C. DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY
When you observed that your friend is irritable in most times, that he is highly
sensitive, and he shows a great amount of perfection in his behavior, what you can do
probably is to study how he developed his personality. The following are some of the
factors that have been instrumental in the development of our personality.
l. The Role of Heredity. It is often said that an individual is just like his father, his
mother, his brother, or his sister. Is has been observed that infants differ from one another
at birth in physique, in health, and in behavior. Some infants, for instance, are more
restless, active, and irritable than others. Such differences indicate that heredity plays an
important role in personality development. Physique and physical development. Persons
who claim to have been sickly as children are frequently more emotional and less

72
confident than average. It can be said that heredity has been influential in the
development of personality characteristics, though their influence is not direct.
2. Inherited Predisposition. This means that we are predisposed to develop certain
characteristics through heredity These predispositions are not set or fixed but which are
only tendencies. For example, if one's parents have strong personalities, one is more
predisposed to develop also strong personalities. Another example, we don't inherit
shyness, but being sickly that limits our physical activities, predisposed us to develop
feelings of personal inadequacy, and is more likely shy, sensitive.
3. Intelligence. Intellectual ability may influence the type and quality of adjustment of
which an individual is capable. Children of inferior intelligence, for example, are
frequently over- sensitive, self-conscious, stubborn, sulky, or domineering It may be
supposed that such children find it difficult to compete with others of their age groups in
many ways and that their behavior and their attitudes toward themselves are influenced as
a result of this.
4. Family and Home Environment. These Play a most vital role in development.One's
early associations are in the home. As the individual matures, the influence of the family
group in emotional responses, beliefs, morals, social interrelations, attractiveness,
outlook, religious affiliations etc. cannot be overemphasized.
6. The Role of Learning. Personality characteristics develop in relation to the
experiences of the individual in the social and physical world. As the individual meets the
situations of life and reacts to them, he finds that certain modes Of behavior give him
satisfaction. Faced again with similar situations, the person employs the same type of
behavior leading to development of habits Habits of dress, of manner, of speech, of
cleanliness, or orderliness come to form important elements in the personality of an
individual.
6. Culture. The set-up of families is shaped by culture. This is the mold which the family
consciously or unconsciously fits the Personality of the child. It is transmitted through
language, mores, and traditions, beliefs, of groups or individuals. The culture of a place is
as different as the people that comprise it. The cultural patterns of the Americans are
different from that of the Filipinos because of geographical boundaries, climate and
practices. The personality of a Filipino who goes abroad would be different from those of
the Americans but after quite a time, the Filipino may learn to adopt the ways and beliefs
of the people there and these in a way, alter his personality.

D. THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

The field of personality attempts to specify what a has been, what he is at present,
and what he might become. This calls for a formulation if a total personality theory.
Which can be used to compare it with what an individual may know about himself and
other people in his life.
A personality theory is an attempt to explain the observable continuities in a
person‘s behavior despite the great complexity and even contradictions in the behavior.
Personality theorists deal with the problem: Why do people do the things they do?
Personality psychologists attempt to pursue systematic theories about human behavior in
order to (l) explain why people differ from one another in many ways, (2) explain how the
observable differences among people come about, (3) explore how people conduct their
lives, and (4) how people can improved their lives.

73
 Let us now proceed to the examination of leading personality theories:
D. 1 INTERNAL THEORIES

a. Type and Trait theories of Personality. These theories involve a search for separate
components of personality and for the ways those components fit together to form a
personality student. These theories focus on people's personal characteristics. They
postulate that human subjects can be profitably classified into smaller number of classes
or types. A type is simply a class of individuals said to share a common collection of
characteristics. Examples of type theories are:

l. Theory of Body Types by William Sheldon. This theory relates personality with
bodily constitution, health and vigor. The names are derived from the names of the cell
layers of the embryo where different bodily tissues originate.
a. Endomorphic Components. This means prominence of intestines and visceral organs,
and fats are in proportion to height. Individuals under this type are classified
temperamentally as visceratonic. Such persons seek comfort, love find food and eat too
much. They are sociable and are greatly interested in seeking affection.
b. Mesomorphic Components. These refer to bones and muscles. This individual is
strong, tough and athletic. He is well built and proportionate.
Temperamentally, he is somatotonia. Such persons are energetic. They like exercise
and are direct in manners. They tend to be aggressive and self-assertive.
c. Ectomorphic Component. The individual tends to be long, thin and poorly developed.
He is generally weak physically.
Temperamentally, he is cerebratonic. Such persons are characterized by excessive
restraint, inhibition and avoidance of social contacts.

2. Theory based on Body Band and Strength by Kretchmer. An individual may be

classified under any of the following types:
a. Asthenic type of individuals are those who are thin' tall and emancipated. They took
very sickly and weak. They want to be alone maybe because of frailty They tend to cough
and show signs of other physically illness.
b. Pyknic type is the opposite of asthnic. Such type of individuals can be called "human
ball" because of their short stature and round solid body A pyknic person never walks but
waddles like a duck or rolls like a ball.
c. Athletic type is between the asthenic and the pyknic types who are extreme in body
build. This individual is strong and robust, and has the stamina or real hard work. He has
a good body build which is wiry. He is a picture or good health and his personality is
often the object of envy.
d. Dysplastic type are those persons who can't be classified among the three types

3. Theory based on Body Chemistry by Hippocrates

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, theorized that there are four basic types of
temperaments based on body fluids such as: too much blood made a sanguine (lively); an
excess of yellow bile resulted in a choleric (active); black bile made a melancholy
(sensitive); and a surplus of phlegm made a phlegmatic (stable). An understanding of

74
these four categories could help relate ourselves with the members of the group at home,
at work place or in all social contacts we make from time to time.

