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Submitted by Jahovah on December 8, 2005
Category: Psychology
Words: 8152 | Pages: 33
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One of the defining characteristics of advanced organisms is the ability to make flexible, yet adaptive responses to environmental stimuli. These stimuli may arise from within the organism or impinge upon it from the outside. The resulting myriad of stimuli ranges in salience from the barely noticeable to the intense. The stimuli in the intense range are usually considered to be biologically significant, whether they originate within the organism or are encountered in the outside environment.
At any given moment, the organism is likely to be faced with many stimuli that could be acted upon, but in reality only a few become the targets of behavior. Psychologists have conceptualized this process as a system of drives and rewards. The particular combination of stimuli that arises from the outside world and from the physiology of the organism triggers brain activity that has two major effects: It energizes behavior and directs behavior. For example, if an individual has gone for several hours without food, the stimuli arising from inside the body produce an effect which can be labeled hunger. These stimuli may be intensified by external cues such as the position of the hands on a clock, a television advertisement for junk food, or other food related items. There will be an increase in activity, and, given the appropriate circumstances, this activity will be directed toward food items. The consumption of food is said to be rewarding, and reduces the stimuli that initially energized the search for food.
The schema outlined above reflects the operation of the reward system, and as discussed in previous chapters, this system is believed to rely upon activity of catecholamines in fibers that arise from cells in the midbrain and project to various forebrain regions. Normally, this system organizes behavior in a systematic fashion that not only enhances the organism's ability to survive, but also makes it easier for psychologists to formulate...
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