The Nature of Psychology

• History of Psychology

While psychology did not emerge as a separate discipline until the late 1800s, its earliest history can
be traced back to the time of the early Greeks. During the 17th-century, the French philosopher
Rene Descartes introduced the idea of dualism, which asserted that the mind and body were two
entities that interact to form the human experience. Many other issues still debated by psychologists
today, such as the relative contributions of nature vs. nurture, are rooted in these early philosophical
traditions.

So what makes psychology different from philosophy? While early philosophers relied on methods
such as observation and logic, today’s psychologists utilize scientific methodologies to study and
draw conclusions about human thought and behavior.

Physiology also contributed to psychology’s eventual emergence as a scientific discipline. Early

physiological research on the brain and behavior had a dramatic impact on psychology, ultimately
contributing to applying scientific methodologies to the study of human thought and behavior.

The history of psychology as a scholarly study of the mind and behaviour dates back to the Ancient
Greeks. There is also evidence of psychological thought in ancient Egypt.

Psychology was a branch of the domain of philosophy until the 1870s, when it developed as an
independent scientific discipline in Germany. Psychology as a self-conscious field of experimental
study began in 1879, in Leipzig Germany, when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory
dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Germany.

Wundt was also the first person to refer to himself as a psychologist (a notable precursor of Wundt
was Ferdinand Ueberwasser (1752-1812)

Soon after the development of experimental psychology, various kinds of applied psychology
appeared. G. Stanley Hall brought scientific pedagogy to the United States from Germany in the
early 1880s. John Dewey's educational theory of the 1890s was another example. Also in the 1890s,
Hugo Münsterberg began writing about the application of psychology to industry, law, and other
fields. Lightner Witmer established the first psychological clinic in the 1890s. James McKeen Cattell
adapted Francis Galton's anthropometric methods to generate the first program of mental testing in
the 1890s. In Vienna, meanwhile, Sigmund Freud developed an independent approach to the study
of the mind called psychoanalysis, which has been widely influential.

Ancient Greek philosophers, from Thales (fl. 550 BC) through even to the Roman period, developed
an elaborate theory of what they termed the psuchẽ (from which the first half of "psychology" is
derived), as well as other "psychological" terms – nous, thumos, logistikon, etc.[3] The most
influential of these are the accounts of Plato (especially in the Republic),[4] Pythagoras and of
Aristotle (esp. Peri Psyches, better known under its Latin title, De Anima).[5]
• Traditional Schools of Psychology
“Psychology has a long past but only a short history.” With these few words, Hermann Ebbinghaus, one
of the great thinkers in psychology, aptly captured the essence of this field’s development. Since time
immemorial, men and women have pondered over questions that are psychological in nature. From the
early Egyptians to the ancient Greek philosophers, there has been no letup in efforts to understand
human thought and behavior. Yet, in spite of its long past, the formal history of psychology dates back
only 133 years to 1879 – the year when Wilhelm Wundt opened the doors of the first psychology
laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. As a result of this significant move, Wundt is widely regarded as the
founder of psychology. Yet, this was just the beginning of Wundt’s contributions to the field. He went on
to become the first of several spirited speakers to engage in an ongoing debate over what should be the
focus of psychology. The history of psychology is indeed short, but it has never been short of drama.
With that said, let the drama unfold…

Structuralism.

Functionalism.

Behaviorism

Gestalt Psychology

Psychoanalysis.

Humanistic Psychology.

structuralism Wundt's aim was to study the building blocks of the mind. His perspective focused on
uncovering the fundamental components of perception, consciousness, thinking, emotions, and other
kinds of mental states and activities, which came to be known as structuralism.

Structuralists believed that the mind functions by combining objective and subjective elements of
experience. "introspection" to determine how basic sensory processes shape our understanding of the
world. People presented with a stimulus-such as a bright green object or a sentence printed on a card-
are asked to describe, in their own words and in as much detail as they could, what they were
experiencing in the procedure.

