Essay Sample on Factors Influencing Sensation

Introduction

Sensation is defined as conscious experiences or physical processes that result from the stimulation of sense organs. Sensation enables individuals to respond to external stimuli from their environment, which, when combined with perception, determines the individual's behavior. Psychology views sensation in different aspects; for instance, individuals sense what they feel is important or critical using sensory adaptations, enabling them to block out certain stimuli and focus on those they feel are important or critical therefore preventing an overload of the senses. Sensation is a broad field with different aspects that need to be explored to predict and determine behavior.

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Motivation

Motives cause us to act or behave in a certain way to achieve our set goals or objectives. People feel and act towards what they imagine will help them achieve the agendas they have set their minds to achieve. Absolute threshold means the minimum amount of stimuli an individual can detect at a time. Under absolute threshold, we tend to shut off other stimuli in our environment under the impression that the stimulus we are allowing our senses to focus on and react towards is the only ones that will enable us to reach specific set objectives or goals. Motivation drives sensation and the type of stimuli we allow our sensory organs to handle.

Expectations

On the other hand, expectation involves behavior through anticipation of future events taking place and is based on the belief that something will happen. When an individual has expectations about receiving a certain stimulus, their absolute threshold for that stimulus decreases. When one expects to receive a certain stimulus, then even a small amount of the stimuli will elicit a reaction. Moreover, perceptions that determine behavior are influenced by our expectations. These expectations are formed from experiences that are gained from past interactions with the stimuli. According to Webster, sensory adaptations are also shaped by experiences gained from previous interactions with the stimuli. (Webster, 2012). This means that experiences shape expectations, which later on shape sensory adaptations and perceptions that determine behavior. Perceptions towards the said stimuli indirectly shape sensory adaptations.

Psychological State of Mind

Finally, a psychological state is an imagined state that corresponds with thinking and feeling and consists of an accumulation of propositional attitudes and cognitive representations. Mental states are influenced and constructed by sensations from the body, the environment, and past experiences (Oosterwijk et al., 2012). Studies indicate that pain is not only associated with physical sensations but with other mental aspects such as emotional sensations and other psychological aspects such as anxiety and empathy (Oosterwijk et al., 2012). It means that the various psychological states of the mind are determined by sensations and are interrelated. Therefore, when handling pain control issues, all aspects of the mind should be looked into and taken care of and not just the physical sensations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the sensation is driven by motives, which means we only try to sense and act towards stimuli we believe align with our goals. Moreover, expectations reduce the absolute threshold that is required for stimulation to be recognized. Moreover, when tackling pain, various aspects such as emotional and psychological states should be handled instead of only focusing on the physical aspects. More needs to be done to ensure that enough research is put into psychological concepts like sensation and perception.

References

Oosterwijk, S., Lindquist, K. A., Anderson, E., Dautoff, R., Moriguchi, Y., & Barrett, L. F. (2012). States of mind: Emotions, body feelings, and thoughts share distributed neural networks. NeuroImage, 62(3), 2110-2128.

Webster, M. A. (2012). Evolving concepts of sensory adaptation. F1000 biology reports, 4.