Chapter 2

Biopsychology and Human Development

Prepared by: Jane Marie D. Tamayo, RPm, MS Psy

Nervous System
• network of cells that carries information to and from all parts of the body.
Neuroscience
• a branch of the life sciences that deals with the structure and functioning of the brain
and the neurons, nerves, and nervous tissue that form the nervous system.
Biological psychology, or behavioral neuroscience
• branch of neuroscience that focuses on the biological bases of psychological processes,
behavior, and learning, and it is the primary area associated with the biological
perspective in psychology.

Nervous System Cells

1. Glia Cells
• support the neurons in many ways such as by insulating them, synchronizing activity
among neighboring neurons, and removing waste products. The glia cells are smaller but
more numerous than neurons.

2. Neurons
• A specialized cell in the nervous system that receives and sends messages within the
system.
• 2 Kinds of Neurons (Rathus, 2014)
1. Afferent (sensory) neurons transmit messages from sensory receptors to the
spinal cord and the brain.
2. Efferent (motor) neurons transmit messages from the brain or spinal cord to
muscles and glands
Structure and Function of Neurons

1. Cell body – provides fuel, manufactures chemicals, and maintains the entire neuron.
2. Dendrites – receives signals from other neurons, muscles or receptors and pass thee
signals to the cell body.
3. Axon – carries signals away from the cell body to the neighboring neurons, organs or
muscles.
4. Myelin sheath – fatty substance that wraps around and insulates an axon. It prevents
interference from electrical signals generated in adjacent axons.
5. Terminal bulbs – stores chemicals called neurotransmitters.
6. Synapse - is an infinitely small space that exists between an end bulb and its adjacent
body organ (heart), muscles (head), or cell body.

PROCESS FLOW OF INFORMATION

Terminal
Receptors Dendrites Cell body Axon
bulbs

Receptor
Synapse
sites

• Neural impulse – an electrochemical message that travel along the nerve.

• Action potential – a tiny electric current that is generated when the positive sodium ions
rush inside the axon.
• Sodium pump – a transport process that enter the axon’s chemical gates and return them
back outside.
• Resting state – means that the axon has a charge or potential which results from the axon
membrane separating positive ions on the outside from negative ions on the inside.
• Axon membrane – has chemical gates that can open to allow electrically charged particles to
enter and can close to keep out electrically charged particles.
• The all-or-None law – says that if an action potential starts at the beginning of an axon, the
action potential will continue at the same speed, segment by segment, to the very end of the
axon.
• Synapse – a microscopic fluid-filled space between the terminal of one cell and dendrites of
another.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS – are chemicals that are made by neurons and then used for
communications between neurons.

Neurotransmitters Functions
Acetylcholine Excitatory or inhibitory, involved in arousal, attention,
memory and control muscle contractions
Serotonin Excitatory or inhibitory, involved in mood, sleep and
appetite
GABA (gammaaminobutyric Major inhibitory neurotransmitter, involved in sleep
acid) and inhibits movement.
Glutamate Major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in
learning, memory formation, nervous system
development, and synaptic plasticity.
Norepinephrine Mainly excitatory, involved in arousal and mood
Dopamine Excitatory or inhibitory, involved in control of
movement and sensation of pleasure.
Endorphins Inhibitory neural regulators; involved in pain relief.

Overview of the Nervous System

Central Nervous System: The Central Processing Unit

• composed of the brain and spinal cord
Spinal Cord
• is a long bundle of neurons that serves two vital functions for the nervous system.
The Brain
• core of the nervous system, the part that makes sense of the information received from
the senses, makes decisions, and sends commands out to the muscles and the rest of the
body, if needed.
Control Centers: The Four Lobes

