1879     FIRST PSYCHOLOGY LABORATORY

Wilhelm Wundt opens first experimental laboratory in psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Credited with establishing psychology as an academic discipline, Wundt’s students include Emil Kraepelin, James McKeen Cattell, and G. Stanley Hall.

1883    FIRST AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY LABORATORY

G. Stanley Hall, a student of Wilhelm Wundt, establishes first U.S. experimental psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.

1886    FIRST DOCTORATE IN PSYCHOLOGY

The first doctorate in psychology is given to Joseph Jastrow, a student of G. Stanley Hall at Johns Hopkins University. Jastrow later becomes professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin and serves as president of the American Psychological Association in 1900.

1888    FIRST PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY

The academic title “professor of psychology” is given to James McKeen Cattell in 1888, the first use of this designation in the United States. A student of Wilhelm Wundt’s, Cattell serves as professor of psychology at University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.

1892    APA FOUNDED

G. Stanley Hall founds the American Psychological Association (APA) and serves as its first president. He later establishes two key journals in the field: American Journal of Psychology (1887) and Journal of Applied Psychology (1917).

1896    Functionalism

Functionalism, an early school of psychology, focuses on the acts and functions of the mind rather than its internal contents. Its most prominent American advocates are William James and John Dewey, whose 1896 article “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology” promotes functionalism.

1896    Psychoanalysis

The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, introduces the term in a scholarly paper. Freud’s psychoanalytic approach asserts that people are motivated by powerful, unconscious drives and conflicts. He develops an influential therapy based on this assertion, using free association and dream analysis.

1896    STRUCTURALISM

Edward B. Titchener, a leading proponent of structuralism, publishes his Outline of Psychology. Structuralism is the view that all mental experience can be understood as a combination of simple elements or events. This approach focuses on the contents of the mind, contrasting with functionalism.

1896    FIRST PSYCHOLOGY CLINIC

After heading a laboratory at University of Pennsylvania, Lightner Witmer opens world’s first psychological clinic to patients, shifting his focus from experimental work to practical application of his findings.

1900    INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Sigmund Freud introduces his theory of psychoanalysis in The Interpretation of Dreams, the first of 24 books he would write exploring such topics as the unconscious, techniques of free association, and sexuality as a driving force in human psychology.

1901    MANUAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

With publication of the Manual of Experimental Psychology, Edward Bradford Titchener introduces structuralism to the United States. Structuralism, an approach which seeks to identify the basic elements of consciousness, fades after Titchener’s death in 1927.

1904    FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT OF THE APA

Mary Calkins is elected president of the APA. Calkins, a professor and researcher at Wellesley College, studied with William James at Harvard University, but Harvard denied her a Ph.D. because of her gender.

1905     IQ TESTS DEVELOPED

Using standardized tests, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon develop a scale of general intelligence on the basis of mental age. Later researchers refine this work into the concept of intelligence quotient; IQ, mental age over physical age. From their beginning, such tests’ accuracy and fairness are challenged.

1908    A MIND THAT FOUND ITSELF

Clifford Beers publishes A Mind That Found Itself, detailing his experiences as a patient in 19th-century mental asylums. Calling for more humane treatment of patients and better education about mental illness for the general population, the book inspires the mental hygiene movement in the United States.

1909    PSYCHOANALYSTS VISIT CLARK UNIVERSITY

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung visit the United States for a Psychoanalysis Symposium at Clark University organized by G. Stanley Hall. At the symposium, Freud gives his only speech in the United States.

1913    BEHAVIORISM

John B. Watson publishes “Psychology as Behavior,” launching behaviorism. In contrast to psychoanalysis, behaviorism focuses on observable and measurable behavior.

1917    ARMY INTELLIGENCE TESTS IMPLEMENTED

Standardized intelligence and aptitude tests are administered to two million U. S. soldiers during WWI. Soon after, such tests are used in all U.S. armed forces branches and in many areas of civilian life, including academic and work settings.

1920    FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN DOCTORATE IN PSYCHOLOGY

Francis Cecil Sumner earns a Ph.D. in psychology under G. Stanley Hall at Clark University. Sumner later serves as chair of the Howard University psychology department.

