A question about psychology and the brain?

Question

Why is it important for psychologists to know how the brain functions?

I'm having my nephew write me an essay on this so i thought i would throw this out here to see what all of you think the reason is.

This is not homework help this is why i posted this here, just more curious on the response it gets.

Thanks ")

I wanted to thank you all for the great answers, now picking the best one im having a hard time with this is why its extended. I think i may let my nephew pick, wish i could give you all Best Answers. Thanks again ")

Answer 1

Excellent question MOM, keep it up.

All of the answers above describes a lot, though let me try to go little deeper.

Why would some people behave the way they do. Why do some people in their difficult situation fight until they win and why do some simply give up. Why do some have a attitude of sit back and relax and some can not wait for things to happen. Why some people get depressed and some are tough more then their situation.

I would say human study their psychology since the incarnation of their own. And up until now science doesnt have the 100% correct answer for the question above. But science has came to one conclusion that every human being act the same way as they are taught to. It means the upbringing of a person plays a huge part in how they will think and act. Science also study the past life experience, but let me not go there in this part.

To put it in a very simplistic terms, when a question/situation arises the mind will go and search its own database whether it has any answers to that. If not it will create a blank space in the mind for that situation. note that neither the universe nor the mind can except the blank space. The universe will try to create something and feel that space. but for the mind the upbringing comes into the role here. Since humans birth we have been taught in different ways that nothing is singular, there is always something to support something. so we are scared of accepting things on their own. like we can not accept the particular way of living until we support it with religion and cant accept the religion until we support it with GOD. and cant accept GOD until we support him with the name of the creator. we will co-relate everything to something.

And to answer your original question in one line.. the psychologists will not accept the behaviour of the mind until they relate it to some strong answers. thats why they study whats going on inside.

This can go on for pages, but I have tried to put it in a very simplistic terms here. hope it helps.

Answer 2

Because sometimes a person's behavior can be explained by a deficiency or surplus or a neurotransmitter in the brain, or a trauma toward a certain part of the brain.

For example, a person who suffers trauma to the front of the brain (even if it is microscopic) is usally devoid of "human" emotions. They cannot feel happy, sad or love, but they have no problem feeling anger and rage. If a person like this mentioned that they got into a car accident a month ago and says he is having a new problem of beating his wife, something he never thought of doing before, a good psychologist would wonder if damage was done to the frontal lobe of his cerebral cortex and order an mri.

Another example is if a person complains to her therapist that she has been depressed for 2 months and that it seemed to come out of nowhere, a good psychologist would rule out the depletion of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. These are believed to be linked with some cases of depression. If this is found to be the case, then the therapist would prescribe drugs that increase the availability of neurotransmitters at the synaptic junction by blocking the reuptake channel.

Answer 3

Review the websites below and ask why pharmacology companies have tried to suppress this 45+yr old science. Neurofeedback (aka Brainwave biofeedback) has been known to wipe out depression, reduce or wipe out ADD/HD and a variety of other non-biological mental illnesses. The Brain Teasers on The Brain Spa webpage might be a fun and creative way to go but they don't discuss the importance and advancements of neurofeedback. These are highly advanced and scientific sites with a ton of info. You will be breaking NEW ground in a grade 12 psychology class! Good luck

Answer 4

I think its important to know how the brain functions in psychology because people need to know why people do the things they do.Simple as that. By going into the chemical reactions of the brain psychologists can figure out why criminals do the these crimes. As you may know, many criminals are labled as insane because they are mentally not there like skitzo (don't know spelling), bi polar, depression, sociapaths and so on. The more psychologists can go in the brain the more answers they have to things like this. They also want to know if there can be a cure such as medicines, but these are usually only for temporary relief. Thats when a psychiatrist comes into play. They are the ones who are allowed to prescribe the medicine for these diseases.

Answer 5

I did not know psychologists were interested to know how the brain functions ?I thought psychologists were persons who would only watch the clock as soon as a patient enters and simply allows the person to relax on a couch and lets him/her keep talking everything that is bothering the person who keeps sharing all the thoughts till that person in that process is able to lets go of all the anger, fears,feelings, emotions ,unsaid communications which when unburdened allows the psychlogist to analyise the real root of the problem and guide the person to think clearly and select the right decision to come out of depression etc .And since psychology is a method to understand the brain functions ,i suppose it must be important to them ...this is my common sense answer ....my regards to your nephew to congradulate him in having such a caring aunt ,whoose commitment to his essay is commendable and very inspiring .

Answer 6

Well, even though there's a lot of wonderful answers out there for you already, I will tell you that I think it is because everything connects like a puzzle. If psychologists study and know how the brain works then they can explain to the rest of us what's going on upstairs and possibly help scientists out more with brain damages and diseases and all, plus they can also help explain the reasons behind why we do what we do. If you know how the brain works then you can apply that to almost anything....

Answer 7

It's important for psychologists to understand the functioning of the brain, so that the behavior of people can be better understood, and abnormalities might be detected (and hopefully treated).

Different areas of the brain play different roles in how we behave; for example, Phineas Gage (who essentially had a prefrontal lobotomy performed as the result of an accident with explosives) lived a mostly normal life after his accident, yet demonstrated a completely different personality than he had before.

Understanding the role of different regions of the brain may one day enable psychologists, doctors, and others, to develop new treatments which target the specific areas of the brain responsible for behaviors.

There are a multitude of other applications, though, such as understanding gender differences, curing diseases, recognizing stages of childhood development, as well as many others. Knowledge of how the brain functions is important in all of these, and will continue to be in the future.

Answer 8

Well, the fact that we don't even use our brain to it's full potential. I think that's a good enough reason to see what are some of those things we have yet to discover. I think I heard that we really only use about 10% of our brain.

Just like the Genome Project, which is where science set up to map out the human genome and find out about every gene in the human body, which ones causes blond hair, hyper-tension, cancer. I think it's important to find out more about the brain and all that it can do and how we can maximize it's use.

Answer 9

to know the brain well are is made up in many part as if a car so if was to fix lights on the car you need to know what wire to plug in and as the brain we need know what of the brain is working and not working for if go to left side it will the left side body what if you go to left side and the right is working that means try is part not right so by finding out more about the brain like getting cat scan done it well say more where do we and what med's do they need for brain so if brain..if brain half work you may do things have hard time talking walking you may get mad and not know why so finding out more about the we can see what that person needs ...thank you for reading i hope this helps you have a wonderful week god bless ya mick [e-mail] if need to talk e-mail i'll give my number to call take care

Answer 10

Well i think its more because we know how everything else works that people have a need to know how the brain works...i.e. we know the function of the heart and how it performs, the same with the lungs, kidneys etc but we are still unsure about the most powerful part of our bodies, the very thing that controls it all. Plus people seem to love solving mysteries and the brain functions are as much of a mystery as anything else is....well that is my opinion anyway, hope it helps!