A. Frontal Lobe. It is involved in performing voluntary motor movements, performing emotional

behaviors, behaving normally in social situations, maintaining a healthy personality, paying
attention to things in the environment, and making decisions and executing plans.
a. Motor cortex – located on the back edge of the frontal lobe. It is involved in the initiation
of all voluntary movements.
b. Broca’s Area – usually located in the left frontal lobe. It is necessary for combining sounds
into words and arranging words into meaningful sentences. Damage to this area (Broca’s
Aphasia) will hinder the person to speak fluent sentences although he can understand
written and spoken words.
B. Parietal lobe. It is involved in processing sensory information from body parts, which includes
touching, locating position of limbs, and feeling temperature and pain.
a. Somatosensory cortex – located on the front edge of the parietal lobe. It processes
sensory information from the skin senses.
C. Temporal Lobe. It is involved in hearing, speaking coherently and understanding verbal and
written material.
a. Primary Auditory cortex – located on the top edge of the temporal lobe. It receives
impulses from receptors in the ears and transforms them into meaningless sounds.
b. Auditory association area – transforms basic sensory information, such as noises or
sounds, into recognizable auditory information such as music or words.
 c. Wernicke’s Area – located in the left temporal lobe. It is necessary in speaking coherent
sentences and understanding speech. Damage to this area results to Wernicke’s aphasia,
a difficulty in understanding spoken or written words.
D. Occipital Lobe. It is involved in processing visual information, which includes seeing colors and
perceiving and recognizing objects, animals and people.
a. Primary visual cortex – located at the very back of the occipital lobe. It receives impulses
from the eyes and transforms these signals to meaningless visual sensations such as
lights, lines and shadows, colors and textures.
b. Visual association area – located next to the primary visual cortex which transforms basic
sensations to meaningful visual perceptions.
c. Visual agnosia – disability to arrange objects into meaningful wholes.
• The Limbic System. A group of interconnected structures that make up the core of the forebrain.
Generally, is involved in emotions, motivation, memory, and learning.
a. Hypothalamus – regulates many motivational behaviors, including eating, drinking and
sexual responses, emotional behaviors and secretion of hormones.
b. Amygdala – receives input from all the senses. It plays a major role n evaluating the
emotional significance of stimuli and facial expressions, especially those involving fear,
distress or threat.
c. Thalamus – involved in receiving information, doing some initial processing and then
relaying the sensory information to areas of the cortices.
d. Hippocampus – involved in saving many kinds of fleeting memories by putting them into
permanent storage in various parts of the brain.
Peripheral Nervous System: Nerves on the Edge
• The term peripheral refers to things that are not in the center or that are on the edges of
the center. The peripheral nervous system or PNS is made up of all the nerves and
neurons that are not contained in the brain and spinal cord.
• It is this system that allows the brain and spinal cord to communicate with the sensory
systems of the eyes, ears, skin, and mouth and allows the brain and spinal cord to control
the muscles and glands of the body.

2 Major System of PNS:

1. Somatic Nervous System - consists of nerves that control the voluntary muscles of the
body
2. Autonomic Nervous System – consists of nerves that control the involuntary muscles,
organs, and glands. It has 2 major divisions:
a) Sympathetic Division – “fight-or-flight” system
b) Parasympathetic Division – “eat-drink-and-rest” system
Endocrine System

The endocrine system is made up of numerous glands that are located throughout the body.
These glands secrete various chemicals called hormones. In many ways, the hypothalamus controls
much of the endocrine system by regulating the pituitary gland.

• The pituitary gland – the master gland

o Posterior pituitary – regulates, water salt balance. Hypo-secretion results to diabetes.
o Anterior pituitary – regulates growth through secretion of growth hormone; produces
hormones that control the adrenal cortex, pancreas, thyroid and gonads.
• Pineal gland – secretes melatonin, a hormone which helps track day length and seasons and
regulates the sleep-wake cycle.

• Thyroid - regulates body

metabolism through its
hormone thyroxin.
• Pancreas – regulates sugar
level by secreting insulin.
Lack of insulin results in
diabetes while too much
causes hypoglycemia.
• Adrenal glands – The adrenal
medulla releases epinephrine
and norepinephrine when
people are under stress and
aids in sympathetic arousal.
The adrenal cortex produces
30 different hormones called
corticoids or steroids that
regulates salt intake, provides
sex hormones in addition to
those provided by the
gonads.
• Gonads – regulates sexual
development, ovulation, and
growth of sex organs. Ovaries
in females and testes in
males.
•
 Human Development

Human development is the scientific study of the changes that occur in people as they age, from
conception until death. From the moment of conception, human beings begin a process of change that
will continue throughout life. A single cell develops into a living, breathing, walking, talking person.
Although this single cell becomes a unique individual later, the changes that can occur in the lifespan
have common patterns. Human Development as a field is a scientific study of the systematic processes
of change and stability in people across the lifespan. Developmental psychologists or developmentalists
are the individuals who are engaged in the professional study of human development.

Research Designs:
1. Longitudinal Design – one group of people is followed and studies at different times as the
group ages.
2. Cross-sectional Design – several different age-groups are studied at one time
3. Cross-sequential Design – combination of the longitudinal and cross-sectional designs

Cohort Effect – impact on development that occurs when a group of people share a common
time period or common life experience.