1920    THE CHILD’S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD

Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget publishes The Child’s Conception of the World, prompting the study of cognition in the developing child.

1921    RORSCHACH TEST CREATED

Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach devises a personality test based on patients’ interpretations of inkblots.

1925    MENNINGER CLINIC FOUNDED

Charles Frederick Menninger and his sons Karl Augustus and William Clair found The Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. They take a compassionate approach to the treatment of mental illness, emphasizing both psychological and psychiatric disciplines.

1927    MENNINGER CLINIC FOUNDED

First Nobel Prize for psychological research

1929    ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM INVENTED

Psychiatrist Hans Berger invents the electroencephalogram and tests it on his son. The device graphs the electrical activity of the brain by means of electrodes attached to the head.

1933    NAZI PERSECUTION OF PSYCHOLOGISTS

After the Nazi party gains control of the government in Germany, scholars and researchers in psychology and psychiatry are persecuted. Many, including Freud, whose books are banned and burned in public rallies, move to Britain or the United States.

1935    ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is founded by Bob Smith of Akron, Ohio. AA’s group meetings format and 12-step program become the model for many other mutual-support therapeutic groups.

1935    GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY

Kurt Koffka, a founder of the movement, publishes Principles of Gestalt Psychology in 1935. Gestalt (German for “whole” or “essence”) psychology asserts that psychological phenomena must be viewed not as individual elements but as a coherent whole.

1936    FIRST LOBOTOMY IN THE UNITED STATES

Walter Freeman performs first frontal lobotomy in the United States at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. By 1951, more than 18,000 such operations have been performed. The procedure, intended to relieve severe and debilitating psychosis, is controversial.

1937    THE NEUROTIC PERSONALITY OF OUR TIME

Psychologist Karen Horney publishes The Neurotic Personality of Our Time. Horney goes on to challenge many of Freud’s theories, as have many later psychologists and scholars. Specifically, she questions Freud’s theories on the Oedipal Complex and castration anxiety.

1938    THE BEHAVIOR OF ORGANISMS

B.F. Skinner publishes The Behavior of Organisms, introducing the concept of operant conditioning. The work draws widespread attention to behaviorism and inspires laboratory research on conditioning.

1938    ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY BEGUN

Italian psychiatrist and neuropathologist Ugo Cerletti and his associates treat human patients with electrical shocks to alleviate schizophrenia and psychosis. ECT, while controversial, is proven effective in some cases and is still in use in 2001.

1946    THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT OF CHILDREN

Anna Freud publishes The Psychoanalytic Treatment of Children, introducing basic concepts in the theory and practice of child psychoanalysis.

1946     NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH ACT PASSED

U.S. President Harry Truman signs the National Mental Health Act, providing generous funding for psychiatric education and research for the first time in U.S. history. This act leads to the creation in 1949 of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

1951    FIRST DRUG TO TREAT DEPRESSION

Studies are published reporting that the drug imipramine may be able to lessen depression. Eight years later, the FDA approves its use in the United States under the name Tofranil.

1952    THORAZINE TESTED

The anti-psychotic drug chlorpromazine (known as Thorazine) is tested on a patient in a Paris military hospital. Approved for use in the United States in 1954, it becomes widely prescribed.

1953    APA ETHICAL STANDARDS

The American Psychological Association publishes the first edition of Ethical Standards of Psychologists. The document undergoes continuous review and is now known as APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.

1954    EPILEPSY AND THE FUNCTIONAL ANATOMY…

In Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain, neurosurgeon Wilder G. Penfield publishes results from his study of the neurology of epilepsy. His mapping of the brain’s cortex sets a precedent for the brain-imaging techniques that become critical to biopsychology and cognitive neuroscience.

1954    THE NATURE OF PREJUDICE

Social Psychologist Gordon Allport publishes The Nature of Prejudice, which draws on various approaches in psychology to examine prejudice through different lenses. It is widely read by the general public and influential in establishing psychology’s usefulness in understanding social issues.

1954    BIOPSYCHOLOGY

In his studies of epilepsy, neuroscientist Wilder G. Penfield begins to uncover the relationship between chemical activity in the brain and psychological phenomena. His findings set the stage for widespread research on the biological role in psychological phenomena.