"Functionalism." Replaced Structuralism Functionalism concentrated on what the mind "does" and how
behavior "functions." Functionalists, led by William James, asked what role behavior plays in allowing
people to adapt to their environments. They examined how behavior allows people to satisfy their
needs and how our "stream of consciousness" permits us to adapt to our environment.

behaviorism William Broadus Watson (1878-1958), founder of American Behaviorism. Watson (1913)
believed that if psychology was to be a natural science, like physics or chemistry, it must limit itself to
observable, measurable events-that is, to behavior alone.

tries to place oneself in the "mind" of a rat. He was asked to consider the contents of a rat's "mind" as
one of the requirements for his doctoral degree which he received from the University of Chicago in
1903.
Gestalt psychology, The German word Gestalt translates as "pattern" or "organized whole." emphasizes
how perception is organized. studied how people consider individual elements together as units or
wholes.

Led by German scientist such as Hermann Ebbinghaus and Max Wertheimer, proposed that "The whole
is different from the sum of its parts," meaning that our perception, or understanding of objects is
greater and more meaningful than the individual elements that make up our perceptions. Gestalt
psychologists showed that we tend to perceive separate pieces of information as integrated wholes,
depending on the contexts in which they occur.

Psychoanalysis-another school of psychology-is the name of the theory of personality and of the
method of therapy developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). It was based on the idea that much of our
lives is governed by unconscious ideas and impulses that originate in childhood conflicts. Psychoanalytic
theory proposes that most of the mind is unconscious-a seething cauldron of conflicting impulses, urges,
and wishes. People are motivated to satisfy these impulses but at the same time, people are motivated
to see themselves as decent, and hence may delude themselves about their true motives.

Humanistic Psychology.

Carl Rogers. Humanistic psychologists, however, viewed humans as free agents capable of controlling
their own lives (as opposed to being controlled), making their own choices, setting goals and working to
achieve them.

Humanism asserted a positive view of human nature, stressing that humans are inherently good.
emphasis on helping people to achieve their full potential.

• Fields of Psychology

Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychology constitutes the largest psychology specialties field. Clinical psychologists usually work
in counseling centers, independent or group practices, hospitals, or clinics. They assess and treat mental,
emotional and behavioral disorders. (PhD or PsyD)

Cognitive and Perceptual Psychology

Cognitive and perceptual psychologists study human perception, thinking and memory. (MS, PhD, or
PsyD)

Counseling Psychology

Counseling psychologists use various techniques, including interviewing and testing, to advise people on
how to deal with problems of everyday living. They work in settings such as university counseling
centers, hospitals, and individual or group practices. In most states, people with master’s degrees
cannot have their own private practice. (MA, PsyD or PhD)

Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychologists study the physiological, cognitive, and social development that takes place
throughout life. Some specialize in behavior during infancy, childhood, and adolescence, or changes that
occur during maturity or old age. (PhD)
Educational Psychology

Educational psychologists conduct research on classroom dynamics, teaching style, and learning
variables; develops educational tests, evaluates educational programs, acts as a consultant for schools.
(EdD, EdS, MEd or PhD)

Engineering Psychology

Engineering Psychologists conduct research on how people work best with machines. (MS, PhD, or PsyD)

Experimental / Research Psychology

Experimental or research psychologists work in university and private research centers and in business,
nonprofit, and governmental organizations. They study behavior processes with human beings and
animals such as rats, monkeys, and pigeons. (PhD)

Forensic Psychology

Forensic psychologists study problems of crime prevention, rehabilitation programs in prisons,

courtroom dynamics, psychology and the law, select candidates for police work. (PhD)

Geriatric Psychology

Geropsychologists deal with the special problems faced by the elderly. The emergence and growth of
these specialties reflects the increasing participation of psychologists in providing direct services to
special patient populations. (PhD)

Industrial / Organizational Psychology

I/O psychologists apply psychological principles and research methods to the workplace in the interest
of improving productivity and the quality of work-life. (MA or PhD)

