Two terms from chapter three that I found interesting were “Biopsychology” and “Axon”. Biopsychology (Biological Psychology) is defined as the psychology of biology or sometimes as the biology of psychology (Spielman et al., 2020). It is a relatively new field where the principles of biology are applied to psychology to better understand human behaviour, it is the practice of applying biological principles to psychological inquiry. It examines the “Mind/ Body” connection in an attempt to better understand the biological aspects of thought, and it is the psychology that examines how biological processes affect our feelings, thinking, and behaviour in general. I expect this “field” to be simply called psychology soon as the body has always and clearly affected the brain and vice-versa.
The second term that stood out to me was Axon. I was interested in this term as I did not know it prior to this reading. The Axon is the “outbound” signal side of the cell body (soma) to the neurotransmitters (Spielman et al., 2020). I knew about these and even about the “reuptake” process of the transmitters, but I did not realize there is only one direction the cells speak in, unidirectional. Another thing I found interesting when reading and looking at the diagrams is the resemblance of the soma and axon to the brain and spinal cord. They have a very fractal kind of structure, not quite the same but a sort of macro-vers/ micro-vers reflection of each other.
In chapter fourteen I was pleased to learn the name of the process of becoming stressed, responding to that stress, and finally, the resting state that generally comes after, assuming all things are essentially “normal” in the subject. The term is “General Adaptation Syndrome” (Spielman et al., 2020) and refers to the physiological act of processing extended stress. It is how the brain/ body attempt to balance out or relieve the stress that is affecting an individual. The negative effects of long-term stress are many, and so the self tries to mitigate the negative effects as long-term stress leads to exhaustion. Failing to mitigate the effects of the stressor, over the long term, can and will cause greater issues for the subject both psychological and physical.
This image fails to mention the updated response list which, to my understanding has been increased to include with “Fight or Flight” the two additional “Freeze and Fawn”. I have historically froze then either fight or fawn (mollify or satiate the stressor). I am exploring therapy, Buddhism, and Stoicism to gain complete control of these so-called involuntary responses in favor of chosen action (or non-action).
Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax College, Rice University.