Basic Building Blocks of Development

Genetics – science of heredity.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a very special kind of molecule (the smallest particle of a
substance that still has all the properties of that substance). DNA consists of two very long sugar–
phosphate strands, each linked together by certain chemical elements called amines or bases arranged in
a particular pattern. The amines are organic structures that contain the genetic codes for building the
proteins that make up organic life (hair coloring, muscle, and skin, for example) and that control the life
of each cell. Each section of DNA containing a certain sequence (ordering) of these amines is called a
gene. These genes are located on rod-shaped structures called chromosomes, which are found in the
nucleus of a cell.
Humans have a total of 46 chromosomes in each cell of their bodies (with the exception of the
egg and the sperm). Twenty-three of these chromosomes come from the mother’s egg and the other 23
from the father’s sperm. Most characteristics are determined by 22 such pairs, called the autosomes. The
last pair determines the sex of the person. The two chromosomes of this pair are called the sex
chromosomes. Two X-shaped chromosomes indicate a female while an X and a Y indicate a male.

Dominant gene – genes that are more active in influencing the trait.
Recessive gene- genes that tend to recede, or fade, into the background when paired with a more
dominant gene.

Genetic and Chromosome Problems

• Cystic Fibrosis – disease of the respiratory and digestive tracts

• Sickle-cell Anemia – blood disorder
• Tay-Sachs Disorder – fatal neurological disorder
• Phenylketonuria (PKU) – an infant is born without the ability to break down phenylalanine, an
amino acid controlling coloring of the skin and hair.
Chromosome Disorders:

Down Syndrome - a disorder in which there is an extra chromosome in what would normally be the 21st
pair.

Klinefelter’s syndrome - the 23rd set of sex chromosomes is XXY, with the extra X producing a male with
reduced masculine characteristics, enlarged breasts, obesity, and excessive height (Bock, 1993)

Turner’s syndrome - the 23rd pair is actually missing an X, so that the result is a lone X chromosome
(Ranke & Saenger, 2001)

Developmental Periods of Human Development

1. Prenatal period – from conception to birth

2. Infancy and Toddlerhood – birth – 3 years
3. Early Childhood – 3 to 6 years
4. Middle Childhood – 6 to 11 years
5. Adolescence – 11 to 20 years
6. Emerging and Young Adulthood – 20 to 40 years
7. Middle Adulthood – 40 to 65 years
8. Late Adulthood – 65 and over

Prenatal Influences

GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

1. Nature – Nurture. Individual differences are brought about by heredity (nature) and environment
(nurture). Heredity refers to the inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents
while environment refers to the world outside the self, beginning in the womb as well as the
learning experiences. Another factor that contributes to individual differences is the timing of the
unfolding of the natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes, called maturation.

2. Parents. The father contributes half of one’s genetic instructions (23 chromosomes) and the
mother contributed the other half (23 chromosomes).

When the egg (also called ovum) and the sperm (spermatozoon) unite in the process of ,
fertilization, the resulting single cell will have a total of 46chromosomes and is called a zygote. Normally
the zygote will begin to divide, first into two cells, then four, then eight, and so on, with each new cell
also having 46 chromosomes, because the DNA molecules produce duplicates, or copies, of themselves
before each cell division. This division process is called mitosis. Sometimes this division process doesn’t
work exactly this way, and twins or multiples are the result (Cicarelli 2012).

There are two kinds of twins. Identical twins or monozygotic twins come from only one zygote.
Early in the division process, the mass of cells split completely into two separate masses, each develops
into a fetus with the same genetic composition. Fraternal twins or dizygotic twins or triplets or multiple
babies occur when the woman releases more than one egg during the entire ovulation period and all the
eggs were fertilized (Cicarelli 2012) .

3. Socioeconomic Status and Neighborhood. Socioeconomic status is based on family income, and the
educational and occupational levels of the adults in the household. Poverty can be harmful to the
physical, cognitive and psychosocial well-being of children and families. The composition of a
neighborhood with large number of unemployed people makes it less likely that effective social
support will be available. Although, positive development can still happen under negative
circumstances and affluence on the other hand does not necessarily protect children from
developmental risks (Papalia 2012).
4. Culture, Race and Ethnicity. This refers to the society’s total way of life including its customs,
traditions, laws, knowledge, beliefs, values, language and physical products, all of the behaviors and
attitudes that are learned , shared and transmitted among its members. Ethnicity comprised a
distinctive culture, ancestry, religion, language or national origin, , all of which contribute to a sense
of shared identity and shared attitudes, values and beliefs (Papalia 2012).
5. Placenta and Teratogens. The blood supply of the fetus is partly protected by the placenta. It acts
like a filter, allowing oxygen and nutrients to pass through while keeping out some toxic or harmful
substances. A teratogen is any agent that can harm a developing fetus, causing deformities or brain
damage. It might be a disease such as genital herpes, a drug such as alcohol, or another
environmental agent such as chemicals (Plotnik 2012).
6. Drug Use and Exposure to chemicals. This includes caffeine, cocaine, shabu, nicotine and alcohol. For
example, Fetal Acohol Syndrome (FAS) results from a mother drinking heavily during pregnancy,
especially in the first twelve weeks. FAS results in physical changes such as short stature, flattened
nose, and short eye openings; neurological changes such as fewer brain connections within the brain
structure; and psychological and behavioral problems such as hyperactivity, impulsive behavior,
deficits in information processing and memory, alcohol and drug use, and poor socialization(Plotnik
2012).