Neuropsychology

Neuropsychologists study the relation between the brain and behavior. They often work in stroke and
head injury programs. (PhD)

School Psychology

School psychologists work in elementary and secondary schools or school district offices to resolve
students’ learning and behavior problems. (MA, EdS, EdD, PhD)

Social / Personality Psychology

Social psychologists examine people’s interactions with others and with the social environment. They
work in organizational consultation, marketing research, systems design, or other applied psychology
fields. (MA, PhD)

Sports Psychology

Sports psychologists help athletes refine their focus on competition goals, become more motivated, and
learn to deal with the anxiety and fear of failure that often accompany competition. (MS, PhD)
• Goals of Psychology

1. Describe –

The first goal is to observe behavior and describe, often in minute detail, what was observed as
objectively as possible

2. Explain –

While descriptions come from observable data, psychologists must go beyond what is obvious and
explain their observations. In other words, why did the subject do what he or she did?

3. Predict –

Once we know what happens, and why it happens, we can begin to speculate what will happen in the
future. There’s an old saying, which very often holds true: “the best predictor of future behavior is
past behavior.”

4. Control –

Once we know what happens, why it happens and what is likely to happen in the future, we can
excerpt control over it. In other words, if we know you choose abusive partners because your father
was abusive, we can assume you will choose another abusive partner, and can therefore intervene to
change this negative behavior.

5. Improve –

Not only do psychologists attempt to control behavior, they want to do so in a positive manner, they
want to improve a person’s life, not make it worse. This is not always the case, but it should always be
the intention.

Psychological Research

Scientific Method

The researcher (who more often than not is really a small group of researchers) formulates a research
question, conducts a study designed to answer the question, analyzes the resulting data, draws
conclusions about the answer to the question, and publishes the results so that they become part of the
research literature. Because the research literature is one of the primary sources of new research
questions, this process can be thought of as a cycle. New research leads to new questions, which lead to
new research, and so on. Figure 1.1 also indicates that research questions can originate outside of this
cycle either with informal observations or with practical problems that need to be solved. But even in
these cases, the researcher would start by checking the research literature to see if the question had
already been answered and to refine it based on what previous research had already found.
The research by Mehl and his colleagues is described nicely by this model. Their question—whether
women are more talkative than men—was suggested to them both by people’s stereotypes and by
published claims about the relative talkativeness of women and men. When they checked the research
literature, however, they found that this question had not been adequately addressed in scientific
studies. They then conducted a careful empirical study, analyzed the results (finding very little difference
between women and men), and published their work so that it became part of the research literature.
The publication of their article is not the end of the story, however, because their work suggests many
new questions (about the reliability of the result, about potential cultural differences, etc.) that will
likely be taken up by them and by other researchers inspired by their work.

As another example, consider that as cell phones became more widespread during the 1990s, people
began to wonder whether, and to what extent, cell phone use had a negative effect on driving. Many
psychologists decided to tackle this question scientifically (Collet, Guillot, & Petit, 2010)[1]. It was clear
from previously published research that engaging in a simple verbal task impairs performance on a
perceptual or motor task carried out at the same time, but no one had studied the effect specifically of
cell phone use on driving. Under carefully controlled conditions, these researchers compared people’s
driving performance while using a cell phone with their performance while not using a cell phone, both
in the lab and on the road. They found that people’s ability to detect road hazards, reaction time, and
control of the vehicle were all impaired by cell phone use. Each new study was published and became
part of the growing research literature on this topic.

Who Conducts Scientific Research in Psychology?