THE SANGUINE (LIVELY)

Strengths
The sanguine is fun-living happy nature and optimistic. When he enters the room he
lifts everybody's spirit. He is a good story teller and can easily create a circle of friends.
His personality type is a warm, and outgoing with natural charisma. He is gregarious and
has the genuine love for people.
Weaknesses
The sanguine has naiveness, spontaneous, enthusiasm and - is insensitive to the
feelings of others. He speaks before thinking so that usually gets over the rough spots
created his blustery and - nature. He is not wel organized, and is subject to financial
problems. He is good at starting projects than completing them. Restless and lacking
discipline, he tends to procrastinate and is sometimes weak — He is inclined to interrupt
when others are talking because he is more gifted in talking than in listening.

THE CHLORIC (ACTIVE)

Strengths
The choleric is a born leader, and can either be a good executive, a general or a
dictator. He is strong-willed, opiniated, practical and decisive. Having dogged
determination, he does not easily get discouraged. He is goal-oriented. He takes a firm
stand stand on issues and is assertive, independent and self-sufficient. He makes split-
second decisions and is optimistc, that sometimes he does not see the pitfalls and
potential problems.
Weaknesses
The choleric appears inconsiderable to the feelings and and rights of others in pursuit
of his goals. He is an opportunist and often uses people so further his own interest. He is
argumentative and ulcer-prone. He gives advice not asked for, and is sometimes abrasive.
He can be vengeful and inclined to carry grudges. He is the most difficult to convince
because of his self-sufficiency. He lacks sympathy and compassion.

THE MELANCHOLY (SENSITIVE)

The melancholy is gifted, self-sacrificing with a sensitive and emotional nature. He
is analytical and usually appreciative of fine arts. To him feelings predominate, therefore
, he experiences a variety of moods. He is sensitive to the world's suffering and pain. He
is
compassionate, but easily gets hurt. He is dependable and greatly values friendship with
extreme loyalty. He is highly organized, precise and exacting, but tends to have
unrealistic perfectionist expectations.
Weaknesses
The melancholy is born worrier and thinks longer before making decisions. He
analyzes himself and other too much, and tends to jump to conclusion when discerning
motives. If he sees two people talking in hushed tones, he is suspicious he is the subject
He is severe in judging and struggles for a sense of worth. He is easily offended or
insulted, and is sensitively gloomy and depressed. His moods respond easily to his

75
environment While he needs affirmation, at the same time he lacks appreciation for the
feelings of others.

THE PHLEGMATIC (STABLE)

Strengths
The Phlegmatic is calm, easy-going and seldom gets disturbed. He keeps his
emotion under control and is patient, soft-spoken and seldom gets excited. He is
dependable, practical and efficient, but meticulous type of worker. He is reluctant to take
leadership role, but makes a good leader when drafted. He avoids involvement beyond
his daily routine. With him there are no critical issues. He offers advice only When
solicited. He is a born peacemaker and can be a good diplomat.
The phlegmatic doesn't start out with great expectation so he seldom gets
disappointed. He is easy to get along with because he avoids conflicts and arguments. He
may even compromise in order to avoid confrontation. He is good listener, consistent and
predictable. He is good imitator
Weaknesses
The phlegmatic possesses timidness, fearfulness and laziness. He is often weak in
communicating and slows in making decisions. He has a natural dry sense of humor that
enables him to see the funny side of things. As a rule, he resists change and prefers
traditionalism and routine.
b. Genetic Influence Theory. These theories involve a search for the processes by which
needs, motives, and impulses- often hidden from view — interact o produce individual's
behavior. There are three theories under this type:
l. Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory — Freud constructed a model of
personality with three interlocking parts: the id, the ego, and the superego.
The id is the most primitive part, can be thought of as sort of storehouse of
biologically based urges; the urge to eat, drink, eliminate, and especially, to be sexually
stimulated. The sexual energy that underlies these urges is called the libido. The id
operates according to what Freud called the pleasure principle. That is, left to itself, the id
would satisfy its fundamental urges immediately and reflexively as they arose, without
regards to rules, the realities of life, or morals of any kind.
The id, however, is usually bridled and managed by the ego. The ego consists of
elaborate ways of behaving and thinking which constitute the "executive function " of the
person. The ego delays satisfying id motives and channels behavior into more socially
acceptable outlets. It keeps a person working for a living, getting along with people, and
generally adjusting to the realities of life. Characterized the ego as working "in the
service of the reality principle "
The superego corresponds closely to what we commonly call the conscience. It
consists mainly of prohibitions learned from parents and other authorities. The superego
may condemn "wrong" things which the ego would otherwise do to satisfy the id. But the
superego is not all fire and brimstone. It's conscience — like prodding's are also guided
by what Freud called the ego ideal, a set of positive values and moral ideals that are
pursued because they are believed to be more worthy.
Freud did not intend to divide personality into three separate compartments but rather
to convey a lively, ongoing interplay among the id, the ego and the superego. In this
interplay, he saw the ego acting as a sort of mediator between the id — with its blind
demands for instant gratification — and the superego — with its rigid, often irrational
rules, prohibitions and ideals. Freud's generally notion that our behavior is influenced by
biological drives (id), social rules (superego), and mediating thought processes (ego).