1954     PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

The development of psychoactive drugs in the 1950s and their approval by the FDA initiates a new form of treatment for mental illness. Among the first such drugs is Doriden, also known as Rorer, an anti-anxiety medication approved in 1954.

1954     HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

In the wake of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanistic psychology emerges as the “third force” in psychology. Led by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, who publishes Motivation and Personality in 1954, this approach centers on the conscious mind, free will, human dignity, and the capacity for self-actualization.

1956    COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Inspired by work in mathematics and other disciplines, psychologists begin to focus on cognitive states and processes. George A. Miller’s 1956 article “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” on information processing is an early application of the cognitive approach.

1957    SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES

Noam Chomsky publishes Syntactic Structures marking a major advancement in the study of linguistics. The book helps spawn the field of psycholinguistics, the psychology of language.

1960    FDA APPROVES LIBRIUM

The FDA approves the use of chlordiazepoxide (known as Librium) for treatment of non-psychotic anxiety in 1960. A similar drug, diazepam (Valium), is approved in 1963.

1963    COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH CENTERS ACT PASSED

U.S. President John F. Kennedy calls for and later signs the Community Mental Health Centers Act, which mandates the construction of community facilities instead of large, regional mental hospitals. Congress ends support for the program in 1981, reducing overall funds and folding them into a mental health block-grant program.

1964    FIRST NATIONAL MEDAL OF SCIENCE TO PSYCHOLOGIST

Neal E. Miller receives the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor given in the United States, for his studies of motivation and learning. He is the first psychologist to be awarded this honor.

1964    FDA APPROVES LITHIUM

The FDA approves lithium carbonate to treat patients with bipolar mood disorders. It is marketed under the trade names Eskalith, Lithonate, and Lithane.

1973    HOMOSEXUALITY REMOVED FROM DSM

After intense debate, the American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The widely used reference manual is revised to state that sexual orientation “does not necessarily constitute a psychiatric disorder.”

1974    PET SCANNER TESTED

A new brain scanning technique, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), is tested. By tracing chemical markers, PET maps brain function in more detail than earlier techniques.

1976    EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene, which begins to popularize the idea of evolutionary psychology. This approach applies principles from evolutionary biology to the structure and function of the human brain. It offers new ways of looking at social phenomena such as aggression and sexual behavior.

1976    THE SELFISH GENE

Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene, a work which shifts focus from the individual animal as the unit of evolution to individual genes themselves. The text popularizes the field of evolutionary psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology are applied in research on human brain structure.

1979    STANDARDIZED IQ TESTS FOUND DISCRIMINATORY

The U.S. District Court finds the use of standardized IQ tests in California public schools illegal. The decision in the case, Larry P. v. Wilson Riles, upholds the plaintiff’s position that the tests discriminate against African American students.

1981    AIDS AND HIV FIRST DIAGNOSED

The epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection presents mental health professionals with challenges ranging from at-risk patients’ anxiety and depression to AIDS-related dementia.

1984    INSANITY DEFENSE REFORM ACT PASSED

U.S. Congress revises federal law on the insanity defense, partly in response to the acquittal of John Hinckley, Jr. of charges of attempted assassination after he had shot President Ronald Reagan. The act places burden of proof for the insanity defense on the defendant.

1987    HOMELESS ASSISTANCE ACT PASSED

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act provides the first federal funds allocated specifically for the homeless population. The act includes provisions for mental health services, and responds, in part, to psychological studies on homelessness and mental disorders.

1987    PROZAC, PAXIL, AND ZOLOFT MADE AVAILABLE

The FDA approves the new anti-depressant medication fluoxetine, (Prozac). The drug, and other similar medications, acts on neurotransmitters, specifically, serotonin. It is widely prescribed and attracts attention and debate.

1990    CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

In Acts of Meaning, Four Lectures on Mind and Culture, Jerome Bruner helps formulate cultural psychology, an approach drawing on philosophy, linguistics, and anthropology. Refined and expanded by Hazel Markus and other researchers, cultural psychology focuses on the influences and relationship among mind, cultural community and behavior.