Scientific research in psychology is generally conducted by people with doctoral degrees (usually the
doctor of philosophy [PhD]) and master’s degrees in psychology and related fields, often supported by
research assistants with bachelor’s degrees or other relevant training. Some of them work for
government agencies (e.g., the Mental Health Commission of Canada), national associations (e.g., the
Canadian Psychological Association), nonprofit organizations (e.g., the Canadian Mental Health
Association), or in the private sector (e.g., in product development). However, the majority of them are
college and university faculty, who often collaborate with their graduate and undergraduate students.
Although some researchers are trained and licensed as clinicians—especially those who conduct
research in clinical psychology—the majority are not. Instead, they have expertise in one or more of the
many other subfields of psychology: behavioural neuroscience, cognitive psychology, developmental
psychology, personality psychology, social psychology, and so on. Doctoral-level researchers might be
employed to conduct research full-time or, like many college and university faculty members, to conduct
research in addition to teaching classes and serving their institution and community in other ways.

Of course, people also conduct research in psychology because they enjoy the intellectual and technical
challenges involved and the satisfaction of contributing to scientific knowledge of human behaviour. You
might find that you enjoy the process too. If so, your college or university might offer opportunities to
get involved in ongoing research as either a research assistant or a participant. Of course, you might find
that you do not enjoy the process of conducting scientific research in psychology. But at least you will
have a better understanding of where scientific knowledge in psychology comes from, an appreciation
of its strengths and limitations, and an awareness of how it can be applied to solve practical problems in
psychology and everyday life.

The Broader Purposes of Scientific Research in Psychology

People have always been curious about the natural world, including themselves and their behaviour (in
fact, this is probably why you are studying psychology in the first place). Science grew out of this natural
curiosity and has become the best way to achieve detailed and accurate knowledge. Keep in mind that
most of the phenomena and theories that fill psychology textbooks are the products of scientific
research. In a typical introductory psychology textbook, for example, one can learn about specific
cortical areas for language and perception, principles of classical and operant conditioning, biases in
reasoning and judgment, and people’s surprising tendency to obey those in positions of authority. And
scientific research continues because what we know right now only scratches the surface of what we
can know.

Scientific research is often classified as being either basic or applied. Basic research in psychology is
conducted primarily for the sake of achieving a more detailed and accurate understanding of human
behaviour, without necessarily trying to address any particular practical problem. The research of Mehl
and his colleagues falls into this category. Applied research is conducted primarily to address some
practical problem. Research on the effects of cell phone use on driving, for example, was prompted by
safety concerns and has led to the enactment of laws to limit this practice. Although the distinction
between basic and applied research is convenient, it is not always clear-cut. For example, basic research
on sex differences in talkativeness could eventually have an effect on how marriage therapy is practiced,
and applied research on the effect of cell phone use on driving could produce new insights into basic
processes of perception, attention, and action.

Key Takeaways

• Research in psychology can be described by a simple cyclical model. A research question based on the
research literature leads to an empirical study, the results of which are published and become part of
the research literature.

• Scientific research in psychology is conducted mainly by people with doctoral degrees in psychology and
related fields, most of whom are zxczc Conducting Psychological Research
. They do so for professional and for personal reasons, as well as to contribute to scientific knowledge
about human behaviour.

• Basic research is conducted to learn about human behaviour for its own sake, and applied research is
conducted to solve some practical problem. Both are valuable, and the distinction between the two is
not always clear-cut.

What Is the Scientific Method?

What is the scientific method and how is it used in psychology? The scientific method is
essentially a step-by-step process that researchers can follow to determine if there is some type
of relationships between two or more variables.

Psychologists and other social scientists regularly propose explanations for human behavior. On a more
informal level, people make judgments Conducting Psychological Research
Conducting Psychological Research

about the intentions, motivations, and actions of others on a daily basis.

While the everyday judgments we make about human behavior are subjective and anecdotal,
researchers use the scientific method to study psychology in an objective and systematic way.
The results of these studies are often reported in popular media, which leads many to wonder just
how or why researchers arrived at the conclusions they did.

In order to truly understand how psychologists and other researchers reach these conclusions,
you need to know more about the research process that is used to study psychology and the basic
steps that are utilized when conducting any type of psychological research. By knowing the steps
of the scientific method, you can better understand the process researchers go through to arrive at
conclusions about human behavior.

