Jessica Allen Case

Jessica Allen

Mrs. Brown

AP Psychology

24 January 2013

While weeding his flower beds, Saul is interrupted by a large brown bear. With his fear taking over him and fast reaction time he takes off like a bullet into his house. Saul sees the image of the large bear which goes through the cornea first, then through the pupil, iris, then to the retina which is concentrated with rods and cones.

The image of the bear is flipped in the back of the retina then focused by the fovea. This is the retinas focal point of an image. Saul seeing the light image of the brown bear is changed from a neural impulse via the bipolar and ganglion cells. Then the image travels down the optic nerve and then transmitted to the visual cortex in the brain through the thalamus. This is how Saul was able to see and process the image of the brain bear. The parts of the brain involved are the optic nerve, then through the optic chiasm, to the occipital lobe, then finally to the visual cortex.

When Saul ran as fast as he could into his house he triggered his fight-or flight response. This is when our body either wants to stay and fight or it lets fear take over and we run. In Saul's case he took flight. The fight-or-flight response comes from our adrenal glands from the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine. This is part of the sympathetic nervous system which arouses us. With Saul his adrenal glands released adrenaline, which got his heart pumping at increasing speeds and provided him with a gush of energy.

According to the James-Lange Theory of Emotion if we see an external stimulus that stimulus leads to a physical reaction. And our emotional reaction depends on how we react to those physical reactions. When Saul saw the large brown bear he was overcome with fear, which triggered his physical reaction to run in the house. John also recognized that the brown bear could kill him, which also was the stressor for his fear. Ekman stated that the fear is the experience of changes in his facial muscles. Soon as Saul laid his eyes on the bear his eyes got bigger, his teeth were pressed tightly together, and his muscles led the brain to understand that his gestures were a sign of fear. If Saul was to feel sadness or anger they would require the movement of different muscles.