NBS Senior Seminar

Pain: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Submitted by JaymElaine on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 9:59am

THE BIOLOGY OF PAIN

Thinking Differently: Differences Between Men and Women

Submitted by K. Smythe on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 2:10pm

The Moral Instinct: an Exploration of Univeral Morality in Humans and Non-Human Species

Submitted by Rebecca W. on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 10:41pm

The study of morality has historically been relegated to disciplines such as philosophy, history, and literature. However, emerging trends in research suggest that the field of neurobiology would be a valuable addition to this list. Neurobiology research may offer needed insights into the biological underpinnings of social cognition, and particularly of morality. Precisely because the study is firmly grounded in a wide spread philosophical tradition, discussions about the neurobiology of morality shed light on many other aspects of the interconnectedness between cultural knowledge and scientific knowledge.

A Neural and Behavioral Science Story of Morality

Submitted by Ian Morton on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 5:27am

I. Introduction

Neurological Changes During Psychotherapy: Do we need drugs to change the brain?

Submitted by Marissa Patterson on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 7:49pm

In our diverse society, it is necessary to understand that the same treatments may not work for everyone. For diseases that are thought to be caused by differences in brain chemistry, the variety in brain chemistry (as well as the variety in what is felt as "normal" or "baseline") means that certain treatments may not work in the same ways for everyone. Currently the medical community seeks to treat depression and obsessive compulsive disorder in two main ways: psychoactive drugs or cognitive behavioral therapy. However, both of these treatments are not fully understood, nor their efficacy verified.

Born to Die: Animal experimentation and its implications

Submitted by ttomasic@brynma... on Fri, 05/02/2008 - 5:29pm

The ethics of using animals to do research is a hot-button topic that just doesn’t seem to have a right answer (or even a wrong one). Ask two people what they think, and you’re likely to get at least three answers—few are staunchly sure of where they stand on the issue. Animal testing and their use in research is not a new phenomenon; in fact, it can be traced all the way back to the writings of the Greeks in the third and fourth centuries BCE, in the works of Aristotle and Erasistratus (they were among the first to perform vivisections).

Animal Models: Should we be doing this?

Submitted by Jessica Krueger on Fri, 05/02/2008 - 5:14pm

NBS Senior Seminar

Neurological Changes During Psychotherapy: Does it really matter if drugs work better than psychotherapy?

Submitted by Andrea G. on Fri, 05/02/2008 - 5:04pm

NBS Senior Seminar

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by persistent, intrusive thoughts or impulses (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions) (1). Obsessions generally revolve around a central theme, the most common of which are contamination, symmetry and order, and safety and harm (2). Compulsions are thought to arise as a mechanism for reducing the anxiety produced by unwanted obsessions. Every time a compulsive behavior is performed, anxiety decreases, and the behavior is negatively reinforced, increasing the likelihood of a person performing the ritualistic behavior again.

Problems with Pain

Submitted by tlogan on Fri, 05/02/2008 - 5:03pm

Background

Though pain is traditionally thought of as the bodily awareness to harmful or noxious stimuli, the subject of pain has far more depth than one might initially believe. The issues surrounding pain, pain philosophy, and pain management are far-reaching and are replete with ethical and moral conundrums.

Love as an Evolutionary Adaptation

Submitted by atuttle on Fri, 05/02/2008 - 4:21pm

By its very nature, love is an irrational and capricious emotion. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines love twelve different ways (thirteen if you count the tennis term), and there have been countless attempts made by poets, musicians, philosophers, and literary figures to distill and define the essence of this powerful emotion. At first thought, love appears to be too complex and ambiguous to define in a scientific manner. As Professor Le mentioned, social scientists do not attempt to operationalize complex emotions like love in their entirety. For example, by demonstrating love-directed behavior in one instance is a study able to be generalized to other

About Student Papers

This paper reflects the research and thoughts of a student at the time the paper was written for a course at Bryn Mawr College. Like other materials on Serendip, it is not intended to be "authoritative" but rather to help others further develop their own explorations. Web links were active as of the time the paper was posted but are not updated.