Biopsyc

• Biopsychology is the scientific study of the biology of behavior
• Biopsychology


  Also referred to as psychobiology, behavioral biology, or behavioral neuroscience
• Biopsychology is an infant discipline compared to physics, chemistry, and biology, but a rapidly growing one
• Biopsychologists


  • Neuroscientists who bring knowledge of behavior and behavioral research methods to their work
  • Their behavioral orientation and expertise make their contribution to neuroscience unique
• Disciplines of neuroscience relevant to biopsychology

  • Neuroanatomy
  • Neurochemistry
  • Neuroendocrinology
  • Neuropathology
  • Neuropharmacology
  • Neurophysiology
• Quasiexperimental studies


  Studies of groups exposed to conditions of interest in the real world, without random assignment
• Case studies


  In-depth studies of a single subject, good for generating hypotheses
• Pure research


  Research motivated by curiosity, done solely to acquire knowledge
• Applied research


  Research intended to bring direct benefits to people
• Major divisions of biopsychology

  • Physiological psychology
  • Psychopharmacology
  • Neuropsychology
  • Behavioral genetics
  • Evolutionary psychology
  • Cognitive neuroscience
• Physiological psychology


  • Studies neural mechanisms of behavior through direct manipulation of the brain in controlled experiments
• Psychopharmacology


  • Studies the effects of drugs on the brain and behavior
• Neuropsychology


  • Studies the psychological effects of brain damage in human patients, often for diagnostic and treatment purposes
• Psychopharmacology


  The study of the effects of drugs on the brain and behavior. It is similar to physiological psychology, except that it focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and behavior with drugs.
• Neuropsychology


  The study of the psychological effects of brain damage in human patients. Neuropsychology deals almost exclusively with case studies and quasi-experimental studies of patients with brain damage resulting from disease, accident, or neurosurgery. Neuropsychology is the most applied of the biopsychological sub-disciplines; the neuropsychological assessment of human patients, even when part of a program of pure research, is always done with an eye toward benefiting them in some way.
• Psychophysiology


  The study of the relation between physiological activity and psychological processes in human subjects by noninvasive physiological recording. The usual measure of brain activity is the electroencephalogram (EEG). Other common psychophysiological measures are muscle tension, eye movement, and several indicators of autonomic nervous system activity (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation, and electrical conductance of the skin).
• Cognitive Neuroscience


  The study of the neural mechanisms of human cognition, largely through the use of functional brain imaging. It is the youngest division of biopsychology, but it is currently among the most active and exciting. Cognitive neuroscientists study the neural bases of cognition, a term that generally refers to higher intellectual processes such as thought, memory, attention, and complex perceptual processes.
• Comparative Psychology


  The study of the evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior largely through the use of the comparative method. It is the division of biopsychology that deals generally with the biology of behavior, rather than specifically with the neural mechanisms of behavior. Comparative Psychologists compare the behavior of different species in order to understand the evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior. Some of them study behavior in the laboratory; others engage in ethological research – the study of animal behavior in its natural environment.
• When different approaches are focused on a single problem in such a way that the strengths of one approach compensate for the weaknesses of the others, scientists pursue progress by combining approaches which is also known as converging operations.
• Scientific Inference


  The empirical method that biopsychologists and other scientists use to study the unobservable. The scientists carefully measure key events that they can observe and then use these measures as a basis for logically inferring the nature of events that they cannot observe.