Psychology

By Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article proposes that the human psyche derives functionally and structurally from the same mechanisms that led to the origin and increasing complexity of life forms in the course of time. The mechanism is described as a sequence of events whereby organic entities first emerged through an initial separation process in which they were able to partition themselves from the outer (extra-cellular) environment via membrane structures and mechanisms. That first organism/environmental partition led to a capacity for self-regulation, whereby cells developed their own insular energy and information producing capabilities. The trend toward greater subdivisions continued, as cells proceeded to become more intra-distinctive and internally complex. To adapt to and regulate their own internal complexity they developed broader, more flexible systemic rules and psycho-physiological parameters to accommodate further intra-distinctions in line with the continued trend toward further subdivisions. This article proposes that this trend is the sine qua non of the biological world, perhaps even exceeding natural selection in importance and that it is a model that can be applied to brain evolution and the origin of psychic functioning in man.

A Concept of Life…Themes and Variations

While the advent of life forms has been viewed as a highly improbable occurrence (Crick, 1982) it might have been fairly predictable. (Ball, 2006). The amino acids arising from the tumultuous conditions on earth 3.5 billion years ago were prone to line up in chain sequences that comprise proteins, the building blocks of animal tissue. The combination of protein structures and the emergence of a heavily bonded, internally resilient macromolecule known as DNA created a prototype for an entity with resilient anatomical and reproductive features that we now refer to as “life.”

[Read more…] about The Psyche: A Biological Perspective

by Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article discusses human evolution in terms of cue and trait detection skills facilitated by expansion of the human brain. A comparison is drawn regarding the co-impact of natural and sexual selection. The latter is considered to have a more potent, yet culturally influenced, happenstance effect on human evolution.

While natural selection is typically presumed to be the main driver of organic evolution, one could argue that in the course of an organism’s phylogenic development, nature, which changes slowly and often in punctuated fashion, has less to do with organic change than the simple interactions between males and females. Darwin of course alluded to this phenomenon in his discussions on sexual selection (1871). On the other hand the concept of fitness, which provides a cornerstone of his theory is not necessarily part of the sexual selection process, particularly for humans whose sensory discrimination, language and cognitive-creative capabilities might or might not coincide with fitness in a completely natural context – indeed might in some instances reverse nature’s tendency toward optimal organism-environmental congruence.

Evolution is a tricky concept; once tautological and vague. In and of itself the word implies a change or mutation into some new form. Yet the formal definition of the word has to do largely with the capacity among organisms to reproduce, as suggested in the work of Eberhard, (1996). The ambiguity of the term has to do with the fact that while adaptation and fitness are oft-used criteria, they are not encompassed in these narrow definitions. For example an organism can possess traits that are, or could be adaptive vis a vis the natural environment but unless he or she passed their genes on to the next generation, the potentially adaptive advantage of these traits would be irrelevant.

[Read more…] about Essay: Sexual Selection, Adaptation and the Human Brain

By Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article discusses an apparent contradiction in the sensory behaviors of autistic children, specifically their tendency to both avoid input and seek it out. An explanation is put forth that this apparent conflict can help explain the nature of autism as well as future prospects for treatment.

Most autistic individuals have significant language deficits and as a result can’t tell us very much about their “take” on experience, their awareness of having a developmental disorder, the ways in which they cope or their views of the outside world. While some people diagnosed with autism have written books and given speeches (the so-called high functioning group), their accounts might be less than definitive. That is not necessarily because they have been misdiagnosed but because by definition their involvement is mild. Otherwise they could not integrate and/or conceptualize their world enough to write and talk about their experiences in the first place.

The presumption that high-functioning autistic persons can tell us something about the experiences of more severely impaired clients (one that permeates autistic research) presents a significant problem with respect to gaining a true understanding of the disorder. Since high-functioning autistic persons can communicate, label objects and experiences, compartmentalize and express emotion through words rather than motion that would, if for no other reason than that they expend far less energy in adapting to their environment, distinguish them from their less verbal and nonverbal counterparts.

