Topic 1 - The Biological Approach to Psychology

• biopsychology


  the scientific study of the biology of behavior
• biopsychology


  the study of the physiological evolutionary, and developmental mechanisms of behavior and experience
• Physiological Psychology


  Studies the neural mechanisms of behavior through the direct manipulation and recording of the brain. (i.e. surgical, electrical)
• Psychopharmacology


  it focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and behavior with drugs. The purpose of psychopharmacological experiments is to develop therapeutic drugs.
• Neuropsychology


  the study of the psychological effects of brain damage in human patients. Neuropsychology is the most applied of the biopsychological discipline
• Psychophysiology


  studies the relation between physiological activity and psychological process in human subjects physiological activity is recorded from the surface of the body
• Cognitive Neuroscience 


  studies the neural bases of cognition
• Cognitive Neuroscience 


  refers to higher intellectual processes
• Cognitive Neuroscience 


  it focuses on thought, memory, attention and complex
• Comparative Psychology


  compare the behavior of different species in order to understand the evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior
• Neuroscience


  scientific study of the nervous system
• Neuroscience


  examines the structure and function of the human brain and nervous system
• neuroanatomy


  study of the structure of the nervous system
• neurochemistry


  study chemical bases of neural activity
• neuropathology


  study of the nervous system disorders
• neuropharmacology


  study of the effects of drugs on the neural activity
• neurophysiology


  study of the functions and activities of the nervous system
• human subjects

  they can follow instructions
• human subjects

  they can report their subjective experiences
• human subjects

  they are cheaper
• human subjects

  they have human brains
• non-human subjects

  more quantitative than qualitative
• non-human subjects


  it is possible to conduct research on laboratory animals that for ethical reasons is not possible with human participants
• physiological explanation


  relates a behavior to the activity of the brain and other organs
• ontogenic explanation


  relates a behavior to the activity of the brain and other organs
• evolutionary explanation

  reconstructs the evolutionary history of a structure or behavior. the characteristics features of an animal are almost always modifications of something found in ancestral species
• functional explanation


  a describes why a structure or behavior evolved as it did within a small, isolated population, a gene can spread by accident through a process called genetic drift