The functioning of a Neuron and its effects on Behavior
Neurons are electrically sensitive cells that transmit signals to other nerve cells or effecter organs. The effecter organs include glands and muscle cells. Neurons receive, process, and transmit stimuli through electrical or chemical signaling. Together with neuroglial cells, they form the nervous tissues, which combine to make the nervous system. Sensory nerve cells respond to stimuli like touch, light, and sound.
All nerve cells have three parts; the dendrite, cell body, soma, and the axon. The dendrite receives stimuli from another nerve cell or receives impulses from the sensory receptors in cases of a sensory nerve cell. The cell body or soma contains the nucleus. The axon transmits the signal to other cells or effecter organs. Sensory nerve cells have a long dendrite and a short axon.
Other specialized neurons are the motor nerve cells. The motor neurons receive processed signals from the brain and spinal cord and pass them on to muscle cells and glands. The result of the movement is muscle contraction, whereby glands produce enzymes and other fluids. The motor neurons have shorter dendrites and longer axons as compared to the sensory nerves.
The outside of the plasma membrane of neurons has sodium ions, which cause a positive charge, and the inside has potassium ions, which cause negative control. This is the average resting potential of the cell. For a signal to be received and passed on to the next neuron, sodium flows inside the cell to cause an action potential. Potassium ions move out of the cell membrane, making the inside more positively charged than the outside. Sodium ions are pumped out of the cell membrane, and potassium ions into the membrane and, In turn, restore it into the original state (Nevid, 2008). This continues to the next cell as the signal is passed over.
The password is sent and received from one neuron to the other through connections known as synapses. Neuron firing occurs when there is a combination of these signals in surplus or activation levels. Neuron firing is the sending of a call to other neurons connected to it.
When the sensory receptors detect stimuli in the external environment, they send signals to the sensory nerve cells connected to the spinal cord and the brain. The movement is processed and sent through the motor nerve cells, which affect the muscle cells and glands. At this point, the body acts to respond to the stimuli from the external environment.
Cognitive Learning Process
The process of learning what Ray experienced was the cognitive process of learning. The mental process of learning explains how information is received, processed, and retained in mind. The process involves knowledge, self-awareness, perception, way of thinking, and judgment. It consists of the thinking process of evaluating and interpreting the environment and predicting the outcomes. The cognitive process involves three stages; mental inputs, cognitive function, and cognitive outputs.
Cognitive inputs are the five senses, instincts, emotions, and fear. Inputs are the stimuli acquired from the environment, for example, the objects we look at or the cold we feel. The cognitive process involves the activities of the brain to process and interpret the inputs. This process is affected by an individual’s knowledge, intelligence, wisdom, and instinct. Experience is also affected by the capacity to remember. Intelligence is one’s problem-solving ability.
Cognitive outputs are the reactions an individual responds to the inputs (Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian, 2007). These include; decisions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors of an individual in response to the environmental stimuli. The observed object (which is the cognition input) undergoes the cognition process in the brain and an attitude (which is the cognition output) towards the object being given out.
When Ray was assigned to the barracks, this was a new environment for him, and he had no information on how to behave in this environment. The sound of the toilet flushing and the water becoming hotter were inputs to the cognition process. These inputs were processed and interpreted in Ray’s brain. When Ray screamed, this was a cognitive output since the brain had diagnosed the inputs as painful. This was the responsive Behavior to the information. While taking a shower the next day, and the toilet happened to flush, the Behavior of screaming and jumping out of the stream of water can be explained by the mental process of knowledge. The past experience had been retained in the brain, and the mode of Behavior established the first time Ray took a shower.
Cognition may be done consciously or unconsciously. In Ray’s case, he had learned unconsciously. Awareness has been researched in different experiments. For example, Pavlov’s dog experiment, where a bell was rung before a dog, which was the study subject, was given food. It was later observed that whenever the bell rang, the dog would salivate since it associated the sound of the bell with food (Weiten, Dunn, and Yost, 2011). Pavlov’s dog experiment later led to the development of the Skinner box.
Approaches to Parenting
Mr. and Mrs. McDonald uses the authoritarian parenting approach. This is the approach where the parents are strict but not responsive to the emotional needs of the children. This type of parenting is characterized by high hopes of compliance with the rules set by the parents (Charlesworth, 2010). Parents do not negotiate anything with their children and expect their decisions to be followed by their children with no questions. Children are more likely to be spanked for not conforming to the set rules, and the reason for breaking the rules is not given by the child.