76
However, his heavy emphasis on the primitive, sexual nature of human drives and energy
(libido) helped make his theory very controversial.
Less controversial but equally novel was Freud's notion of unconscious processes.
He use this concept to explain why people often act in ways that seem irrational. Freud
proposed three levels of consciousness, or awareness: the conscious, the preconscious,
and the unconscious. At the conscious level, we are aware Of certain thing around us and
of certain thoughts. At the preconscious level are memories or thoughts that are easily
available with a moment's reflection — for example, what we had for breakfast, or our
parent's first names. In contrast' the unconscious contains memories, thoughts and
motives, which we cannot easily call up. All of the id is unconscious; the ego and
superego include material at all three level of consciousness.
Why do some ideas and feelings become unconscious? Freud's theory is summed up
in word repression. We repress, or banish from consciousness, ideas, memories,
feelings, or the motives that are especially disturbing, forbidden, or otherwise to us. The
process of repression is itself unconscious and automatic. In such cases, car anxiety
triggers repression and unacceptable materials is buried in the unconscious.

According to Freud's theory, this material does not remain, safely tucked away.
Instead, it continues to operate underground, often correlating the repressed conflicts into
neurosis- disturbed behavior involving anxiety or defense against anxiety. Freud believed
repressed material is not dormant but active unconscious. In everyday life, he said.
Unconscious thoughts impulses are revealed by accidents and by slips of the tongue or
the pen. Freus put heavy emphasis in the biological development in general and on sexual
development in particular
2.Carl Jung's Analytical Theory. Carl Jung was a Swiss psychoanalyst and founder of
Analytical Psychology. He classified personality types according to the following.
(1) Extrovert- a tendency to direct the personality outward rather than inward
toward the self. He is a man of action, whose motives are conditioned by external events.
Is negligent of ailments, not r=taking care Of the self, accommodates readily to the new
situations, directly oriented by the objective data.
(2)1ntrovert- orientation is inward towards the self, pre-occupied with his own
thoughts, avoid social contacts and tends to run away from reality. Conduct is governed
by absolute standards and principles and lacks of flexibility and adaptability
3. Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology. Adler believed that people are forever
struggling to overcome their feelings of inferiority. Adler identified this struggle as the
most basic life urge. Acting on this urge, strive continually he said for "superiority" and
"mastery of the external world". When someone fails repeatedly to overcome
weakness and achieve some mastery or simply places excessive emphasis on some term
particular inferiority, the result can what Adler labeled an inferiority complex, a term
that is now part of our everyday language. Adler also stressed the concepts of
compensation and overcompensation — the pursuit of activities designed to make up
for or to overcome inferiority. Each individual creates his or her own approach to living:
this highly individualized style grows out of the individual's unique sense of his or her
own inferiorities and the strategies he or she develops to overcome these inferiorities.
4. Karen Horney's Psychoanalytic Interpersonal Theory. Two major components of
her "person " psychology were the twin notions of basic anxiety and basic hostility
(Horney, 1973).
Basic Anxiety, she said, is what arises in childhood when the child feels helpless in a
threatening world. Children learn that they are relatively weak and powerless, dependent
on their parents for safety and satisfaction. Loving and reliable parents can create a

77
feeling of security, but erratic, indifferent or rejecting parents may sharpen the child's
sense of helplessness and vulnerability. This sets the stage for basic anxiety.
Basic Hostility, in Horney's view, usually accompanies basic anxiety and grows out
of resentment over the parental behavior that led to anxiety in the first place. Because the
hostility cannot be expressed directly to parents, it is typically repressed, which only
increases the child's anxiety. Children caught in this bind — dependent on their parents,
anxious because of their parents, hostile toward their parents and unable to express their
true feelings directly, on one of three modes of social behavior, tend to rely heavily each
of which might well be carried into adulthood.
d. Humanistic Theories. These theories emphasize the importance of subjective
attitudes, feelings and beliefs, especially with regards to the self. There are two popular
humanistic theories — Carl Roger's self-theory and Abraham Maslow's Self-
actualization.
l. Carl Roger's Self Theory emphasized the whole of experience which he referred
"phenomenal field" Phenomenal Field is the individual's subjective frame of reference, it
may or it may not correspond to external reality. Out of the phenomenal field, a self or
self- concept gradually develops. This theory focuses on the impact Of the disparity
between a person's ideal self and perceived real self
2. Abraham Maslow's Self Actualization Theory believed that each person has an
essential nature that "presses" to emerge. Maslow viewed that we have higher-level
growth needs — such as the need for self-actualization and understanding of ourselves;
however this higher needs only assume a dominant role in our lives after our
biological/lower needs are satisfied

D.2 EXTERNAL THEORIES

These theories emphasize external like situations in which the behavior us carried
out. These personality theories explain how people‘s behavior is and fashioned in the
context of different environmental settings We will discuss examples under this type;
a. Social Learning Theory. These theories explain that people's actions are shaped
and controlled by environmental rewards and punishments, while others learn through
imitation and modeling. Learning is the primary process by which people adapt to their
environment. Likewise, personality exists largely in the beliefs that people hold about
themselves. Leaders of this theory are Skinner, Bandura and Mischel.
b. Cognitive Theory. These theories believed that is always a point product of the
person and the situation. Behavior does not occur in a vacuum but always in a situational
context.