2000    SEQUENCING OF THE HUMAN GENOME

Sixteen public research institutions around the world complete a “working draft” mapping of the human genetic code, providing a research basis for a new understanding of human development and disease. A similar, privately funded, project is currently underway.

2000    DSM ON PDA

The latest revision of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published in a version for personal digital assistants (PDAs). The manual, first published in 1954, outlines prevalence, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders. Only 132 pages on first printing, in 2000 it was 980 pages.

What is Psychology?

Book) The scientific study of the overt and covert behavior of living organisms—with emphasis on animals and especially humans. (Along with the factors that influence each form of behavior.)

The scientific Study of mental processes, behaviors, and other unseen process that go in inside the organism. (Study Guide and review sheet Number 1)

What are the missions of Psychology?

The field of Psychology as two primary missions:

• To understand behavior in all its forms;
• To predict its (behavior) course;
• And perhaps control behavior.

What is the difference between basic and applied psychology?

Many psychologist are concerned with only basic science , or knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Others are chiefly interested in applied science, or the pursuit of knowledge that has practical uses.

Basic Science: the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.

Focusing primarily on basic science are:

• Cognitive Psychologist: are interested in the ways humans perceive and understand the world around them and in processes such as learning and memory.
• Comparative Psychologist: concentrate on relating animal behavior patterns to those found in humans.
• Physiological Psychologist: (psychobiologists and neuroscience) study the role of the body and especially brain functions in behavior.
• Developmental Psychologist:
  study how individuals grow and change throughout their lives
  
• Personality Psychologist:
  study how people differ in their enduring inner characteristics and traits.
  
• Social Psychologist: study how people influence and are influenced by others.
  
• Evolutionary Psychologist: focus on psychological tendencies inherent in being human.
  

Applied Science: the pursuit of knowledge that has specific practical uses.

Focusing primarily on applied science are:

• School Psychologist: test and evaluate students, analyze learning problems, and counsel both teachers and parents.
• Educational Psychologist: are concerned with all aspects of the educational process.
• Industrial/organizational Psychologist: work on a wide variety of issues in work settings.
• Environmental Psychologist:
  deal with ecological problems such as pollution and overcrowding.
  
• Community Psychologist: deal with aspects of the social environment and how social institutions could better serve human needs.
  
• Forensic Psychologist: work on behavioral issues important in the legal, judicial, and correctional systems.
  
• Health Psychologist: focus on ways to improve health by altering behavior.

1. Academic and Experimental Psychology: in terms of basic psyche

What is the difference between clinical and counseling psychology?

A traditional distinction is between experimental Psychologist and clinical Psychologist, but this distinction has become somewhat blurred.

• Clinical Psychology : the primary endeavor is the diagnosis and treatment of mental and behavioral disorders.
  • Clinical Psychologist help diagnose and treat psychological problems through a general approach known as psychotherapy.
  • Work sometimes with individuals and small groups, including families. Their approach is known as psychotherapy and it can take many forms.
• Counseling Psychology : work with people who have less severe and more specific problems of social and emotional adjustment.

1. Early Schools of thought: various approaches: strengths and weaknesses of each who the founders were or important people part of those schools (look at handout)
2. historical context
3. Pavlov and reflexology classical condition
4. Watson’s adoption of classical conditioning and the rise of behaviorism know something about Watson work and ideas
5. Thorndike, the various laws he developed: primacy, recency, over learning, and most important the law of effect: why is said the he preceded Pavlov in that rather important discovery.
6. Thorndike’s known as instrumental learning
7. need to know about skinner, operant conditioning: a method developed by skinner derived from instrumental work by Thorndike for changing voluntary behavior, things we chose to do, the things we decide to do
8. Classical conditioning: largely concern with changing automatic reflex behaviors the involuntary stuff that we do.
9. Freud Sigmund: iceberg metaphor, personality

What research methods do Psychologist use?

In studying behavior, Psychologist employ naturalistic observation, interviews, case histories, questionnaires, surveys, standardized tests, physiological measures, correlation, and experiments.

Observation Methods:

• Naturalistic Observation: a method of study in that involves observing behavior in normal, everyday settings.