THREE STAGES IN THE PRENATAL PERIOD

• The Germinal Stage – The first stage of prenatal development and refers to the two week period
following conception. A woman releases an egg during ovulation period. If no sperm is present,
this egg together with the lining of the uterus is sloughed off in menstruation (Plotnik 2012). If
the egg is fertilized, conception occurs and the ovum becomes a zygote. The zygote then
undergoes a series of cell division until it becomes a blastocyst and implants itself in the uterine
wall.
• The Embryonic Stage – The second stage of the prenatal period and spans the two to eight
weeks that follow conception. During this stage, the cells divide and begin to differentiate into
different organs of the body.
• The Fetal Stage – The third stage in prenatal development which begins two months after
conception and lasts until birth. During this stage, the fetus develops vital organs and features
that make one distinctively human.
Newborn’s Abilities

A. Brain growth – After birth, the genetic program regulates how the brain develops. The weight of
a baby’s brain increases from 5 to 75 percent of its adult weight.
B. Sensory Development
a. Faces – Beginning at 4 months an infant can distinguish his mother’s face from a
stranger’s or animals. By 3 or 4 years of age, an infant’s visual abilities are equal to those
of an adult.
b. Hearing – One-month old infants have very keen hearing and can discriminate small
sound variations. By 6 months, infants have developed the ability to make all the sounds
of their language.
c. Touch – Newborns also have a well-developed sense of touch. Touch can also elicit a
number of reflexes such as sucking and grasping.
d. Smell and Taste – one-day old infant can discriminate odor. Six-week old infants can
smell the difference between their mother and a stranger.
e. Depth perception – By 6 months, infants have developed depth perception.
C. Motor Development – refers to the stages of motor skills that all infants pass through as they
acquire the muscular control necessary for making coordinated movements. The early
development of motor skills follows two general rules.
a. The proximodistal principle states that parts closer to the center of the infant’s body
(Latin proximo means “near”) develop before parts farther away (Latin distal means
“far”).
b. The cephalocaudal principle states that parts of the body closer to the head (Greek
cephalo means “head”) develop before parts closer to the feet (Greek caudal means
“tail”).
c. Developmental Norms – refer to the average ages at which children perform various
kinds of skills and exhibit abilities or behaviors.

Motor Develoment of Babies (Rathus 2014)

Emotional Development

Emotional development refers to the influence and interaction of genetic factors, brain changes,
cognitive factors, coping abilities, and cultural factors in the development of emotional behaviors,
expressions, thoughts and feelings (Plotnik 2012).

Temperament – a relatively stable and long lasting individual differences in mood and emotional
behavior, which emerge early in childhood because they are influenced by genetic factors. Researchers
classify babies into four temperaments (Plotnik 2012).

1. Easy babies – happy and cheerful, have regular eating and sleeping habits, and adapted
quickly to new situations.
2. Slow-to-warm-up babies – more withdrawn, moody and tend to take longer to adapt to
new situations.
3. Difficult babies – fussy, fearful of new situation and more intense in their reactions.
4. No-single-category babies – could not be classified into one of the other three.

Attachment – a close, fundamental emotional bond that develops between the infant and his parents or
caregiver. Separation anxiety is an infant’s distress as indicated by loud protests, crying and agitation
whenever the infant’s parents temporarily leave. Mary Ainsworth (1979) classified four styles of
attachment.

1. Secure attachment is characteristic of infants who use their parent or caregiver as a safe
home base from which they can wander off and explore their environment.
2. Avoidant attachment is characteristic of infants who are unaffected by a caregiver
leaving or returning (Papalia 2012).
3. Ambivalent (resistant) attachment is characteristic of infants who avoid or show
ambivalence or resistance toward their parent or caregiver.

Cognitive Development

Cognitive Development refers to how a person perceives, thinks and gains understanding of his
world through the interaction and influence of genetic and learned factors. Developmentalist Jean
Piaget ushered a theory on the Stages of Cognitive Development.