E. THE FILIPINO PERSONALITY

What is a Filipino? What are the characteristics that make the Filipino different from
others? What are the values behind Filipino personality includes studying the different
values that influence his behavior.

The Filipino is unique with such a blend in his heritage. The Filipino roots are Malay
and Chinese, his heart is Spanish Christian and the mind of the Filipino is American.

78
From these difference value system present in the Filipino. The following are the
characteristics of Filipinos;
For the Filipino, all the basic needs are meeting if you have a family or a group. His
family gives him a high sense of security. A Filipino normally sees himself first as a
member of the family and only secondary as member of the outside group.
The Filipino has a high sense of personal dignity. His dignity and honor are
everything to him, so that the wounding of them weather real or imagined, becomes a
challenge to his manhood. He respects other people but they must also respect him. The
Filipino "palabra de honor" is something he holds in high regard.
The Filipino will talk about anything provided he feels safe and secure. For Filipinos,
there are no strict taboo areas for discussion. Any subject can be discussed for as long as
he is not placed in a situation of being criticized, ridiculed, and blamed or in any way
singled you for derogation. The Filipino will not risk being placed in such a position and
if however pushed to such a spot, he will employ defensive mechanisms. The Filipino is
quite adept at using Camouflage of words.
The Filipino can play "pakipot". When you ask a Filipino to drop by for dinner
tonight, and she'll say "I'll try", this phrase "I'll try" has certain well — defined meaning
to the Filipino culture. This is a manifestation of "pakipot" which asks to the invitation
more strongly. This protective behavior of the Filipino means putting oneself down, or
not making the first move towards involvement or commitment.
Filipinos have their unique ways of expressing themselves. They prefer to use body
language rather than words to express themselves. The Filipino looks for meaning in
what is not said. The silence for Filipino together with the pauses between silences are
very meaningful. They do convey messages. Filipinos seek mainly to receive messages
that often do not have to be stated directly and explicitly. The Filipino is indirect because
he wants to keep his interested relations pleasant and friendly.
An average Filipino will say "yes" when he wants to end the conversation when he
half understood the instruction or what being said or when he is not sure of himself The
Filipinos do not tend to emphasized their own opinion in an enthusiastic manner, even if
they have one. They seldom express their own opinion unless their superior asks them.
There are cases in which Filipinos do not say "no" because they do not like to offend.
The Filipino "yes" has various meanings, one of them is "no". the Filipino frequently
nods in the middle of a conversation, which simply means "I'm hearing and listening to
what you are saying". But it doesn't mean "l understand what you are saying" or
"yes‖
"Tsismis" or gossip is the first class entertainment and favourite pastime of many
Filipinos at the expenses of others. In Filipino culture' curiosity about another individual's
personal life precedes entry into one's relationship with him. He likes to describe
relationship in terms of similarity to that of his childhood. Thus, to a relationship
Filipinos often remark "We are like brothers", "She is the baby in the group"
Among Filipino's concepts, quarrels are not alone in direct confrontation but rather
obliquely through side, counter remarks, popularly known as "nagpaparinig".
A Filipino's concepts of friendship and "pakikisama" includes acceptance and
tolerance of all his friends faults and he does not correct, much less criticize them, if he
does, his advice is always calculated. pleasant and delivered along the "safe" lines.
The Filipino is naturally friendly but unpredictable. However, one thing is sure: that
the Filipino has an acute awareness of his or her obligations to people from whom he has
received favor. A Filipino always tries to repay these favours in kind due to his due to his
strong sense of utang na - loob

