Functionalism Analysis

As particular circuits in our brain strengthen through the repetition of a physical or mental activity, they begin to transform that activity into a habit” (34). Carr establishes his idea of neuroplasticity by providing a test performed by neuroscientist, Michael Merzenich. He observed monkeys with damage to the nerves in their fingers. When a portion of the hurt monkeys’ hands were affected, the indication became disordered because of the way their brains and their fingers were being stimulated. Amazingly, the monkeys adjusted the psychological misperception by their selves.

Is pain necessary in order to feel pleasure? Does feeling pain mean you understand the world? Even though these are different questions, they are connected; we see in The Giver and in Fahrenheit 451 that pain is necessary to experience true pleasure and to then truly understand the world. We can see this through the characters in The Giver only having shallow feelings of happiness and a limited understanding of the world when they have not experienced pain, Jonas recognizing how he can experience much more pleasure and understand the world because of pain, and in Fahrenheit 451, we see examples of how ridding one’s life of pain and complexity only leads to a dull, emotionless life.

A brief functional analysis enables a complete functional analysis and intervention to be completed in one 90-minute session by exposing the individual to very brief trials of approximately five minutes in length and by using single exposures to the test and control conditions. Northup, Wacker, Sasso, Steege, Cigrand, Cook, and DeRaad (1991) conducted a brief functional analysis with three individuals diagnosed with severe disabilities. The individuals were not selected through any specific criteria except they were the first three individuals to be referred to the program from the University of Iowa. Curtis, the first participant, was diagnosed with severe to profound mental retardation. He was nonverbal and he had no means of communication.

Pain is also one of the most immobilize emotions that a human can experience. Pain is generally invented in many kind of ways. There are two types of pain which are emotional and physical pain. Both can be occurred at the same time as well. Obrien briefly explains that these young men or I should say the soldiers of the Vietnam War feel both of these types of pain during their time in Vietnam.

Rachel Danzig AP Psychology Dr. Eisen August 20, 2015 I. Psychology’s History A. Psychology’s Roots 1. Prescientific Psychology a. Socrates and his student Plato stated that the human mind is separate from the body and our knowledge is born within us b. Aristotle, Plato’s student, disagreed, concluding that knowledge can not be preexisting and we grow it from our experiences within our memories c. In the 1600s Rene Descartes believed that the mind can survive the body’s death and our brain holds animal spirits in its fluid and flow from the brain through nerves enabling reflexes d. In 1620 Francis Bacon established that humans functioned around order and patterns e. Adding to Bacon’s ideas was John

The functionalist perspective argue that society provides us with norms or guidelines (Leon-Guerrero 2014). There can be shown a difference of the way people expect to behave when drinking. According to Caetano, Clark, and Tam, people who lack norms to control their behavior, they are likely to purse self-destructive behaviors such as alcohol abuse (Leon-Guerrero 2014). For instance, doctors warn about the dangers of alcohol use and even advertisers promote the use of alcohol and the affects. Yet we still drink no matter what the causes are.

Functionalism portrays how each part of a society contributes to a more stable society. Just like an organism rely on all the parts that makes it a cell. Every component has a vital function that depends on each other and without them working together the cell will die. Society works the same as every structure has a function that makes society work and move forward together. To understand this theory sociologist, use a few main foundations that are important for society: family, government, economy, media, education, and religion.

In this study, 17 patients each had a 120-degree heat simulator placed on their legs. Patients all gave varying numerical (0-10) values to their pain, even though the actual source of pain was identical (Science Daily, 2013). This study shows that everyone experiences pain differently, and, therefore, experiences happiness and pleasure differently. Hedonistic utilitarianism also requires, in certain circumstances, that we choose to make decisions that make us happier in the long run. This can be a very complicated task, and makes deciding which actions to take in everyday life, much harder.

Therefore we cannot learn the true meaning of pain through language, we must learn the true meaning of pain and everything else for that matter through our experiences. Wittgenstein would like this idea because our experiences are much more concrete than

Upon personal perception of myself, I come to classify me, personally, as some one with a moderate threshold for pain, if I feel intense heat upon any of my extremities, I of course do what any common-minded person would do, I extract from the sensation because it is intensely uncomfortable. Under some circumstances I may not react to some sensations due to either; blind (and of course numbing) ignorance, mental blocking in order to access endorphins and persevere through the pain to also access endorphins. I identify mentally blocking an irritated sensation and persevering through an aggravating sensation as two different methodologies, though both try to achieve the same goal, accessing the endorphins to be released, they are very distinctive.

Those theories alone causes me to question freedom because freedom is the power to act, speak, or think without being restricted. Yet, everything that is run by authorities has functionalism. Some may argue against functionalism because they may feel that it cannot be explained by the mechanism functions either material or logical. Just to say consciousness is expected when it comes to functionalism in order for it to process to the brain or mind. And if that is true, is it safe to say that the claims that I stated previously regarding society have control over our mind through everyday systems processing in our brain?

Functionalism and Behaviorism Name: Institutional Affiliation: Functionalism And Behaviorism Introduction Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. Since people have varied perceptions and thoughts with regards to this definition, scholars in the past and present have come up with various classical theories related to psychology, all of which are geared to helping people to better understand the different perspectives of psychology and how it impacts the daily lives of humans (Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2002). In this paper, I will aim to compare and contrast two major schools of psychology that is functionalism and behaviorism and their impacts in the field of psychology.

Various philosophers and scientists have inquired about the mind and body issue for a long time. The mind-body philosophies try to explain the way a person’s mental state and processes are linked to the physical state. The core of the mind and body is that individuals have a biased experience of an inner life that appears detached from the physical world. Although they are separated, they need to work together in some way. Individuals may appear to have physical properties and mental properties.

I will explore this question by looking at how this question has developed into two key schools of thought: Dualism and Monism. Dualism states that the mind is not physical and exists separately while Monism states that the mind and body are not separate. There are arguments for both theories and these dichotomous ideas have brought to light the mind-body problem, which I will analyse below. There are sub-forms of both schools of thought and one of the key sub-schools of thought under Dualism which I will discuss is Interactionism; that the mind and body are separate but both influence each other The Mind-Body Debate Rene Decartes believed that the mind

In the sixth meditation, Descartes postulates that there exists a fundamental difference in the natures of both mind and body which necessitates that they be considered as separate and distinct entities, rather than one stemming from the other or vice versa. This essay will endeavour to provide a critical objection to Descartes’ conception of the nature of mind and body and will then further commit to elucidating a suitably Cartesian-esque response to the same objection. (Descartes,1641) In the sixth meditation Descartes approaches this point of dualism between mind and matter, which would become a famous axiom in his body of philosophical work, in numerous ways. To wit Descartes postulates that he has clear and distinct perceptions of both