BIOPSYCH - MIDTERMS

• Biopsychology - Scientific study of biology and behavior.
• Psychology - is the scientific study of behavior the scientific study of all overt activities of the organism and the internal processes that are presumed to underlie them.
• Research Fields - research positions ordinarily require a PhD. Researchers are employed by universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical firms, and research institutes.
• Neuroscientist - studies the anatomy, biochemistry, or physiology of the nervous system. (This broad term includes any of the next five, as well as other specialties not listed.)
• Behavioral neuroscientist (almost synonyms: psychobiologist, biopsychologist, or physiological psychologist) - investigates how the functioning of the brain and other organs influences behavior.
• Cognitive neuroscientist uses brain research, such as scans of brain anatomy or activity, to analyze and explore people’s knowledge, thinking, and problem-solving.
• • Neuropsychologist conducts behavioral tests to determine the abilities and disabilities of people with various kinds of brain damage and changes in their condition over time.  most neuropsychologists have a mixture of psychological and medical training;  they work in hospitals and clinics.
• • Psychophysiologist Measures heart rate, breathing rate,  brain waves, and other body processes and how they vary from one person to another or one situation to another.
• • Neurochemist investigates the chemical reactions in the brain.
• Comparative psychologists ( almost synonyms:  ethologists, and animal behaviorists) - compares the behaviors of different species and tries to relate them to their ways of life.
• Evolutionary psychologists ( almost synonym:  Sociobiologist) - relates behaviors,  especially social behaviors,  including those of humans, to the functions they have served and, therefore, the presumed selective pressures that caused them to evolve.
• Practitioner Fields of Psychology -  require a PhD, PsyD,  or master’s degree. in most cases, their work is not directly related to neuroscience. However, practitioners often need to understand it enough to communicate with a client's physician.
• Clinical psychologist - employed by hospital, clinic, private practice, or college; helps people with emotional problems.
• Counseling psychologists -  employed by hospital, clinic,  private practice, or college. Helps people make educational, vocational, and other decisions.
• • School psychologists most were employed by a school system. Identifies educational needs of schoolchildren, devises a plan to meet the needs, and then helps teachers implement it.
• Medical Fields - require an MD plus about four years of additional specialized study and practice.  physicians are employed by hospitals, clinics, medical schools, and private practice. Some conduct research in addition to seeing patients.
• Neurologist - treats people with brain damage or diseases of the brain.
• Neurosurgeon - performs brain surgery.
• Psychiatrist - helps people with emotional distress or troublesome behaviors, sometimes using drugs or other medical procedures.
• Allied Medical Field -  ordinarily requires a master's degree or more.  practitioners are employed by hospitals, clinics, private practice, and medical schools.
• • Physical therapists provide exercise and other treatments to help people with muscle or nerve problems, pain, or anything else that impairs movement.
• Occupational therapist -  helps people improve their ability to perform functions of daily life, for example, after a stroke.
• Social worker - helps people deal with personal and family problems. The activities of a social worker overlap those of a clinical psychologist.
• Quasiexperimental studies - Type of research method for conducting studies in field situations where the researcher may be able to manipulate some independent variables.
• Case studies - Focus on a single case or subject, major problem is generalizability- the degree to which their results can be applied to other cases.
• Pure and applied research - Pure research is motivated primarily by the curiosity of the researcher, applied research is research intended to bring about some direct benefit to humankind.
• • Humans have several advantages over other animals as experimental subjects of biopsychological research.
• • Nonhuman subjects are simpler than those of human subjects.
• PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY - study of the neural mechanisms of behavior by manipulating the nervous systems of nonhuman animals in controlled experiments. 
• PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS Studied the contributions of the hippocampus to memory by surgically removing the hippocampus in rats and assessing their ability to perform various memory tasks.
• • NEUROPSYCHOLOGY Study of the effects of brain damage in human patients.
• • NEUROPSYCHOLOGISTS - Have shown that patients with alcohol-produced brain damage have particular difficulty in remembering recent events.
• • PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY Study of the effects of drugs on the brain and behavior.
• PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGISTS Have tried to improve the memory of Alzheimer’s patients by administering drugs that increase the levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
• • PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Study of the relation between physiological activity and psychological processes in human subjects by noninvasive physiological recording. 
• PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGISTS Have shown that familiar faces elicit the usual changes in autonomic nervous system activity even when patients with brain damage report that they do not recognize a face. 
• COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE Study of the neural mechanisms of human cognition, largely through the use of functional brain imaging. 
• • COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENTISTS Have used brain-imaging technology to observe the changes that occur in various parts of the brain while human volunteers perform memory tasks.
• • COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY Study of the evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior, largely through the use of the comparative method. 
• COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGISTS Have shown that the hippocampus is involved in memory for location.