79
 Relationship within the Filipino family is characterized by a deep sense of respect for
elders and for authority. The Filipino attaches great to those in circle or groups who know
will treat him with favor.
As a person, the Filipino is gregarious; he loves company and reciprocates any good
deed that is done to him. But he can also be "maramdamin", sensitive to comments and
slights (real or imagined), holding such grievance for moths, and even years. He could
also be a vindictive person. He may also love to rumor especially or very personal issues.
The Filipino is pragmatic and believes that there is always "remedyo" for every
problem. His religion tell him to be optimistic and hopeful despite of his problems in the
belief that there is God who watches and cares for him Yet this quality can be taken to
extremes such as fatalism, "Bahala na " attitude.
The Filipino roots are the Malay and Chinese. A Filipino can be sensous, trusting as
as a child, forebearing and kind because of his Malay influences. From the Malay
influences, the Filipinos got the characteristics of being a likeable he has smooth
interpersonal relationship with everybody. For a Filipino, to be nice is the most important
thing. Filipinos got the characteristics of patience, foresight, frugality, and thrift. Good
planning, artistry, and inventiveness are some traits that were also influenced by the
Chinese into the character of the Filipino.
The heart of the Filipino is Spanish Christian. A Filipino is religious because the
Spaniards taught him so.
Besides smiling, when he is happy, the Filipinos also smiles when he feels
embarrassed or shy. The Filipinos are by nature maramdamin and matampuhin. It is very
difficult to give them some bad news or discuss some touchy subjects in a straightforward
manner. The Filipino uses diplomatic case of truth in order to save face and preserve
rapport with people. He gives ambiguous answers such as "siguro nga" rather than
outright disagreements. Also, for the Filipino, it is safer to say nothing if you can't say
something nice. Bluntness, frankness of speech is frowned upon, as a sign of ill breeding
among Filipinos.
One wins the Filipino more agreeing with him than by debating with him. The
Filipino is a person who goes along with persuasion. It is more effective to express
confidence in him and give him assurance in order to win him.
Finally, the Filipino identifies himself with the underdog. It is in his psyche to hate
arrogant, the domineering and the commanding person. To get the cooperation of a
Filipino, you should put yourself on the side of the weak You can get more cooperation
from a Filipino if you put yourself down because the way you make him feel needed will
make feel important.

F. WAYS TO IMPROVE ONE'S PERSONALITY

There is much that we can do to improve our personality. The following are
suggested ways to improve one's personality.
1. Make a Self— Appraisal. Make an evaluation of yourself Begin by
taking each component of personality separately. List your effective, partially effective,
and ineffective traits.
2. Discuss with others. When you have completed enumerating your traits,
ask the opinion of others, since we are often more critical of ourselves than others are.
Asking the opinions of others and sharing your problems with them' help you perceive
your situation as a whole a gain insights about yourself.
3. Formulate Program of Self - Improvement. Develop a self -
improvement plan. For those behavior patterns which you feel you are only partially

80
effective, a mental remainder to your will work. Your greatest effort should be spent on
the behavior you have assessed as ineffective.
Set a realistic attainable program for self-improvement. The more objective and
factually minded you are in working out a plan for improvement the better chance for
success
4. Re-evaluate your value system. Formulate an assessment of life which
will help you answer your assessment of the value of material things, personal
relationships, behavior patterns etc.
5. Define your way of life. Organize your learned values into a more
meaningful and acceptable patterns for successful living. With such framework of your
life, you will be able project realistically your ambitious for the future.

81
 CHAPTER 10
STRESS, COPIING AND MENTAL HEALTH

INTRODUCTION

All of us have our own ways by which we cope with our problems. However, no
matter how resourceful we may be in coping with our problem, the experiences we have
in our day to day living inevitably involves stress. Our motives are not always easily
satisfied there are hindrances to be overcome, decisions or choices to be made and delays
to be tolerated. When our attempts to reach a desired goal are blocked, each of us adopts
characteristics patterns of responding to the situation in order to lessen if not to overcome
the negative effects of our frustrations. Our response patterns to frustrating experiences
determine to a great extent the adequacy of our adjustment to life.
It is beyond our control that some of our needs cannot be satisfied. Society demands
that we accept the frustration of some of them and exercise a degree of self-denial.
Frustrations resulting from the clamsh of two or more motives that exert their force in
different directions produce the psychological state of conflict.
Every time we find ways of satisfying our need, we attain adjustment. But such
adjustment cannot be for long.
What happens when we are unable to satisfy our needs? In considering the answer to
this question, this chapter will discuss the following topics stress, frustration, conflict,
defense mechanism, adjustment and mental health.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

At the end of the lesson,the students should be able to:
1. define stress and describe its four principal types
2. identify the three basic types conflict
3. identify some common emotional response to stress
4. describe the coping mechanism of the individual
5. describe each of the defense mechanism
6. discuss the effects to stress to psychological functioning
7. enumerate the ways to preserve to mental health

A. THE MEANING OF STRESS

STRESS includes any situation that calls for more than what is normal, or this is
something unusual to the person. Stress is produced when a person approaches a demand
which limits his capacities, talents, skills. Stress is more related to events that block the
some motives or threatens a desired goal. Natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions are particularly stressful to us because they are unpredictable. Most students at
new University find their first semester more stressful than second semester because they
are not yet familiar with the University.

82
 Stress is an emotional tension experienced by most of us in situations which pose
challenges, demands and threats. Some stress is necessary for normal functioning. When
life in peaceful and quite for quite too long, we become bored and seek excitement. But
stress that is too intense or prolonged can have physiological and psychological effects to
us.

Our stresses came from the following sources:

1. BIOLOGICAL DEPRIVATION- such as extreme hunger that can cause deep
physical and emotional disturbances.

2. DANGER (REAL OR IMAGINED) - such as breakdown in behaviour resulting

from dangerous experiences can rapidly produced stress.

3. THREATS TO THE SELF-ESTEEM- such as our own expectations, especially if

we set high standing on ourselves. Our self-esteem is being threatened by the gap
between the ideal and the existing condition. Instead of taking pleasure and feeling proud
in what we have accomplished, we experience stress because we focus attention on what
remains undone.

