biopsychology as a science

• Biopsychology

  The scientific study of the biology of behavior
• Biopsychology


  • Also referred to as psychobiology, behavioral biology, or behavioral neuroscience
  • An infant discipline compared to physics, chemistry, and biology, but rapidly growing
• Neuroscience


  A team effort, with biopsychologists as important members
• Biopsychologists


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

  • Neuroanatomy - study of the structure of the nervous system
  • Neurochemistry - study of the chemical bases of neural activity
  • Neuroendocrinology - study of the relation of nervous system with endocrine system
  • Neuropathology - study of nervous system disorders
  • Neuropharmacology - study of the effects of drugs
  • Neurophysiology - study of the functions and activities of the nervous system
• Biopsychological research

  • Involves both human and nonhuman animal subjects
  • Includes both experiments and non-experimental studies
  • Includes both pure and applied research
• Experiments

  Involve designing two or more conditions
• Nonexperimental studies

  • 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 case or subject
• Pure research


  Research motivated primarily by the curiosity of the researcher, done solely for the purpose of acquiring knowledge
• Applied research


  Research intended to bring about some direct benefit to humankind
• Major divisions of biopsychology

  • Physiological psychology - behavior of animal
  • Psychopharmacology - effects of drugs on the brain and behavior
  • Neuropsychology - psychological effects of brain damage in human patients
  • Psychophysiology - relation between physiological activity and psychological processes in human subjects
  • Cognitive Neuroscience - study of the neural mechanisms of human cognition, largely through the use of functional brain imaging
  • Comparative Psychology - study of the evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior
• Physiological psychology


  The study of the neural mechanisms of behavior by manipulating the nervous systems of nonhuman animals in controlled experiments
• Psychopharmacology


  The study of the effects of drugs on the brain and behavior
• Neuropsychology

  The study of the psychological effects of brain damage in human patients
• Physiological psychology

  Similar to psychopharmacology, except that it focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and behavior with drugs
• Neuropsychology

  • Deals almost exclusively with case studies and quasi-experimental studies of patients with brain damage
  • The most applied of the biopsychological sub-disciplines
  • Neuropsychological assessment of human patients is always done with an eye toward benefiting them in some way
• Neuropsychological tests


  • Facilitate diagnosis and help the attending physician prescribe effective treatment
  • Can be an important basis for patient care and counseling
• Psychophysiology


  The study of the relation between physiological activity and psychological processes in human subjects
• Psychophysiological measures


  • Electroencephalogram (EEG)
  • Muscle tension
  • Eye movement
  • 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
• 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
• Comparative Psychology

  • Deals generally with the biology of behavior, rather than specifically with the neural mechanisms of behavior
  • Compares the behavior of different species in order to understand the evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior
  • Some study behavior in the laboratory, others engage in ethological research – the study of animal behavior in its natural environment
• Converging operations

  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
• Neuropsychology and physiological psychology in the study of the psychological effects of damage of the human cerebral cortex

  Neuropsychology deals directly with human patients but cannot conduct experiments, while physiological psychology can conduct experiments on non-human animals but the relevance to human deficits is uncertain
• Scientific inference

  • The empirical method that biopsychologists and other scientists use to study the unobservable
  • 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
• Like a detective carefully gathering clues from which to recreate an unwitnessed crime, a biopsychologists carefully gathers relevant measures of behavior and neural activity from which to infer the nature of the neural processes that regulate behavior
• Neuroscience is a team effort, and biopsychologists are important members of the team.
• Biopsychologists are neuroscientists.
• Neuroanatomy - the study of the structure of the nervous system.
• Neuroendocrinology - the study of interactions between the nervous system and the endocrine system.
• Neurochemistry - the study of the chemical bases of neural activity
• Neuropathology - the study of nervous system disorders
• Neuropharmacology - the study of the effects of drugs on neural activity
• Neurophysiology - the study of the functions and activities of the nervous system
• Types of Research

  1. Human and Nonhuman Subjects
  2. Experiments and Non Experiments
• Several advantages of humans over other animals as experimental subjects:

  1. They can follow instructions.
  2. They can report their subjective experiences
  3. Understanding the intricacies of human brain function is that they have human brains
• Comparative approach


  The study of biological processes by comparing different species
• Advantages of animals over humans as subjects:

  1. The brains and behavior of nonhuman subjects are simpler than those of human subjects.
  2. Insights frequently arise from the comparative approach
  3. There are fewer ethical constraints on the study of laboratory species than on the study of humans.
• Experiments - two or more conditions under which the subjects will be tested.