Social Development

Social Development refers to how a person develops a sense of self or self-identity, develops
relationships with others, and develops the kinds of social skills important in personal interactions.

Sigmund Freud introduced the Psychosexual Stages of Development. During each stage the
individual seeks pleasure from different areas of the body that are associated with sexual feelings. Freud
emphasized that a child’s first five years are the most important to social and personality development.
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development (Cicarelli 2012)

Stage Cognitive Development

Children explore the world using their senses and
ability to move. They develop object permanence
Sensorimotor Birth to 2 years old
and the understanding that concepts and mental
images represent objects, people, and events.
Young children can mentally represent and refer to
objects and events with words or pictures and they
Preoperational 2 to 7 years old can pretend. However, they can’t conserve,
logically reason, or simultaneously consider many
characteristics of an object.
Children at this stage are able to conserve, reverse
their thinking, and classify objects in terms of their
many characteristics. They can also think logically
Concrete Operations 7 to 12 years old
and understand analogies but only about concrete
events.
People at this stage can use abstract reasoning
about hypothetical events or situations, think
12 years old to about logical possibilities, use abstract analogies,
Formal Operations
adulthood and systematically examine and test hypotheses.
Not everyone can eventually reason in all these
ways.

Vygotsky’s Theory (Cicarelli 2012)

Zone of proximal development (ZPD) - difference between what a child can do alone versus what a
child can do with the help of a teacher.

Stage Age Language Development

Begin to make vowel-like
Cooing 2 mos
sounds
Add consonant sounds to the
Babbling 6 months vowels to make a babbling
sound
One-word Speech Before or around age 1 Begin to say actual words
Toddlers begin to string words
together to form short, simple
Telegraphic Speech 1 year and a half
sentences using nouns, verbs,
and adjectives.
Learn to use grammatical terms
Whole Sentences Preschool years and increase the number of
words in their sentences
 Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development (Papalia 2012)

Stage Characteristics
Source of sensual pleasure is feeding. When fixated they can
First 18
Oral Stage: become nail biters, smokers or develop “bitingly” critical
months of life
personalities.
Source of sensual pleasure is bowel movement. When fixated they
18 months to
Anal Stage can become obsessively clean, rigidly tied to schedules and routines,
three years
defiantly messy
Children develop aggressive sexual urges to their parent (Oedipus
Phallic stage 3 to 6 years and electra complex); eventually resolve their anxiety and identify
with same sex parent.
6 years to A period of relative calm and intellectual and social exploration.
Latency stage
puberty Redirect their energies to school work, and hobbies.
Puberty to The sexual urges resurface but towards heterosexual relations
Genital Stage
adulthood outside the family of origin.

Erik Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development

DEVELOPMENTAL
STAGE IF SUCCESSFUL IF UNSUCCESSFUL
CRISIS
They learn to trust people They learn not to trust.
Trust Versus
Birth to 1 year old and expect life to be
Mistrust
pleasant
Autonomy versus They learn to be They learn self-doubt and
1 to 3 years old
shame and doubt independent shame.
Initiative versus They feel capable and They feel irresponsible,
3 to 5 years old
guilt develop initiative anxious and guilty.
Industry versus Develop sense of industry, They feel incompetent,
To 12 years old
inferiority feeling of competence inadequate and inferior.
Identity versus Role Develop a strong sense of Become confused, and
13 to early 20s
Confusion identity. withdraw from a crowd.
Intimacy versus Have satisfying intimate Isolated and may suffer
20s and 30s
Isolation relationship from loneliness.
Creative, productive, Passive, self-centered,
Generativity versus
40s and 50s nurturant feel that they have done
stagnation
nothing
Ego integrity versus Enjoys life and not afraid of Emptiness and fear of
60s and beyond
despair death death

Moral Development

Harvard University professor Lawrence Kohlberg, influenced by Piaget, outlined a theory of the
development of moral thinking through looking at how people responded to stories about people
caught up in a dilemma (Cicarelli 2012).
 Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
LEVEL OF MORALITY HOW RULES ARE UNDERSTOOD
The consequences determine
morality; behavior that is
Pre-conventional morality
divided is right; that which is
punished is wrong.
Conformity to social norms is
Conventional Morality right, nonconformity is wrong.
Moral principles determined by
the person are used to
Post-conventional morality determine right and wrong and
may disagree with societal
norms.
EXAMPLE
A child who steals a toy from
another child and does not get
caught does not see that action as
wrong.
A child criticizes his parent for
speeding because speeding is
against the stated laws.
A reporter who wrote a
controversial story goes to jail rather
than reveal the source’s identity.