Lesson 1: Biological Approach to Behavior

• Biological Psychology

  • Also called physiological psychology, the study of the biology of behavior, focusing on the nervous system, hormones and genetics. Examines the relationship between mind and body, neural mechanisms, and the influence of heredity on behavior.
• Biological Approach to Behavior

  • Believes behavior to be a consequence of genetics and physiology. It examines thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from a biological and physical point of view. All thoughts, feelings, and behavior ultimately have a biological cause.
• What are the ways of biological perspective is relevant to the study of psychology?

  • Comparative Method
  • Physiology
  • Investigation of Inheritance
• Comparative Method


  Different species of animals can be studied and compared to help understand human behavior.
• Physiology


  How the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain functions, how changes in structure and/or function can affect behavior.
• Investigation of Inheritance


  What an animal inherits from its parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics).
• What are the four (4) biological explanations of behavior?

  • Physiological explanation
  • Functional explanation
  • Ontogenetic explanation
  • Evolutionary explanation
• Consciousness


  Refers to your individual awareness of your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, and environment. It is your awareness of yourself and the world around you.
• This awareness is subjective and unique to you. Your consciousness experiences are constantly shifting and changing.

  
  

  
  

  CONSCIOUSNESS
• Rene Descartes


  He is a French philosopher who introduced the concept of mind-body dualism, or the idea that while the mind and body are separate, they do interact. He used a process known as introspection to analyze and report conscious sensations, thoughts, and experiences.
• William James


  He is an American psychologist who compared consciousness to a stream, unbroken and continuous despite constant shifts and changes.
• What are Modern Theories of Consciousness?

  • Integrated Information Theory
  • Global Workspace Theory
• Integrated Information Theory

  Looks at consciousness by learning more about the physical processes that underlie our conscious experiences, attempts to create a measure of the integrated information that forms consciousness.
• Global Workspace Theory


  Suggests that we have a memory bank from which the brain draws information to form the experience of conscious awareness.
• Sigmund Freud


  He is a psychoanalyst who focused on understanding the importance of the unconscious and conscious mind.
• All thoughts, feelings, and behavior ultimately have a biological cause.


  BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
• It believes behavior to be a consequence of genetics and physiology. Examines thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from a biological and physical point of view.


  Biological  Approach
• The quality of an organism's consciousness is represented by the level of integration.


  Integrated Information Theory
• PYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION


  Relates the behavior to an activity of the brain or other organs it correlates with the mechanics of the body, the chemical reaction that allows hormones to trigger brain activity, and the path by which brain activity controls the movement of muscles through contractions.
• FUNCTIONAL EXPLANATION


  Defines or elaborates why a behavior evolved in the way what it did. At times one dominant male, such as an african lion, has a large number of offspring and spreads all of his genes.
• GENETIC DRIFT


  A gene that spreads by pure accident within a small population.
• ONTOGENETIC EXPLANATION


  Describes the development of a behavior or structure. It maps the influences of nutrition, genes, experiences, and the correlations or interactions of these factors in producing behavior.
• EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATIONS


  Looks at a behavior or structure by the way of evolutionary history. When a cat becomes frightened its hairs will stand up on its body. When a person becomes frightened, they get goosebumps. This erection of hairs makes an animal look larger to its predator.