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- The study of brain activity. A scientist is interested in understanding how the brain operates while someone is reading. This scientist may design an fMRI study and have people complete a specific reading task while in the scanner.
- Lesion studies. Lesion studies were prevalent in early biological psychology and neuroscience. These studies looked for associations between damage or abnormalities in brain tissue and behavior.
- The study of hormones. Biological psychology can concern with how hormones influence behavior. Hormones are chemical messengers that are released by specific glands and travel in the bloodstream.
- Twin Studies. Twin and family studies provide an aggregate estimate of genetic influences on variability in behavioral or psychological outcomes by examining differences between people who share different amounts of DNA.
- Issues and Debates
- Investigation of Inheritance
- Methods of Studying The Brain
- Timeline
Free will vs. determinism
It is strongly determinist as it views behavior as caused entirely by biological factors over which individuals have no control.
Nature vs. nurture
The biological approach is firmly on the nature side of the debate; however, it does recognize that our brain is a plastic organthat changes with experience in our social world, so it does not entirely deny the influence of nurture. Cross-cultural researchinvolves studying a particular behavior (e.g., gender, facial expressions) across different cultures. If the behavior is found to be similar across cultures, psychologists conclude that differences in behavior are biologically (i.e., nature)...
Holism vs. reductionism
The biological approach is reductionist as it aims to explain all behavior by the action of genetic or biochemical processes. It neglects the influence of factors such as early childhood experiences, conditioning, or cognitive processes.
Twin studies provide geneticists with a kind of natural experiment in which the behavioral likeness of identical twins (whose genetic relatedness is 1.0) can be compared with the resemblance of dizygotic twins (whose genetic relatedness is 0.5). In other words, if heredity (i.e., genetics) affects a given trait or behavior, then identical twins sho...
It is important to appreciate that the human brainis a highly complicated piece of biological machinery. Scientists have only just “scratched the surface” of understanding the many functions of the workings of the human brain. The brain can influence many types of behavior. In addition to studying brain-damaged patients, we can find out about the w...
The Voyage of the Beagle(1805 – 1836) – Darwin formulated his theory of natural selection by observing animals while traveling the world. Harlow (1848): Phineas Gage brain injury case studyprovides neuroscience with significant information regarding the working of the brain. Darwin (1859) publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selec...
Biological psychology, the study of the physiological bases of behaviour. Biological psychology is concerned primarily with the relationship between psychological processes and the underlying physiological events—or, in other words, the mind-body phenomenon. Its focus is the function of the brain.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Biopsychology - Key takeaways. Biopsychology analyses how the brain, neurotransmitters, and other aspects of our biology influence our behaviours, thoughts, and feelings. There was an idea born from phrenology that there are specific areas of the brain that have specific functions-- the budding idea of biopsychology.
These structures include neurons, brain regions, neurotransmitters or genes. A simple definition of this is: A biological approach in psychology involves studying human biology to understand human behaviour. In contrast to the cognitive approach, in the biological approach, the mind is not seen as separate from the physical makeup of our bodies.
Oct 3, 2023 · Biopsychology is an interdisciplinary branch of psychology that analyzes how the brain, neurotransmitters, and other aspects of our biology influence our behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. This field of psychology is also sometimes known as physiological psychology, behavioral neuroscience, or psychobiology. Biopsychologists often examine how ...
Mar 10, 2023 · There are many different ways of thinking about topics in psychology. The biological perspective is a way of looking at psychological issues by studying the physical basis for animal and human behavior. It is one of the major perspectives in psychology and involves such things as studying the brain, immune system, nervous system, and genetics.