Reasons to Use the Steps of the Scientific Method

The goals of psychological studies are to describe, explain, predict and perhaps influence mental
processes or behaviors. In order to do this, psychologists utilize the scientific method to conduct
psychological research. The scientific method is a set of principles and procedures that are used
by researchers to develop questions, collect data, and reach conclusions.

What are the goals of scientific research in psychology? Researchers seek not only to describe
behaviors and explain why these behaviors occur; they also strive to create research that can be
used to predict and even change human behavior.

Key Terms to Know

Before you begin exploring the scientific method steps there are some key terms and definitions
that you should be familiar with.
  Hypothesis: An educated guess about the possible relationship between two or more variables.
 Variable: A factor or element that can change in observable and measurable ways.
 Operational Definition: A full description of exactly how variables are defined, how they will be
manipulated, and how they will be measured.

The Steps of the Scientific Method

While research studies can vary, these are the basic steps that psychologists and scientists use
when investigating human behavior.

Step 1. Make an Observation

Before a researcher can begin, they must choose a topic to study. Once an area of interest has
been chosen, the researchers must then conduct a thorough review of the existing literature on
the subject. This review will provide valuable information about what has already been learned
about the topic and what questions remain to be answered.

A literature review might involve looking at a considerable amount of written material from both
books and academic journals dating back decades. The relevant information collected by the
researcher will be presented in the introduction section of the final published study results. This
background material will also help the researcher with the first major step in conducting a
psychology study — formulating a hypothesis.

Step 2. Ask a Question

Once a researcher has observed something and gained some background information on the
topic, the next step is to ask a question. The researcher will form a hypothesis, which is an
educated guess about the relationship between two or more variables

For example, a researcher might ask a question about the relationship between sleep and
academic performance. Do students who get more sleep perform better on tests at school?

In order to formulate a good hypothesis, it is important to think about different questions you
might have about a particular topic. You should also consider how you could investigate the
causes. Falsifiability is an important part of any valid hypothesis. In other words, if a hypothesis
was false, there needs to be a way for scientists to demonstrate that it is false.

Step 3. Test Your Hypothesis and Collect Data

Once you have a solid hypothesis, the next step of the scientific method is to put this hunch to
the test by collecting data. The exact methods used to investigate a hypothesis depend on exactly
what is being studied. There are two basic forms of research that a psychologist might utilize –
descriptive research or experimental research.

Descriptive research is typically used when it would be difficult or even impossible to

manipulate the variables in question. Examples of descriptive research include case
studies, naturalistic observation, and correlation studies. Phone surveys that are often used by
marketers are one example of descriptive research.

Correlational studies are quite common in psychology research. While they do not allow
researchers to determine cause-and-effect, they do make it possible to spot relationships between
different variables and to measure the strength of those relationships.

Experimental research is used to explore cause-and-effect relationships between two or more

variables. This type of research involves systematically manipulating an independent
variable and then measuring the effect that it has on a defined dependent variable. One of the
major advantages of this method is that it allows researchers to actually determine if changes in
one variable actually cause changes in another.

While psychology experiments are often quite complex, a simple experiment is fairly basic but
does allow researchers to determine cause-and-effect relationships between variables. Most
simple experiments use a control group (those who do not receive the treatment) and
an experimental group (those who do receive the treatment).

Step 4. Examine the Results and Draw Conclusions

Once a researcher has designed the study and collected the data, it is time to examine this
information and draw conclusions about what has been found. Using statistics, researchers can
summarize the data, analyze the results, and draw conclusions based on this evidence.

So how does a researcher decide what the results of a study mean? Not only can statistical
analysis support (or refute) the researcher’s hypothesis; it can also be used to determine if the
findings are statistically significant.

When results are said to be statistically significant, it means that it is unlikely that these results
are due to chance.