To understand the experiences of the classically autistic person can only resort to observations of nonverbal behavior in drawing inferences about the functions of brain and body. One of the more fascinating as well as diagnostically indicative features of non-verbal, autistic persons is the way in which they deal with sensory input. There is a plethora of research devoted to this topic. For example Rosenhall, Johannson et. al. (1988), Scharre, Creedon et. al. (1992) and Takarae, Minshew, et.al. (2004) and Belmonte, M (2000) have shown that autistics have a delayed reaction to input which interferes their timing with regard to responsiveness, memory consolidation and social interaction. Dawson (1989) has shown that this delay in processing creates problems with arousal levels such that the autistic individual often feels overwhelmed, unable to make sense of sensory inputs (unless the patterns are over-learned) and therefore learns to be generally stimulus avoidant. Notwithstanding research findings most of the above trends can be discerned through simple observation. In fact observation and inference are in some instances the most accurate ways to determine cause-effect patterns in autistic development.

[Read more…] about The Autism Paradox; Stimulus Seeking/Stimulus Avoidance

Abstract

This article looks at our pre-occupation with the future and the powerful range of feelings that we experience as a result – from intoxicating excitement to deepest dread. These emotions stem from how we think we will feel should certain conditions be met. Studies suggest that we are generally wrong in these predictions, yet we continue to plough huge quantities of emotional effort into this forward thinking.

Bad Predictions

Our brains are equipped with an area known as the prefrontal cortex, a mental mechanism that grants us the unique ability, as a race, to simulate emotions prior to an event taking place. If you were to consider the prospect of acquiring a lasting disability, or conversely, the prospect of having your wages doubled, you would probably be confident as to how you would feel, given these eventualities; that would be your prefrontal cortex doing its job.

Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, followed up on a number of studies regarding prediction and found a startling reality – getting what we want (what the prefrontal cortex has given the thumbs up to) tends to not lead to an increase in our happiness. At the same time, getting what we don’t want does not tend to lead to a decrease in happiness.

This is something that has already been known for decades in economics. Most of us labour under the preconceptions that having more money will make us happier, yet repeated evidence shows that any increase in income (beyond what is required to steer us out of poverty) does not lead to an increase in happiness. Despite these facts we are typically quite prepared to continue our pursuit for upward mobility.

[Read more…] about Predicting Happiness and Unhappiness: A Skill We Never Master

By Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article proposes that emotion can be understood in terms of physical laws, particularly energy dynamics. In so doing it offers a possible link between the pre-biotic world and the evolution of life forms.

Over time a variety of explanations have been offered regarding the true nature of emotion. One of the earliest was proposed in the 19th century when William James and Carl Lange described emotion as an interpretive, post-arousal process. Although dismissed subsequently, the idea that cognitive appraisals and interpretations guided emotions resurfaced through the work of Lazarus (1984), Ellis (1994) and Ellsworth (1994).

Another description, provided by Walter Cannon (1929) held that emotion could be defined in the context of fight-flight behaviors and emergency reactions (Friedman & Silver 2007), (Sapolsky 1994). Still another, championed by Freud (Kennard 1998) and post analytic theorists such as Jung (1970) viewed emotion as resulting from a bio-cultural clash within a compartmentalized psyche. Following this came phenomenological interpretations of emotion as exemplified by Carl Rogers (Farber 1998) who viewed emotion (most especially anxiety) as emanating from incongruities within the self concept. A more recent theory derives from the field of evolutionary psychology and holds that emotion is most essentially an orchestration-oversight mechanism of mind (Cosmides &Tooby (2000).

Research has yielded valuable information about the physiological correlates of emotion. For example it appears that through its regulation of hormones, the limbic system is the source of pleasure, rage, aggression and fear, and that neurotransmitter mechanisms are instrumental in creating depression and other pathological states. (Papez 1937) Bruce & Neary (1995). Yet while these studies offer a building block assessment of how emotions occur they do not explain how they originated or why they occur in the first place.

Some theoreticians have addressed the question by suggesting that emotion first evolved with reptiles, whose limbic system produced the neuro-chemical wherewithal to aggress, flee, maintain vigilance and thereby enhance predatory, escape and avoidance behaviors. McLean’s notion of the triune brain is one example of that idea (1990).

[Read more…] about PHYSICS AND THE ROOTS OF EMOTION