4. OVERLOAD- this result from too much stimulation. City dwellers adapt stress by
paying less attention to their surroundings than do rural people. They use a variety of
methods to cut themselves off from too much contact with other people.

5. CRISES AND STRESSES THAT ACCOMPANY NORMAL AND SOCIAL

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT- results from our worry to about our ability to meet
new demands and new roles that each stage of life presents.

B. FOUR PRINCIPAL TYPES OF STRESS

There are four principal types of stress: pressure, change, frustration and conflict. We
will describe each of this type through examples:

1. You have three major exams coming up next week and you are also in charge
of your sorority‘s fast approaching homecoming celebration. This type of
stress is pressure.

2. Your family moved from a large city to a rather small rural community. This
type of stress induced by change in daily life routine in change. All kinds
of life changes, both pleasant and unpleasant, would induce stress, but
the greatest appears to be induced by unpleasant life
changes.

3. You failed in your psychology class. As a result, your application for

graduation wa denied. This is an example of frustration.

83
 4. You‘ve been invited to dinner at a nice restaurant on the final night of a TV
mini-series you‘ve been watching. You find yourself confronted with
conflict series.

We will have a lengthy discussion on frustration and conflict.

C. FRUSTRATION

FRUSTRATION is the condition of being thwarted in the satisfaction of a

motive. It is an emotional tension which arises whenever an on-going goal-seeking
activity is hindered by an obstacle. Frustration may be the result of either
environmental factors or personal conditions, or both operating at the same time.
ENVIRONMENTAL FRUSTRATION are caused by the conditioned external
to the person which keep him from satisfying his needs. External factors such as
famine floods, death, electric power failure, transportation and breakdowns, and
shortage of gasoline are examples of frustrations caused by environment.
PERSONAL FRUSTRATIONS are caused by personal limitations and
disabilities which thwart an individual‘s aspirations. Such frustrations come from
within the individual. They result from desires which often times, are not within the
individual‘s ability to fulfil. Examples are low intelligence, physical handicap, lack
of skill or feeling of insecurity.
Frustration differs in degree from person to person, or from time to time, with
the same person, depending upon the strength of the needs frustrated. Furthermore,
individuals vary considerably in the extent to which they tolerate frustrations. The
higher you frustration tolerate, the less you will develop abnormal reactions to
frustrations.

D. THE THREE BASIC TYPES OF CONFLICTS

CONFLICT refers to the stimulation in which the person is made to choose
between two or more conflicting motives or desires. Conflicting situations in which
we find ourselves have been clarified into three basic patterns:

1. APPROACH- APPROACH CONFLICT - may cause frustration if a person is

attracted to two things which are both positive and pleasant but can only have one. For
example, a college student may want very much to get married, but he may also want to
finish his course.

2. APPROACH - AVOIDANCE CONFLICT - may cause frustration if a person

cannot decide on something he likes to do because it is closely associated with something
he dislikes. In this case, the person is both attracted and repelled in the same direction.
For example, a college student may want very much to earn a college degree, but to earn
the degree, he must concentrate on his studies which he does not like to do. He has to
change his attitudes before he gets what he wants.

3. AVOIDANCE - AVOIDANCE CONFLICT - may cause frustration if a person has

to choose between two things which he dislikes. Here, he seeks to avoid two unpleasant
alternatives but he cannot avoid one without encountering the other. This is a case of

84
choosing between lesser evils. For example, the student who dislikes teacher does not
also want to fail in that subject.

E. EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO STRESS

These are many dimensions of emotions that are particularly triggered by stress.
Stressful situations may even reach to a point where the bodily processes are seriously
affected, the mental processes are confused, and the emotional state is heightened.

When person feels helpless and unable to cope with the stress, he feels lonely, sad,
pensive and is in grief situation. This is because he thinks that he lacks control over his
problems.

When a person is under pressure because of stress, he feels uncertain, apprehensive,

fearful and in terror. The emotion of anxiety is dominant.

In the most cases, one seeks to substitute escape to stress by self-indulgence. Of

course, self-indulgence is least harmful to you and to others around you especially if you
keep within reasonable limits.

F. COPING MECHANISM WITH STRESS

When an individual is under stress because of frustrating situation, he is pushed to

react in order to reduce the emotional tensions. Coping is the active effects to get rid of
stress, and the behavior that you used to deal with the stressful situations is called coping
strategy.
Depending upon one‘s early life experienced, coping with stress can either be done
on the conscious level or on unconscious level. Coping can also be done constructively
and destructively. Constructive coping is much oriented to reality, task, relevant and
action oriented. This type of coping operates on the conscious level. The person is said to
be well-adjusted two exerts more effort to overcome the obstacle more realistically.
On the other hand, defensive coping operates in the unconscious level, although it
can occur at conscious level. This kind of coping is likely to result in wasted energy and
delay in facing up to a problem. The person may even cheat reality himself because of
negative emotions like anxiety, anger, guilt and dejection that trigger the onset of
defensive coping. Depending on the reactions adopted by the individual, he may have
food or poor adjustment mechanism. There are five advices provided coping with the
stress more effectively. They are:

1. Relax in comfortable position in a quiet environment

2. Try to release pent-up emotions. Crying and catharsis are examples of this
particular practice

3. Redefine the situation in a less threatening manner and discharged pent-up

emotions. Use your sense of humor.