Based on these observations, researchers must then determine what the results mean. In some
cases, an experiment will support a hypothesis, but in other cases, it will fail to support the
hypothesis.

So what happens if the results of a psychology experiment do not support the researcher's
hypothesis? Does this mean that the study was worthless? Just because the findings fail to
support the hypothesis does not mean that the research is not useful or informative. In fact, such
research plays an important role in helping scientists develop new questions and hypotheses to
explore in the future.

After conclusions have been drawn, the next step is to share the results with the rest of the
scientific community. This is an important part of the process because it contributes to the
overall knowledge base and can help other scientists find new research avenues to explore.

Step 5. Report the Results

The final step in a psychology study is to report the findings. This is often done by writing up a
description of the study and publishing the article in an academic or professional journal. The
results of psychological studies can be seen in peer-reviewed journals such as Psychological
Bulletin, the Journal of Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and many others.

The structure of a journal article follows a specified format that has been outlined by
the American Psychological Association (APA). In these articles, researchers:

 Provide a brief history and background on previous research,

 Present their hypothesis,
 Identify who participated in the study and how they were selected,
 Provide operational definitions for each variable,
 Describe the measures and procedures that were used to collect data,
 Explain how the information collected was analyzed, and
 Discuss what the results mean.

Why is such a detailed record of a psychological study so important? By clearly explaining the
steps and procedures used throughout the study, other researchers can then replicate the results.
The editorial process employed by academic and professional journals ensures that each article
that is submitted undergoes a thorough peer review, which helps ensure that the study is
scientifically sound.

Once published, the study becomes another piece of the existing puzzle of our knowledge base
on that topic.

• Critical Research Issues

what major issues confront psychologists conducting research?

• One of the key ethical principles followed by psychologists is that of informed consent. Participants
must be informed, before participation, about the basic outline of the experiment and the risks and
potential benefits of their participation. (p. 49)

• Although the use of college students as participants has the advantage of easy availability, there are
drawbacks, too. For instance, students do not necessarily represent the population as a whole. The use
of nonhuman animals as participants may also have costs in terms of the ability to generalize to humans,
although the benefits of using animals in research have been profound. (p. 51)

• Experiments are subject to a number of biases, or threats. Experimenter expectations can produce
bias when an experimenter unintentionally transmits cues to participants about her or his expectations
regarding their behavior in a given experimental condition. Participant expectations can also bias an
experiment. Among the tool’s experimenters use to help eliminate bias are placebos and double-blind
procedures.

Biological bases of behavior

Neurons
The base of the nervous system is the neuron. Neurons are cells that are specialized for
communicating information. They are the basic tissue and element of the nervous system.
Neurons have a basic structure of:

 One cell body

 One axon
 One or more dendrites
The cell body (or soma) is the bulbous end of a neuron, containing the cell nucleus. The soma
makes use of nutrients to supply energy for neuronal activity.
Axons are organelles that carry information away from the cell body. Axons may be as small as
several microns or as long as several meters in giraffes and whales. The axons main job is to send a
signal to the dendrites of another neuron, but some say that they may also receive signals in certain
situations. Each neuron has only one axon, but the axon may have branches with what are called
terminal buttons at its end.
Dendrites are organelles that sense the neurotransmitter secreted by the axon of another neuron.
Most neurons have more than one dendrite. Dendrites and axons do not directly touch each other;
there is a gap, called a synapse.
The Transmission of the Signal
The transmission of the signal is basically the same in all cells, the signal is sent across the synapse by
the axon and the dendrite of the next cell picks up the signal.

Synapse

The synapse is a gap between two cells. Synapse are one way junctions between neurons and other
cells. The neurotransmitter is emitted from the axon of one cell and usually goes to the dendrite of the
next cell. Sometimes the signal goes to the soma or the axon of the next cell instead of the dendrite
(Arnold Wittig 2001).

