BIOPSYCH

• scientific study of the biology of behavior

  biopsychology
• other terms for biopsychology

  psychobiology

  behavioral biology

  behavioral neuroscience
• time when biopsychology became major neuroscientific discipline

  20th century
• played a key role in emergence of biopscyhology

  the organization of behavior (donald hebb, 1949)
• developed the first comprehensive theory of how complex psychological phenomena such as perceptions, emotions, thoughts and memories might be produced by brain activity

  donald hebb
• based his theory on experiments involving both human and nonhuman animals

  donald hebb
• structure of the nervous system

  neuroanatomy
• chemical bases of neural activity

  neurochemistry
• interactions between nervous and endocrine system

  neuroendocrinology
• nervous system dysfunction

  neuropathology
• effects of drugs on neural activity

  neuropharmacology
• functions and activities of the nervous system

  neurophyioslogy
• mice, rats, cats, dogs and primates

  nonhuman subjects
• can follow instructions, report subjective experiences

  humans
• humans volunteer to be subjects

  participants or volunteers
• study of biological processes by comparing to different species

  comparative approach
• 3 advantages of nonhuman animals

  brains and behavior of nonhuman subjects are simpler

  comparative approach

  possible to research on laboratory animals when humans are not ethically possible
• used by scientists to study causation and find out what causes what

  experiments
• different group of subjects is tested under each condition

  between-subjects design
• test the same group of subjects under each condition

  within-subjects design
• experimenter assigns the subjects to conditions

  independent variable
• variable measured by the experimenter to assess the effect of IV

  dependent variable
• more than one difference that could affect the DV, difficult to determine whether it was IV or unintended difference, effect that is incontrolled

  confounded variable
• Fact that a copulating male who becomes incapable of continuing to copulate with one sex partner can often recommence copulating with a new sex partner

  coolidge effect
• Studies of groups of subjects who have been exposed to the conditions of interest in the real world, many variable + observation on the intervention

  quasiexperimental studies
• Focus on single subject or very small number of subjects, comparative analysis

  case studies
• The degree to which their results can be applied to other cases

  generalizability
• Motivated primarily by the curiosity of the researcher

  Done for the purpose of acquiring knowledge

  pure research
• Aims to translate the findings of pure research into useful applications for humankind

  translational research
• Bring about some direct benefit to humankind

  applied research
• Studies the neural mechanisms of behavior through the direct manipulation and recording of the brain in controlled experiments (surgical and electrical methods)

  physiological psychology
• Focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and behavior with drugs

  psychopharmacology
• Study of psychological effects of brain dysfunction in human patients

  neuropsychology
• Studies the relation between physiological activity and psychological processes in humans

  psychophysiology
• Youngest division of biopsychology

  Study the neural bases of cognition

  cognitive neuroscience
• Refers to higher intellectual processes such as thought, memory, attention and complex perceptual processes

  cognition
• Major method of cognitive neuroscience

  functional brain imaging
• Focuses on the behavior of animals in their natural environments

  Compare the behavior of different species in order to understand the evolution, genetics and adaptiveness of behavior

  comparative psychology
• Study of behavior in an animal’s natural environment

  ethological research
• Different approaches are focused on a single problem in such a way that the strengths of one approach compensate for the weakness of the others

  converging operations