  Participant observation: Psychologist that take an active part in a social situation, perhaps deliberate role playing to see how other people behave.

• Controlled/ Structured Observation:
  
  

Survey Methods

• Questionnaire: a highly structured pencil and paper interview
  
• Structured Interview: An in-depth question and answer session in which an individual’s life or problems are probed.

  Case Histories: a compilation of the history of an individual based on the interviews and other sources of information.

• Telephone Survey : The administration of a questionnaire to relatively large numbers of people.

Experimental Methods

• Co-Twin Method:
  
• Modern Experimental Method:
  

What is correlation and what does it tell us?

Correlation: a statistical technique for describing the extent and direction of the relationship between pairs of scores on some measure. , does not indiact what causes what

What can psychological experiments tell us?

• Experiments, which is psychology’s most powerful tool, assesses cause and effect through strictly controlled procedures and manipulations.
• Experiment: a careful and controlled study of cause and effect through manipulation of the conditions participants are exposed to.
• Internal Validity: the extent to which an experiment permits statements about cause and effect.
• External Validity: the extent to which an experiment applies to real-life behavior.

1. experimental method (3 )
   1. experimental groups: similar and different to
   2. control groups
      1. co-twin method of study: abandoned
      2. modern experimental method:
   3. The universe of potential subjects: all of those people we can draw upon to be apart of our experiment form which we select our population.
   4. Need to know how we select them
   5. stratified random sampling: representative group not just a random group
   6. independent variable
   7. dependent variable
   8. replication
   9. validity
   10. reliability how is it determined
   11. Clinical / case study method (hybrid method) :applied science
   12. Clinical evidence:
   13. Research data:
   14. Clinical interview and structure interview what are the differences?
   15. Chapter 4 Classical and Operant conditioning
   16. Shaping behavior
   17. Primary and secondary reinforcement
   18. Different types of reinforcement schedules
   19. Ratio
   20. Ethical standards

History of psychology like Wundt, James, Watson, Freud, Wertheimer (look at handout)

History of Psychology:

It is important that the history of psychology be reviewed, beginning with the founding of psychology as an independent “scientific discipline” (i.e. formal academic discipline).

1879: Wilhelm Wundt: the first Experimental Laboratory in Psychology (at Leipzig University in Leipzig Germany) and the first school of thought in psychology, Structuralism,

• Structuralism: (1^st school of thought is psychology) an approach that emphasized breaking down consciousness and mental activity into structural components and analyzing them individually.

1889: William James established the first American school of psychology at Harvard University, call Functionalism.

• Functionalism: an approach that stressed how modern human thought might result from progressive adaptations our ancestors experienced.

Then psychology was influenced by the foundation of Psychoanalysis, by Sigmund Freud
(Psychoanalytic theory 1^st force in Psychology).

• Psychoanalysis: Analysis of the unconscious motives and conflicts of patients in an attempt to develop insight into their present mental or behavioral problems.

Then Max Wertheimer established the Gestalt school of thought in psychology.

• Gestalt psychology: an approach that examines patterns of thought and behavior, emphasizing the situation or context in which they occur.

Followed by the “shift in focus” in American psychology to the study of observable behavior, resulting from John Watson’s establishment of Behaviorism, and subsequently drawing on the later work of B.F. Skinner.

• Strict Behaviorism: (2^nd force of Psychology) an approach that considers only overt behavior to be appropriate subject matter for psychology.

Still later, Psychology was influenced by two of the most contemporary schools of thought in psychology with the emergence of the Humanistic (3^rd force of Psychology) school resulting from the work of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rodgers
(with its focus on the uniqueness of human beings, and the development of human potentialities);

• Humanistic Psychology: (3^rd force of Psychology) an approach that emphasizes human values, goals, and desire for growth, fulfillment, and peace and happiness.

And the rise of the Cognitive school resulting from the original pioneering work of Jean Piaget

• Cognitive approach: a contemporary trend, based largely on the information-processing model that emphasizes mental and intellectual processes such as learning, memory, and thought.

Past, Present, and Promise is the first program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. It provides an introduction to and overview of psychology, from its origins in the nineteenth century to current study of the brain’s biochemistry. You’ll explore the development of psychology in general and some of the paths scientists take to determine relationships among the mind, the brain, and behavior.

