Essay Doctorate 656 words

Psychology applied to contemporary practice and society

Last reviewed: September 9, 2014 ~4 min read

¶ … Psychology

The nervous system is a part of an animal's body which is responsible for the coordination of voluntary and involuntary actions as well as the transmission of signals between different parts of the body. It is responsible for sending, receiving and the processing of nerve impulses all over the body. All the organs and muscles within the body rely upon the nerve impulses in order for them to function. The nervous system receives information from sense organs regarding the environment by means such as hearing, sight, smell, pressure, taste and pain. The nervous system consists of tow main parts; the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system comprises of the brain and the spinal cord. It is surrounded by the bone-skull and the vertebrae. The peripheral nervous system comprises of numerous neurons which are its functional units. The central nervous system is responsible for the issuing of nerve impulses and the analysis of sensory data. The peripheral nervous system is responsible for carrying nerve impulses to and from the body. The central nervous system therefore integrates information while the peripheral nervous system transmits both sensory and motor signals between the central nervous system and the rest of the body (Farr, 2002).

The endocrine system comprises of glands that secret hormone and other substances into the blood stream. There are various hormones secreted within the body by different glands that serve different functions. There are some hormones that are known to have an effect on the behavior and mood of an individual. Sex glands are part of the endocrine system which can lead to PMS in some women including depression, irritability and fatigue. The thyroid gland within the endocrine system makes people feel lazy and lethargic. Mood swings, mental sluggishness, depression, agitation, nervousness can be signs of an individual with an endocrine disorder. The hypothalamus is known to regulate thirst, hunger and other motivated behaviors. The hypothalamus is also part of the limbic system which controls aspects of the human behavior such as memory and emotion.

Adults pass traits down to their children from one generation to another through transmitting genes. Genes however do not provide an accurate direction on how a child will behave but rather map up the potential outcomes. Genes direct the occurrence of some inherited physical characteristics such as hair color, height and so on. However there are some behaviors which can be inherited such as anxiety, depression, smoking, and intelligence and so on. The inheritance of these genes which produce these behavior tendencies does not guarantee that these behaviors will actually occur in an individual. These genes affect the development of the nervous and endocrine system and how they operate which in turn influences the likelihood of the occurrence of a certain behavior under certain circumstances (Powell, 2014).

An individual's behavior is determined by the environment and the social influences of the environment which they live in. An individual that lives around a violent environment will end up developing violent behaviors. This is because they learn from what is around them and hence their behavior is determined by what they see around them each day (Powell, 2014).

You’re 86% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.

Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log in
130,000+ paper examples AI writing assistant Citation generator Cancel anytime
References
41 sources cited in this paper
  • American Psychiatric Association. (2014). About DSM-5. Retrieved September 9, 2014 from
  • DSM5 website: http://www.dsm5.org/about/Pages/Default.aspx
  • Back, S., Waldrop. A., & Brady, K. (2009). Treatment challenges associated with comorbid
  • substance use and posttraumatic stress disorder: Clinicians’ perspectives. Am J Addict, 18(1), 15-20. doi:10.1080/10550190802545141
  • Conway, K.P., Compton, W., Stinson, F.S., & Grant, B.F. Lifetime comorbidity of DSM-IV
  • mood and anxiety disorders and specific drug use disorders: Results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. J Clin Psychiatry, 67(2), 247-257.
  • Cunningham, P. (2009). Beyond parity: Primary care physicians’ perspectives on access to
  • mental health care. Health Aff, 28(3), w490-w501. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.3.w490
  • Druss, B.G., von Esenwein, S.A., Compton, M.T., Rask, K.J., Zhao, L., & Parker, R. (2009a).
  • A randomized trial of medical care management for community mental health settings: The primary care access, referral, and evaluation (PCARE) study. Am J Psychiatry, 167(2), 151-159. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.09050691
  • Druss, B., Hwang, I., Petukhov, M., Sampson, N.A., Wang, P.S., & Kessler, R. (2009b).
  • Impairment in role functioning in mental and chronic medical disorders in the United States: Results from the national comorbidity survey replication. Mol Psychiatry, 14(7), 728-737.
  • Holmes. T.H. & Rahe, R.H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of
  • Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213-21.
  • Kessler, R.C., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Chatterji, S., Lee, S., Ormel, J., Üstün, T.B., &
  • Wang, P.S. (2009). The global burden of mental disorders: An update from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys. Epidemiol Psichiatr Soc., 18(1), 23-33.
  • Kessler R.C., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Angermeyer, M.C., Anthony, J.C., Berglund, P.,
  • Chatterji, S., de Girolamo, G., de Graaf, R., Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, I., Gluzman, S., Gruber, M.J., Gureje, O., Haro, J.M., Heeringa, S., Karam, A., Kawakami, N., Lee, S., Levinson, D., Medina-Mora, M.E., Oakley-Browne, M.A., Pennell, B., Petukhova, M., Posada-Villa, J., Ruscio, R., Stein, D.J., Tsang, C.H.A., Üstün, T.B. (2007). Lifetime prevalence and age--of--onset distributions of mental disorders in the World Mental Health Survey Initiative. In: Kessler R.C., Üstün T.B., (Eds.). Patterns of Mental Illness in the World Mental Health Surveys. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, UK.
  • Le Cook, B., McGuire, T.G., Alegria, M., & Normand, S. (2011). Crowd-out and exposure
  • effects of physical comorbidities on mental health care use: Implications for racial-ethnic disparities in access. Health Serv Res, 46(4), 1259-1280. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2011.01253.x
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2014). 10 common warning signs of a mental illness.
  • Retrieved September 9, 2014 from NAMI website: http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Inform_Yourself/About_Public_Policy/Child_and_Adolescent_Action_Center/WarningSigns2.pdf
  • National Institute of Mental Health. (2014). Any disorder among children. Retrieved
  • September 9, 2014 from NIH website: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1ANYDIS_CHILD.shtml
  • National Institute of Mental Health. (2014). Any mental illness (AMI) among adults. Retrieved
  • September 9, 2014 from NIH website: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1ANYDIS_ADULT.shtml
  • National Institute of Mental Health. (2014). Inmate mental health. Retrieved September 9,
  • 2014 from NIH website: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1DOJ.shtml
  • National Institute of Mental Health. (2014). Serious mental illness (SMI) among adults.
  • Retrieved September 9, 2014 from NIH website:
  • http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/SMI_AASR.shtml
  • Somers, J.M., Goldner, E.M., Waraich, P., Hsu, L. (2006). Prevalence and incidence studies of
  • anxiety disorders: A systematic review of the literature. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 51 (2), 100-113.
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012, December). Five major steps to
  • intervention (the “5 A’s”). Retrieved September 9, 2014 from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality website: http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/clinicians-providers/guidelines-recommendations/tobacco/5steps.html
  • USLegal. (2014). Dangerous to self or others law & legal definition. Retrieved September 9.
  • 2014 from USLegal website: http://definitions.uslegal.com/d/dangerous-to-self-or-others/
  • World Health Organization. (2014, August). Mental health: Strengthening our response.
  • Retrieved September 9, 2014 from WHO Media Centre website: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs220/en/
  • World Health Organization. (2014, August). The World Health Organization world mental
  • health composite international diagnostic interview (WHO WMH-CIDI). Retrieved September 9, 2014 from Harvard Medical School website: http://www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/wmhcidi/
Cite This Paper
PaperDue. (2014). Psychology applied to contemporary practice and society. PaperDue. https://www.paperdue.com/essay/psychology-applied-191655

Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.