This approach to parenting makes the child more dependent because he/she is not used to making decisions on his/her own. Children are likely to be rebellious in a situation where the child becomes more informed or is in their teenage years. It may also negatively affect a child’s self-esteem. This approach has its own advantages. Children raised by authoritarian parents are more likely to avoid risky behaviors at a tender age.
However, this may change as the child grows older. This approach to parenting works well with children who have conduct disorder and those who are under the age of ten (not reached their teenage years). The authoritarian approach to parenting is widely used by Asian parents. Evidence points out that the discipline and high performance of Asian children (particularly the Chinese) are accredited to authoritarian parenting.
Mr. and Mrs. Mendoza uses the traditional approach to parenting. In this approach, parents are authoritarian but responsive to the emotional needs of the children. The parents believe that their children have the ability to make decisions but expect that the findings will comply with their expectations (Charlesworth, 2010).
The authoritative style of parenting may have cases of indiscipline in the child’s Behavior if not well monitored, but the child is less likely to rebel against the parent’s authority. Children have a chance of developing their decision-making ability and to become independent. Children raised by authoritative parents are improbable to report cases of depression and worry. Such children are also unlikely to involve themselves in troublemaking activities such as drug abuse and crime.
Both the authoritarian and authoritative approaches to parenting are appropriate, each in their own way, as they both have their advantages and disadvantages. The two types of parenting can, however, be used on the same child at different stages in his/her development. The traditional approach is most appropriate when the child is under 16 years since he/she lacks the ability to make the right decisions.
Study of Human Behavior
Psychology deals with the study of human Behavior in relation to how the mind interprets, perceives, and thinks with the objective of knowing why living things act the way they do (Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian, 2007). On the other hand, common sense is the sound and prudent judgment of an individual based on the perception of the circumstances or facts (Rathus, Veenvliet, and Matheu, 2011). It is evident that psychology seeks to find out why an individual perceives, judges, or acts the way he/she does. It goes beyond common sense since it also investigates acts that are imprudent and can still justify the acts as appropriate. Psychology does not only judge the actions of an individual like common sense does, and it investigates reasons for doing the front and an individual’s cognition process so as to arrive at the final act.
Common sense focuses on human Behavior, while psychology has a broader scope since it also covers Behavior in animals. The range of psychology also covers topics in biology such as the nervous system, functioning of the brain, and hormones (Rathus, Veenvliet, and Matheu, 2011).
Psychology also seeks to explain how changes in Behavior are affected by the environment, temperaments, and bodily functioning. On the other hand, common sense narrows down and focuses on the prudence and acceptability of an individual’s Behavior. Human behavior is affected by various factors that are studied in psychology.
A cognitive approach to Behavior may help understand the reasons behind different actions of humans and predict future Behavior. Through research based on the perception, processing, and reasoning of the memory of an individual, Behavior may be better understood rather than just by focusing on prudence reasoning or common sense.
The ultimate object that sets psychology apart from common sense is the scientific approach used in psychology. Common sense is just actions that are guided by an individual’s or society’s values and beliefs; therefore, common sense lacks a sense of knowledge.
Common sense has been the obstacle to research and the reason why psychological examinations have not been speared. Common sense tries to explain problems and situations in ways that can be understood by a simple mind and try to avoid complicated experiments and research since they lack logic in the eyes of common sense. Psychology, on the other hand, is more theoretical and practical in explaining the causes and effects of a particular behavior in an animal or human being. Psychology has a foundation in explaining Behavior from experiments carried out by various philosophers and psychologists such as B.F Skinner, Abraham Maslow, and many other contributors. Common sense lacks such scholars.
References
Charlesworth, R. (2010). Understanding Child Development (8th ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Nevid, J. (2008). Psychology: Concepts and Applications (3rd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Plotnik, R., and Kouyoumdjian, H. (2007). Introduction to Psychology. Belmont: Thomson.
Rathus, S., Veenvliet, S., and Matheu, J. (2011). Psych. Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.
Weiten, W., Dunn, S., and Yost, L. (2011). Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century, (10th ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.