85
 4. Minimize physiological vulnerability. Exercise and nutrition are the key
ingredients of this practice.

5. Seek help from your family and friends. This practice reminds you that our family
and close friends are a valuable resource.

G. THE DIFFERENT DEFENSE MECHANISM

A person who has not been successful in revolving more deeply his frustrations
and conflicts through well-adjusted coping behavior, may resort to use of defense
mechanism. Defense mechanism is not abnormal. All of us make use of them. They
may either be desirable or undesirable, depending upon the extent to which they are
used. If we use them in the proper situation or in the moderation, they may be of
great value. If we use them, however, in inappropriate situations or in excess, they
can be undesirable.

Defense mechanisms are behavioral patterns employed by the individual to

protect him from pain, shame or guilt, to soften the impact of frustration, or to lower
and change the motives. Instead of coping with the sources of distress, the frustrated
person looks for ways to reduce the discomfort and tension that frustrations and
conflicts produce. Defense mechanism is not the real solution to our frustrations and
conflicts. They are just employed by the individual for the meantime that he is not
able to face his frustrations realistically. These are self-deceptive measures employed
by the individual to reduce the impact of frustration.

The following are examples of defense mechanism and their description:

1. Fantasy- or daydreaming is a temporary escape from the difficulties of real
into a world of fantasy where one‘s desires can be fulfilled in imagination.

Daydreams may be of two kinds – the conquering hero and the suffering hero.
On the conquering hero mechanism, the person himself in his daydream as hero
who does great deeds or achieves the things he desires. In suffering hero
mechanism, the person pictures himself as an underdog.

2. Nomadism- this is an attempt to get away from frustrating situation. In

nomadism, a person continuously moves from place to place usually without
any tangible gain. This mechanism may take the form of frequent change of
residence, frequent change of jobs, or even change of marital status.

3. Regression-this is an unconscious return to earlier and less mature level of

adaptation. One flees from the painful realities and the responsibilities of the
present to the protected existence of his childhood. A person how is regressing
may start to act in a childish way such as going into temper tantrums, frowning
and crying when he does not get what he wants.

86
 4. Repression- This is a process of completely excluding from consciousness
thoughts, feelings, experiences, or impulses which are psychologically
disturbing because they arouse of sense of shame, guilt or anxiety.

5. Reaction formation- This is the process wherein the individual does the direct
opposite of what he is feeling. For example, being extra nice to somebody you
hated much.

6. Displaced aggression- this is the process wherein the individual‘s pent-up

emotional tensions are redirected toward ideas, persons, or objects other than the
primary source of frustration. This mechanism is called displacement which may take the
form of scapegoating, free-floating anger and suicide.

In scapegoating, hostility is expressed against a person or an object other

than the original source of frustration. For example, as student who fails in a subject may
express his anger toward his companion at home.
In free-floating anger hostility becomes generalized so that hostility is
directed to almost anything or anybody. A person prolonged anger which he cannot
express towards the person concerned may go around in a very bad temper so that gets
into quarrels and fights easily.

7. Identification and Introjection- in identification, the individual enhances his

feeling of importance by imitating or acquiring the characteristics of a person whom he
admires.
When a person acquires or imitates the characteristics of a person whom
he admires, this type of identification is known as introjection.

8. Projection- this is a defense mechanism wherein the individual attributes his

thoughts or desires to others. For example, blaming others instead of blaming himself.

9. Sublimation- this is an adjustment mechanism by which unconscious and

unacceptable desires are directed into activities that has strong social approval such as
diverting sexual impulses by playing basketball.

10. Compensation- this is a mechanism adjustment wherein a person

attempts to disguise the presence of a weak or undesirable trait by emphasizing a
desirable one reduce a feeling of inferiority.

11. Rationalization- this is a defense mechanism by which plausible but

false reasons are devised by the individual to explain and justify his behavior that is
deemed to result of loss of self-esteem or social approval.
The old fable about the fox who tried without success to reach a bunch of grapes
hanging over his head is a frequent ly quoted example of the sour-grapes reaction.
When the fox could not get the grapes, he told himself that they were ―too sour‖
anyway. In the sweet-lemon mechanism the individual accepts something which he
really does not want because it is all that he can have. A girl who wants a new dress
very much but cannot afford to buy one convinced herself that her old dresses are
prettier than those being sold in the stores.

