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The registry is a hierarchical database that is used by the Operating System (OS) to store information that is necessary to configure the system for users, applications and hardware devices. It contains information that Windows continually references during operation, such as profiles, applications installed on the computer and the types of documents that each can create. It also contains information for property sheet settings for folders, application icons, hardware that exists in the system, and the ports that are being used (”Windows registry”).

Registry Editor

The Registry replaced most of the text-based .ini files used in Windows 3.x and MS-DOS configuration files, such as the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. You can edit the registry by using Registry Editor (Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe). But be careful if you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you can cause problems that may require you to reinstall the operating system (”Windows registry”).

The Windows Registry is split into five logical sections. These all begin “HKEY” (an abbreviation for “Handle to Key”). Each of these keys is divided into subkeys, which contain further subkeys, and so on (see table 1). Any key may contain entries with various types of values. The values of these entries can be: a String Value, a Binary Value (0 or 1), a DWORD Value (32 bit unsigned integer), a Multi-String Value, or a Expandable String Value. Registry keys are specified with form similar to Windows’ path names, using backslashes to indicate levels of hierarchy. E.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows refers to the subkey “Windows” of the subkey “Microsoft” of the subkey “Software” of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key (”Windows registry”).

Works cited

Windows registry.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 Feb 2007, 00:24 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 12 Feb 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Windows_registry&oldid=106713608

The Behaving Brain is the third program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. This program looks at the structure and composition of the human brain: how neurons function, how information is collected and transmitted, and how chemical reactions relate to thought and behavior.

The human brain is an extraordinarily complex organ made up of different regions and parts, each with its own function. Chemical molecules and electrical impulses constantly flow between regions of the brain, sending signals and messages to other parts of the brain and body. Much like an orchestra, brain functioning depends on many individual parts working together.

One example highlighted in this program is the brain’s role in our ability to remember. Psychologist Dr. Mieke Verfaellie studies the causes and effects of amnesia at the Memory Disorders Research Center in Boston. Her research draws on evidence of damage to the hippocampal region of the brain, the area responsible for laying down new memories.

Contrary to popular opinion, amnesia doesn’t result in the loss of all memory or identity. Amnesia affects our short-term, or anteograde memory, and our ability to learn and retain new information. What’s interesting and often surprising in amnesia cases is that other regions of the brain continue to function normally, such as long-term memory. But damage to even one area, such as short-term memory, can dramatically affect our ability to navigate through daily life.

Neuroscientists are learning from abnormal brain functioning, such as amnesia, to identify normal brain patterns. For instance, the interplay of brain regions and their role in thoughts, understanding, and behavior are now better understood.

For a more detailed breakdown of the human brain, go to the Brain Exploration feature of this site.

Dr. Verfaellie contributed to an article about memory distortions in amnesic patients, published in MIT’s Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, “When True Recognition Suppresses False Recognition: Evidence from Amnesic Patients.” http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/JOCN/jcn10602.pdf.

What was Freud’s basic view of personality and how it develops?

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory assumes that the core of personality is conflict—springing from a basic pleasure seeking energy call the libido. This theory was the first of what are now called psychodynamic
theories.

A key idea in Freud’s theory of personality is that all humans posses a basic energy called the libido that is directed at satisfying needs, maximizing pleasure, and minimizing pain. Many of the acts that bring pleasure, however, cause conflict as well, which Freud saw as the core of personality.

What major contributions did Freud make to the study of personality?

Freud was the first to develop a comprehensive theory of personality. Freud’s views have had a profound influence on many later Psychodynamic theorists, referred to as psychodynamic theorists.

What aspects of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory were changed by psychodynamic theorist who came after him?

The following are among Freud’s successors who made major modifications to his theory.

1. Jung with his analytical psychology, rejected Freud’s emphasis on sexuality, introduced the concept of the collective unconscious with its archetypes, and coined the terms introvert and extrovert.

2. Adler, with his Individual psychology, rejected Freud’s emphasis on sexuality and instead emphasized striving for superiority and social interest.

3. Horney, with her social psychoanalytic theory, rejected Freud’s emphasis on sexuality and his views on women and introduced the concept of basic anxiety.

4. Erickson put forth his theory of psychosocial development.

5. Fromm emphasized social and cultural influences on personality.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Psychoanalytic Theory holds that the human mind has three parts, or forces:

1. the unconscious mind, which includes the id, with its pleasure principle;

2. the conscious ego, with its reality
principle;

3. And the often unconscious superego, with its morality principle.

The primitive id contains the persons’ instinctive drives towards sensuality and aggression.

Freud believed that human psychosexual development takes place in five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

The superego is acquired as a result of the Oedipus complex, which all children are assumed to undergo between ages 3 and 6.

The central problem in mental disorders, according to classical psychoanalytic theory is anxiety.

Id, Ego, and Superego

Freud conceived of the human personality and mind as having three major components, which he called the id, the ego, and the superego.

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The Internal Battle

The three parts of the mind are often in conflict, and Freud regarded this Intrapsychic conflict as the essence of human personality. One result of the conflict is anxiety, which is produced in the ego. When ever the demands of the id are dangerous or the disapprovals of the superego are intense.

Anxiety arouses the ego to fight the impulses or thoughts that have created it. In one way or another—by using repression and the other defense mechanisms (see chapter 12 notes), by turning the mind’s attention elsewhere, by gratifying some other impulse of the id—the ego defends itself against the threat posed by the id or the superego and minimizes the anxiety.

Psychosexual Development

Freud believed that human psychosexual development takes place in five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.