Neurotransmitter

The terminal button at the end of the axon holds the synaptic vesicles. When the signal reaches the end
of the axon the vesicles discharge a chemical called a neurotransmitter. Neurotransmitters are
chemicals that are used to relay, amplify and modulate electrical signals between a neuron and another
cell. There are approximately 40 to 60 different chemicals that are used as neurotransmitters. The
neurotransmitters from the axon fit into receptors of the dendrite on the next neuron. They will then
either excite the cell and make it fire or inhibit it and stop it from doing so. The sum of the excitation
and inhibition of the neuron is called the graded potential. If the graded potential is greater than that
cell's threshold then the cell fires, sending the message to the next cell. Goto Here to see a list of some
neurotransmitters.

Resting Potential

When the cell hasn't fired for a certain amount of time it is considered at its resting potential. The
resting potential of a neuron is approx. -70 mV because the membrane surrounding the cell lets in
positive potassium ions (K+) and negative chloride ions (Cl-) and keeps out positive sodium ions (Na+). It
is easier to fire a cell that is at its resting potential than one that is in the refractory phase.

Action potential

When the graded potential passes the neurons threshold, an action potential takes place. The action
potential sends the signal the entire length of the cell and never dies within the cell, which can be
referred to as the all-or-none-principle. During firing the inside of the cell becomes positive, which is
sometimes incorrectly called Depolarization and should be called the raising phase of the action
potential. After the action potential hits its peak the cell starts the refractory phase.

Refractory Phase

After the action potential changes the neuron from negative to positive there is a refractory phase
where it changes back to negative. At the beginning of this period it is impossible for another signal to
be transmitted, this is called absolute refractory phase. After the absolute refractory phase is the
relative refractory phase where it is possible to send another signal but more excitation than normal is
needed.

Signal Strength

For the signal to be passed from one neuron to the next it must have enough energy to break a point
called the threshold. Once the threshold is broken the signal is transmitted. The neuron fires at the same
strength every time. The strength of a signal is decided by how many different neurons are being fired
and at what frequency they are being fired.

Glial cells

The amount of glial cells to every neuron in the nervous system is disputed. Glial cells function as
support for the neurons; they produce the myelin sheath which surrounds some neurons and also form
part of the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a structure that prevents certain substances in
the bloodstream from reaching the brain. Many axons are sheathed with tubes of myelin, which is a
fatty material. Myelin is produced by the glial cells. The myelin sheaths on axons have gaps, which are
called the nodes of Ranvier. Myelinated sheaths help transmit information quickly and efficiently.

Organization of the nervous system.

The neurons can all be placed in one of two systems, the central nervous system or the peripheral
nervous system.

The Central nervous system

The central nervous system has a fundamental role in the control of behavior. It contains the brain and
the spinal cord which are both encased in bone which shows their importance. Both the brain and spinal
cord receive signals from the afferent neurons and send signals to muscles and glands through efferent
neurons.

The peripheral nervous system

Any part of the nervous system that is not part of the central nervous system is part of the peripheral
nervous system. The nerves in the peripheral nervous system are split up into the autonomic and
somatic. The somatic connect the central nervous system to sensory organs (such as the eye and ear)
and muscles, while the autonomic connect other organs of the body, blood vessels and glands.

The glandular systems

The body has two types of glandular systems: the endocrine, which generally secrete hormones through
the bloodstream, and the exocrine which secrete fluids to the outer surfaces of the body, such as
sweating.

Exocrine glands

Exocrine glands release their secretions into ducts which in turn release them onto the surface of
organs. Examples of exocrine glands are sweat glands, salivary glands, mammary glands, etc. The
pancreas is both an exocrine as well as an endocrine gland hence, one should keep that in mind. It
secretes digestive enzymes that are released into the digestive system while it also contains the Islets of
Langerhans which secrete insulin into the blood.

Endocrine glands

Pituitary Gland

Adrenal Cortex

Adrenal Medula

Thyroid Gland

Parathyroid Gland

Islets of Langerhans

Gonads

Placenta