87
H. THE EFFECTS OF STRESS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING

Stress affects our task performance, including burnout syndrome. Pressure to

perform makes us self-conscious and this elevated self-consciousness disrupts our
attention. Attention may be distorted in two ways. One way is the person fails to
focus sufficient attention on the tas , or becomes distracted because he is under
pressure. The second way is that the self-conscious person may focus too much
attention on the task. The term we commonly use for this is choking under pressure.
Burnout is a potential problem in all occupation and may be caused by nonwork
related stress as well. The physical, mental, and emotional symptoms that accompany
burnout are: Physically, the symptoms are chronic fatigue, weakness and low
energy. Mental symptoms include highly negative attitudes toward oneself and life
in general. Emotional, the symptoms are feeling helpless,hopeless and trapped.
There are five psychological disorders that research has shown to be related to
chronic stress. These disorders are: poor academic performance, insomnia, sexual
difficulties, drug abuse, anxiety and dejection. Research has also found out that
stress is related to numerous disorders. Many studies have shown a relationship
between stress and physical illness. Stress appears to suppress the proliferation of the
lymphocytes (the specialized white blood cells that are important in initiating the
immune response) thus suppressing the immune system is general. The person with
prolonged stress lowers his resistance and becomes vulnerable to diseases.

I. ABNORAM REACTIONS TO FRUSTRATIONS

When the frustration becomes too intense and overwhelming, and the person‘s
coping and defense mechanisms become inadequate for dealing with it, he may develop
abnormal reactions. The frustrated individual can no longer deal with reality in an
effective way and can do longer function in an integral manner.
There are two abnormal reactions to frustrations. They are neuroses and psychoses.
A neurosis is mild mental disorder, an abnormal reaction pattern that lowers efficiently.
A neurotic still retains his contact with reality although he may be poorly adjusted to his
environment. Psychosis is a severe mental disorder that usually requires hospitalization.
A psychotic loses contact with reality and is incapacitated to his environment.
Neurotic reactions and many of the psychotic reactions are of functional origin,
which is caused by psychological factors. When psychotic reactions are said to be of
organic origin, they are usually due to injuries or infections of the nervous system.
The most common recognized forms of neurotic reactions are anxiety neurosis,
phobia, obsessive-compulsive neurosis, conversion reaction, hypochondria and
dissociative reactions. Most neurotic persons manifest the following symptoms;
generalized feelings of apprehension, helplessness and indecision for no apparent
reasons, constant vague fears, continuously tense and worried, easily upset, constantly
haunted by future calamities and future calamities and future errors, always afraid of
making mistakes, sensitive and employs excessive defense mechanism.
There are two main types of psychotic reactions; namely, schizophrenia and manic-
depressive psychosis. Schizophrenia is characterized by withdrawal from reality and
disturbances of intellectual and emotional process. Manic-depressive psychosis is
characterized by emotional distortion consisting of recurrent episodes of depression and

88
elation occurring spontaneously without any relation to what is happening in the
environment.

The loss of contact with reality in psychosis is reflected in symptoms such as; (1)
disorder in personal orientation (2) disorder of perception (3) disorder of thinking, and (4)
disorder of emotions. These symptoms may appear separately or in combination. A
psychotic individual gets disoriented with time, place, and person. He does not know who
he is, where he is, or what time, a day, week, month or year it is. He may also have
illusions, hallucinations and delusions. Psychotics frequently show various forms of
emotional disorder. They may have exaggerated reactions of gloom, elation, fear or anger
or a complete absence of emotional responsiveness.

J. ADJUSTMENTS AND MENTAL HEALTH

Mental Health refers to the state of adjustment of an individual to himself and to his
environment with a maximum effectiveness and satisfaction. It is a state of well-being
wherein the individual is not conscious of unsatisfied tension, and maintains himself
intellectually under all circumstances.
The science that is concerned with the maintenance of mental health and the
prevention of mental illness is called Mental Hygiene. The aim of mental hygiene is to
help all persons achieve fuller, happier, and more harmonious and more effective lives. It
seeks to make individuals make healthy adjustments to problem situations as they arise. It
is also concerned with the creation of the kind of environment.
Hilgard et.al. (1979) provided us guidelines in order to maintain our psychological
health and to remain mentally healthy. These guidelines are;

1. Develop a realistic and accepting attitude toward yourself most of the time.

2. Accept the feelings- Negative or unpleasant emotions such as sorrow, fear, anger
and so on are normal reactions to many situations. We have our right to experience these
feelings and to express them in indirect manner or substitute ways when there is a
blockage in the direct channels of their expression. Discussing the situation of anger with
a close friend can help lessen our anger. ―Crying on somebody‘s shoulder‖ when
suffering a great sorrow often rings relief. Taking a long walk cools off out hot temper.
3. Know your vulnerability- Stress may be lessened by guarding yourself against
occasions or situations that upset you or cause you to overreact. For example, feelings of
anxiety surmount when you are under pressure. Self-discipline can avoid stress resulting
from last minute preparations and too much hurrying to catch the scheduled
obligations.

4. Develop you talents and interests- One‘s self-esteem can be greatly blistered as
competencies are gained from developing skills. Exert effort in understanding the various
subject areas you deal with and gainmore interest and enjoyment working in them.

5. Know when to seek help- When your problems are difficult to solve all by
yourself or when very little headway is gained in controlling a problem, it is most

89
appropriate to seek professional help. Doing this is a sign of emotional maturity and not a
sign of weakness.

IMPORTANT TERMS TO REMEMBER

One way to test your mastery of the material in this chapter is to see
whether you know what is meant by the following terms:

stress frustration conflict

approach-approach conflict defense mechanism psychoses
approach-avoidance conflict neuroses mental health
avoidance-avoidance conflict adjustment mentally healthy

90