Psychobiology of Emotional and Motivated Behaviours

School of Psychology

College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Details

Code 08640

Level of study First Year

Credit value 10

Semester 2

Module description

Topics to be covered:
1. Methods used in biological psychology
2. Motivation
3. Emotion
4. Eating and drinking
5. Sleep, waking and biological clocks

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES:
On completion of this module the student should be able to:
1. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using the following strategies to study of the relationship between brain and behaviour: Experimental ablation, recording and stimulating neural activity, neurochemical methods and genetic methods.
2. Give an account of current and historical theories of motivation.
3. Using specific examples of emotional response patterns discuss the physiological responses that support these behaviours.
4. Give an account of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the communication of emotions.
5. Discuss theoretical accounts of the feelings of emotion.
6. Explain the physiological processes that contribute to eating and drinking integrating peripheral (non-CNS) and central (CNS) components.
7. Evaluate the relative contributions of homeostatic and non-homeostatic factors to the causes of eating and drinking.
8. Describe the physiological and behavioural correlates of slow-wave sleep, REM sleep, and alert wakefulness.

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures and workshops