Preview

Why Biological Psychologists Study Behavior

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
735 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Biological Psychologists Study Behavior
Biological Psychology

Your Name

Your Class

Date

Instructor

Biological Psychology

Biological psychologists study behavior by researching and studying how behavior and experiences relate to individual as genes and physiology. Biological psychology also investigates questions of how the brain and connected to consciousness. This branch of psychology stresses the goal of relating biology to the issue of psychology. This is called by many different words such as psychobiology, biopsychology, physiological psychology or behavioral neuroscience. Brain functioning is the main focus for biological psychology. Studying the brain, biological psychologists attempt to find the best ways to help with recovery after brain damage, or what specific part of the brain helps us learn language or is involved in storing memories. Also researchers study what biological factors make people more likely to be affected with psychological disorders.

Historical Development

The idea that the mind and body work in unison and that this unison should be used in medical and psychological treatments physical
…show more content…
Santiago Ramon y Cajel, another leading theorist because of his breakthroughs in understanding the firing structures of the brain. He was the first to demonstrate the organized structure of the brain, before it had just been considered a collection of cells. (Wickens, 2005). In the 1930s, J.Z. Young demonstrated in a video called The Squid and its Giant Nerve Fiber, preparing a squid giant axon for electrophysiological study and demonstrating some experimental techniques (Lisieski, 2010). He discovered that he could locate a neuron on a giant squid and keep it alive for hours in the lab. Because squid neurons are much larger than human neurons, it was easier to study their how they worked (Wickens,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The biological perspective assumes that human behavior and thought processes have a biological basis. It focuses on the body and especially the brain and nervous system. Biology include investigation into biochemistry of behavior associated with hormones, genetics and heritability. The biological perspective relies on scientific methods. Because of this, its scope of investigation is limited to variables that can be controlled.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    CHAPTER 3: BIOLOGICAL BASES OF BEHAVIOR 3ANEURAL COMMUNICATIONSNEUROTRANSMITTERS ORIGINS OF STUDYING THE BRAIN Plato believed the mind was located in the spherical head  Aristotle believed mind was located in the heart  Phrenology – Studying bumps on the head to reveal a person’s mental abilities and character traits,  Invented by Franz Gall in 1800s  PSYCHOLOGY AND BIOLOGY Everything psychological is simultaneously biological  Biological Psychology – branch of psych that studies links between biology and behavior  We are bio-psycho-social systems.…

    • 952 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biological psychology, or biopsychology, is a field in which the mind-body connection is explored through scientific research and clinical practice. Researchers in this field study the biological basis of thoughts, emotions and behaviors…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psy 340 Worksheet 1

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Basically, biological psychology is the study of behavior in regards to the intricacies involved in the relationship between physiological and psychological processes of human and animals. Often biological psychological is being regarded as neurobiology or behavioral neuroscience. In other words, it could be said to be the interwoven network relationship between the body and the mind. The main concept of biological psychology centers on the function of the brain and the nervous system; which comprises the processes of learning, feeling, sensing, perceiving and thinking. It could be said to be the process of perceiving or receiving external stimuli by the nervous system.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rene Descartes was a brilliant thinker, philosopher, scientist, physiologist, and early psychologist whose theory of mind-body connection has become an integral part of modern medicine (Goodwin, 2008). His dualist view, asserted the mind was ethereal and autonomous in relation to the physical and strictly material body, and to account for their interaction, he proposed the pineal gland was where the intersection of the two transpired (Goodwin, 2008). He theorized the mechanistic, reflexive nature of certain human behaviors, although his one caveat was that reasoning and thoughts were unique properties of the human soul (Wickens, 2005). Descartes 's work laid some of the fundamental parameters for modern thought in psychology, encouraged further research on the localization of brain function, and promoted further experimental research of the nervous system (Goodwin, 2008).…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psychology 300 Final Exam

    • 1774 Words
    • 8 Pages

    2. The aim of biopsychology (also referred to as behavioral neuroscience) is to: A) Link soma and somette in order to understand how emotions manifest themselves behaviorally B) Investigate the physical basis of psychological phenomena such as motivation, emotion, and stress C) Understand the complex interactions of the nervous system D) Study how thoughts and feelings influence an individual’s biological reactions…

    • 1774 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psy 301 Notes 1st Exam

    • 3288 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Developmental psychology is primarily concerned with the changes that occur during childhood and adolescence. Topics studied range from the control of movements, the acquisition of language, math and musical abilities, the formation of the self and the identity, the formation of emotional attachments, moral judgments and the development of problem solving and reasoning skills. More recently, the time span examined and compared within developmental psychology has expanded across the lifespan and now includes in some cases the changes associated with aging, even into the elderly years. Social psychology focuses on interpersonal behavior, how people (alone or in groups) think, act, feel, believe or behave based on social situations. This includes situations where they are actually being observed and interacting with others as well as when they are isolated and the observation and interaction with others is imagined or implied. Experimental psychology traditionally encompasses a wide variety of both human and animal research concerned with the general processes of sensation, perception, learning and memory. It does not necessarily concern itself with any underlying biological, chemical or neural mechanisms which support those processes and may not address those mechanisms. Physiological psychology, however, is concerned with the underlying biologically and chemically based mechanisms underlying psychological phenomena. The emphasis on function of the nervous system and hormones is so great that the term behavioral neuroscience has largely replaced the term physiological psychology. However, there is a difference between a strict neuroscientist and a behavioral neuroscientist/physiological psychologist. A neuroscientist's primary interest in the biological or chemical mechanisms of brain function at a cellular or molecular level with often little direct interest in how these cellular or molecular functions influence larger scale phenomena such as memory or…

    • 3288 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Biological Psychology is more known for behavioral and neurobiology neuroscience. This is a very interesting and exciting one. It is chiefly concerned with elucidating the neurobiological basis of psychological and behavioral phenomena.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The bio/psycho/social model stipulates that “mental disorder can be attributed to many biological, psychological and social variables that work in tandem to produce healthy or unhealthy behavior” (Kearney & Trull, 2015, p. 47). The problem with this model is that it does not take into account that each human person has a free will gifted to them from God. Free will allows human beings to be the authors of their own actions instead of believing that external conditions control them.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    9. Observations made in natural habitat, helped to show that the societies and behavior of animals are far more complex than previously supposed…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The study of animals may lead to a deeper understanding of human behaviour when it is not always possible to study humans directly, possibly because:…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The biological and psychoanalytical perspectives in psychology both provide an interesting insight into the various ways we as humans behave. The biological perspective focuses on biological factors, such as neurotransmitters and genes which affect our behaviour. The approach believes that our behaviour is identified through an underlying structure and function known as structuralism. Functionalism is the other concept the biological perspective focuses on which studies behaviour between the environment and organisms.…

    • 1648 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Outline of Consciousness

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Started by French philosopher Rene Descartes stated that mind and body are separate, but interacting.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Psychologists attempt to explain human behavior by nature versus nurture. It is believed that environmental and genetic influences in some ways shape out behavior in how we are learn and motivate ourselves.…

    • 283 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Physiological Psychology

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Physiological psychology focuses on the relationship between our biological makeup and our behaviour and experiences.…

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics