Biological Bases of Behavior

Key Ideas

1. Everything psychological is simultaneously biological.


2. We are organized into systems, subsystems, sub-sub systems.


3. The human brain is considered the most complex entity in the known universe. This complexity is built from simplicity as the whole exceeds the sum of the individual parts.


4. The mind is what the brain does.


5. Our brain excels as it employs parallel processing of information.


6. The Information Systems Model is often used to conceptualize cognitive processes, i.e. information is organized then interpreted then stored and retrieved for use.


7. We excel at categorization, of finding meaning.


8. A great deal of our mental processing is below the level of our consciousness.


9. The brain has given us tremendous advantages. We are able to adapt the environment to our needs.


10. The brain consumes 1/5 of our energy intake. Vision employs ¼ or our brain working capacity.


11. We have three brains that reflect our evolutionary development: the reptile's brain, the mammal’s brain and the human brain.


12. Our brain’s development was spurred by human society with its complexity of language and emotions.


13. Humans have the most sophisticated sense of consciousness i.e. an awareness of ourselves.


14. Research continues to show that genes have a huge impact on behavior. The Genome Project, however, suggests that the gene may not be the best level of analysis because genes work in complex combinations.