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and their mental processes. Like many sciences, psychology has evolved with technology, giving doctors and researchers new tools to measure human behavior and analyze its causes.

In this program, Dr. Mahzarin Banaji from Yale University uses the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure how quickly positive or negative values are associated with white or black faces. Her subjects are shown a series of words and pictures and instructed to respond immediately by pushing a button to indicate their most automatic, reflex-like reactions. For example, they may be told to press a button in their right hand if the automatic association is good and to press a button in their left hand if the association is bad. The speed with which the subjects respond is an important element of the experiment because these quick, unconscious connections can reveal biases that differ from conscious beliefs.

The IAT results are matched against functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data to track activity in the amygdala, the region of the brain that responds to fearful or negative images. By correlating data on the buttons subjects pushed with fMRI information about activity in the amygdala, Dr. Banaji and her colleagues have found some interesting results. The majority of the white American respondents showed an unconscious association of white with good and black with bad, while the African American respondents showed mixed results. Half more quickly associated black with good, and the other half associated white with good.

Tracking brain activity in controlled experiments reveals not only the region of the brain at work, but also the power of images and messages in our culture on the subconscious human psyche, bringing psychologists one step closer to understanding human behavior.

Understanding Research is the second program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. This program examines how we know what we know. You’ll explore the scientific method, the distinction between fact and theory, and the different ways in which data are collected and applied, both in labs and in real-world settings.

Research often begins with a question. Traditionally, answers have been found in lab experiments, surveys, test groups, and interviews.

This program provides an example of research in a field setting. Psychologist Dr. Christina Maslach of the University of California at Berkeley studies job burnout, what causes it, and what can be done to prevent it. Instead of using traditional lab settings, Dr. Maslach conducts her research where the burnout is happening, in the workplace, using a real-world setting as a lab.

By taking this “fly-on-the-wall” approach, Dr. Maslach studies stress as it occurs, relying on subjects’ live experiences rather than just their memories or perceptions of past experiences. In this case, she has developed a scale to measure job burnout and a scale to measure the health of the workplace environment. Scientific methods to ensure accuracy are part of her approach. She collects data from carefully controlled measurements and observations, and the research process is methodical. The experiment can then be reproduced and the data tested by other researchers. By sharing data through publishing results, psychologists provide new understandings and new tools, as well as fodder for new questions and debates.

Through this consistent, long-term work, Dr. Maslach’s research has shed light not only on individual employees’ behavior, but also on the behavior of an entire organization. The application of this research helps individuals develop mechanisms for coping with stress, and assists organizations in evaluating the health and effectiveness of the workplace.

he Responsive Brain is the fourth program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. This program explores how the brain alters its structure and functioning in response to social situations. You’ll learn about the impact of different stimuli on human and animal brains, from the effect of human touch on premature babies to the effect of social status on the health of baboons.

Dr. Russell Fernald is a neuroethologist at Stanford University. Neuroethology integrates brain science with the study of behavior in natural habitats. The goal is to illustrate the interaction among brain, behavior, and environment. Dr. Fernald’s long-term work focuses on the African cichlid fish and how its social system regulates not only brain structures, but also bodily functions.

When a male cichlid fish recognizes an opportunity to become the dominant male, his body turns bright colors. The male fish then chases and attacks other male cichlid fish in an attempt to dominate and defend his territory. The physiological color change results from a response in the hypothalamus in the brain. In the cichlid fish, the signaling peptide cells grow eight times larger, sending the brain eight times the signal. The result is an enlargement of the fish gonads, physiologically preparing the fish to spawn with females.

When the cichlid fish loses control of the territory, he loses his bright coloring. Some fish, however, will then go into hiding, turn on the color signals of dominance, and pretend that they are still dominant for a period lasting up to three weeks.

The human brain also contains the hypothalamus. Neuroethologists hypothesize that behavioral responses parallel to those cichlid fish take place in humans, beginning at puberty. Dr. Fernald’s research illustrates one example of how animal and human brains receive and translate signals from the social environment, resulting in physiological change.

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