100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Previously searched by you
Previously searched by you
logo
Detailed essay plans covering all topics in Biopsychology (AQA A-Level Psychology) CA$20.04   Add to cart
Quickly navigate to
Preview
  2.  
  3. AQA
  4.  
  5. Psychology
  6.  
  7. Biopsychology

Essay

Detailed essay plans covering all topics in Biopsychology (AQA A-Level Psychology)
 268 views  7 purchases
  • Course
  • Biopsychology
  • Institution
  • AQA
  • Book
  • Psychology A Level Year 1 and AS: The Complete Companion Student Book for AQA

This document covers every possible essay that may come up for Biopsychology (AQA A-Level Psychology). They are simplified and easy to learn yet still have lots of detail to ensure you achieve the highest grade possible. There are abbreviations throughout that you should understand as a psychology ...

[Show more]

Preview 4 out of 15  pages

Document information

  • August 21, 2023
  • 15
  • 2023/2024
  • Essay
  • Unknown
  • A+

Subjects

  • biopsychology
  • the brain
  • studying the brain
  • neurons
  • exogenous zeitgebers
  • endogenous pacemakers
  • split brain
  • plasticity
  • functional recovery

Connected book

book image

Book Title:

Author(s):

  • Edition:
  • ISBN:
  • Edition:

More summaries for

  • A* A-level AQA Psychology: Biopsychology essay plans
  • A* A-level AQA Psychology: Approaches essay plans
  • A* A-level AQA Psychology: Psychopathology essay plans
All for this textbook (47)

Written for

  • A/AS Level
  • AQA
  • Psychology
  • Biopsychology
All documents for this subject (347)

Seller

avatar-seller
evalancaster

Reviews received

Content preview

Essay Plans




biopsychology
Paper 2 - Section B

,The Nervous System

Jeremy feels the spade hit a rock and stops digging immediately
Explain how sensory, relay and motor neurons would function in this situation (6)

1. Sensory neurons send info from senses to the brain
2. Receptors in Jeremy’s hand would sense heat and send info via the peripheral
nervous system to his brain/CNS
3. Relay neurons connect with other neurons
4. They would be involved in analysis of the sensation, what it means, deciding how to
respond to it, thus acting between the sensory and motor neurons
5. Motor neurons send messages via long axons from the brain to muscles / effectors
6. Here the message from the brain instructs Jeremy’s arm muscles to stop working
and stop the digging action




Outline the structures and processes involved in synaptic transmission (6) or (4)

● An electrical impulse travels down the axon, it reaches the end of the pre synaptic
neuron and triggers the releases of NT from synaptic vesicles
● These diffuse across the synapse and bind with specialised receptor molecules on
the postsynaptic membrane of the next neuron
● This stimulates the second neuron to transmit the electrical impulse (may have an
excitatory/inhibitory effect)
● Reuptake: the neurotransmitter is reabsorbed in the vesicles of the presynaptic
neuron after it has performed its function of transmitting a neural impulse

,Fight or Flight

Describe and evaluate the fight or flight response (16)

Para 1 → Outline: process of fight or flight (AO1)
● Autonomic NS + endocrine S work together to produce the F or F response
● Activity triggered when body prepares to defending (fight) or run (flight)
● When amygdala perceives dangers, it sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus
● Then triggers the sympathetic branch of the ANS
● Adrenaline released from adrenal medulla in response to activation of the
sympathetic pathway
● Once the stressor is removed the parasympathetic branch of the ANS can then take
over to return the body to normal

Para 2 → Outline: effects of adrenaline: sympathetic / parasympathetic response (AO1)
● Sympathetic: increased HR/BR, pupils dilate, inhibits digestion/saliva production
● Parasympathetic: decreased HR/BE, pupils construct, stimulates digestion, saliva

Para 3 → Weakness: human behaviour is not limited to just two responses (AO3)
● Gray suggests the first response to danger is to avoid confrontation (‘freeze’)
● Humans hyper-ventilate / decide the best course of action for that particular threat
● The adaptive advantages of ‘freezing’ is that it focuses attention and makes
humans look for new info to help make the best response
● Suggests the fight or flight explanation is limited
● It doesn’t fully explain complex cognitive / biological factors that underpin human
response to stress/danger

Para 4 → Weakness: doesn’t fully explain the stress response in females (AO3)
● Taylor suggests females adopt a ‘tend and befriend’ response to danger
● Women more likely to protect their offspring (tending) / form alliances with other
● Women befriend, rather than fight an adversary or flee
● Beta bias (ignore / minimise sex differences) as psychologists assumed females
responded in the same way as males (until Taylors evidence)
● Fight or flight explanation is limited in application to females, this has prompted
recent research which provided an alternate explanation applicable to female

Para 5 → Weakness: negative effects on health, especially in modern-day life (AO3)
● F or F response may have been a useful survival mechanism for our ancestors
● Modern life rarely requires such an intense biological response
● Activation can increase BP / damage blood vessels / contribute to heart disease
● Suggests the F or F response is a maladaptive response in modern-day life
● e.g we don’t need to be angry in a traffic jam

Para 6 → Weakness: positive behaviour not F/F (AO3)
● Von Dawson challenged view under stress men respond with F/F and women T/B
● His study found acute stress can lead to cooperative / friendly behaviour in M and W
● Could explain human connection that happens in times of crises e.g 9/11
● A reason this cooperative behaviour occurs is because humans are social animals
and it is the protective nature of humans that allows our species to thrive

, The Brain

Discuss what research has shown about localisation of function in the brain (8)
(don’t need all these points for an 8 mark question!!!!)

Para 1 → Outline: localisation of function (AO1)
● Some functions are more localised
● E.g somatosensory / motor functions are highly localised to particular cortex areas
● Other functions seem more distributed eg language system
● Localisation can involve restricted areas of cortex eg motor control, or broader
aspects eg right hemisphere visuo-spatial functions

Para 2 → Strengths: evidence from Aphasia (AO3)
● Aphasia - inability to understand / produce language
● Expressive Aphasia (Broca’s) - impaired ability to produce language
● Broca reported ‘Tan’ (only syllable he could express) cloud understand spoken
language / unable to speak or express his thoughts in writing
● Receptive Aphasia (Wernicke’s) - impaired ability to understand language
● Wernicke discovered p’s with damage to the posterior position of the left temporal
lobe could speak but were unable to understand language
● Case studies are subjective and cannot be generalised

Para 3 → Weakness: Lashley - rats (AO3)
● Lashley suggests higher cognitive functions (learning) are not localised
● He removed areas of the cortex (10-15%) in rats that were learning a maze
● No area was proven more important in terms of the rats ability to learn the maze
● Suggests all areas of the cortex are involved in complex tasks such as learning
rather than being confined to a single area

Para 4 → Weakness: overall limitations (AO3)
● Brain is so complex, no one part acts independently, strict localisation is impossible
● Plasticity - the brain's ability to recover function of damaged areas

Para 5 → Weakness: how the brain communicates is more important (AO3)
● How brain areas communicate may be more important than localisation
● Wernicke claimed although different brain regions have different function, there
are interdependent as in order to work they must interact with each other
● E.g a neurologist described a case in which the loss of as ability to read resulted
from damage to the connections between the visual cortex and Wernicke's area
● Suggests complex behaviour (language, reading, movement) are built up gradually
as stimuli enters the brain and moved through different structures
● Damage to the connections may result in impairments that relate to the localised
brain region associated with the function

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller evalancaster. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for CA$20.04. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

75759 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now

Start selling
CA$20.04  7x  sold
  • (0)
  Add to cart