Honest Book Reviews

Dopamine and its Relationship to Parkinson’s Disorder and Schizophrenia             Dopamine is one of the brain’s neurotransmitters (Carlson, 2013). This neurochemical performs an important role in concepts such as movement and motivation. The purpose of this essay is to explore the many functions of dopamine and its influence on behavior.             The beginning of the subject of this essay starts when tyrosine is synthesized into dopamine (Cumming, 2009). Dopamine has been placed in the category of monoamines and in the subcategory of catecholamines, which is a class of amines that includes the above mentioned neurotransmitter, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. Moreover, the chemical Tyrosine hydroxylase is the enzyme (a catalyst that either breaks or combines components ( Encyclopædia Britannica, n. d. )) involved in the biosynthesis of catecholamines (Kuhar, Coucey...

For more information on the history of psychology please check out "A History of Modern Psychology," by C. James Goodwin. Behaviorism is a school of thought in philosophy and psychology that focused on only studying concepts that were observable like behavior and ignoring those that were invisible to the eye such as the mind (1). The term was coined by John Watson. Behaviorism before John B. Watson People usually think that Watson was the one who invented the innovative ideas that pertained to behaviorism, but the truth was that they were appearing in different countries throughout time.  The concept that outside experiences and not mental processes were what shaped individuals was central in British empiricism (2); it was also an important point of view in the discussion of nature vs nurture. Moreover, physiologists spread in the 19th century ideologies known as materialistic and mechanistic. The former is the idea that everything is either physical or can be reduced...

The purpose of this essay is to explore the ways science was used in order to justify discrimination. An emphasis will be placed on psychology and Mexican-Americans living in the United States that were the targets of prejudices. There were several areas of science that were used to discriminate individuals in the United States. The first one that will be explored is the intelligence test known as the Binet-Simon scales. It is important to note that a test bias is an error that can be found in the results of said tests in two ways. The first one is in the design of the test, such as the sample chosen or the operant definition of a variable. The second form of a test bias is seen socially. An example of the second form of bias is seen if a certain group, such as Chicanos or Mexicans living in the U. S., were not falling under the same regression line of the test. There are four types of biases. The first one is called construct validity. This means that even though a test is suppos...