Preview

Biological Psychology Paper

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1183 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Biological Psychology Paper
Running Head: Biological Psychology Paper

Biological Psychology Paper
Biological Psychology Paper
Biological psychology is a vital part of psychology; without it psychology would not be considered a science, rather it may still be considered an art. Biological psychology has an extensive history, and each step has brought us closer to the reality that the brain is our main power source, and how much it affects our behavior. There have been many scientists and theorists that have contributed to the field of biological psychology, each having their own beneficial impact. As stated, biological psychology is vital to psychology, as well as other fields in psychology and neuroscience. Biological psychology seems to bring to mind many assumptions when it is thought of, and we will evaluate those assumptions as well as the subjects afore mentioned.
Definition and Historical Development
Biological psychology is defined as being “the study of the brain and how it causes or relates to behaviour” (Wickens, 2005, p. 3); it is often referred to as biopsychology or psychobiology. The past of biological psychology has been a colorful and descriptive past, thanks to the many theorists and scientists in the field.
The ancient Greeks were one of the first to propose that the brain was related to the mind. “Plato (429 – 348 BC) proposed that the brain was the organ of reasoning” (Wickens, 2005, p. 4). An important physician during the Roman Empire was Galen (AD 130 – 200); he was “one of the first writers to propose a theory of brain functions based on the ventricles” (Wickens, 2005, p. 4). Galen believed that the heart was important to the body because it “contained the vital spirit that gave the spark of life to the person. This vital spirit was also seen as providing the ‘substance’ of the mind, and it was transported to a large group of blood vessels at the base of the brain called the rete mirabile (‘wonderufl net’)” (Wickens, 2005, p. 4).
IN the 4th century AD,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    CHAPTER 3: BIOLOGICAL BASES OF BEHAVIOR 3ANEURAL COMMUNICATIONSNEUROTRANSMITTERS ORIGINS OF STUDYING THE BRAIN Plato believed the mind was located in the spherical head  Aristotle believed mind was located in the heart  Phrenology – Studying bumps on the head to reveal a person’s mental abilities and character traits,  Invented by Franz Gall in 1800s  PSYCHOLOGY AND BIOLOGY Everything psychological is simultaneously biological  Biological Psychology – branch of psych that studies links between biology and behavior  We are bio-psycho-social systems.…

    • 952 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biological psychology, or biopsychology, is a field in which the mind-body connection is explored through scientific research and clinical practice. Researchers in this field study the biological basis of thoughts, emotions and behaviors…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psy 340 Worksheet 1

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Basically, biological psychology is the study of behavior in regards to the intricacies involved in the relationship between physiological and psychological processes of human and animals. Often biological psychological is being regarded as neurobiology or behavioral neuroscience. In other words, it could be said to be the interwoven network relationship between the body and the mind. The main concept of biological psychology centers on the function of the brain and the nervous system; which comprises the processes of learning, feeling, sensing, perceiving and thinking. It could be said to be the process of perceiving or receiving external stimuli by the nervous system.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rene Descartes was a brilliant thinker, philosopher, scientist, physiologist, and early psychologist whose theory of mind-body connection has become an integral part of modern medicine (Goodwin, 2008). His dualist view, asserted the mind was ethereal and autonomous in relation to the physical and strictly material body, and to account for their interaction, he proposed the pineal gland was where the intersection of the two transpired (Goodwin, 2008). He theorized the mechanistic, reflexive nature of certain human behaviors, although his one caveat was that reasoning and thoughts were unique properties of the human soul (Wickens, 2005). Descartes 's work laid some of the fundamental parameters for modern thought in psychology, encouraged further research on the localization of brain function, and promoted further experimental research of the nervous system (Goodwin, 2008).…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ap Psych Prologue Outline

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The human brain has perplexed the minds of philosophers since the age of the ancient Greeks. In the late 1800s, the study of the brain-psychology-became its own discipline independent from philosophy when the scientific method was employed to study the underlying mechanisms of the psyche. Although the original research produced by the first psychologists was widely subjective and biased, it helped to pave the way for serious research conducted later in psychology's history.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psy 301 Notes 1st Exam

    • 3288 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Developmental psychology is primarily concerned with the changes that occur during childhood and adolescence. Topics studied range from the control of movements, the acquisition of language, math and musical abilities, the formation of the self and the identity, the formation of emotional attachments, moral judgments and the development of problem solving and reasoning skills. More recently, the time span examined and compared within developmental psychology has expanded across the lifespan and now includes in some cases the changes associated with aging, even into the elderly years. Social psychology focuses on interpersonal behavior, how people (alone or in groups) think, act, feel, believe or behave based on social situations. This includes situations where they are actually being observed and interacting with others as well as when they are isolated and the observation and interaction with others is imagined or implied. Experimental psychology traditionally encompasses a wide variety of both human and animal research concerned with the general processes of sensation, perception, learning and memory. It does not necessarily concern itself with any underlying biological, chemical or neural mechanisms which support those processes and may not address those mechanisms. Physiological psychology, however, is concerned with the underlying biologically and chemically based mechanisms underlying psychological phenomena. The emphasis on function of the nervous system and hormones is so great that the term behavioral neuroscience has largely replaced the term physiological psychology. However, there is a difference between a strict neuroscientist and a behavioral neuroscientist/physiological psychologist. A neuroscientist's primary interest in the biological or chemical mechanisms of brain function at a cellular or molecular level with often little direct interest in how these cellular or molecular functions influence larger scale phenomena such as memory or…

    • 3288 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Salem Witch Trials

    • 925 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lawson, R., Graham, J., & Baker, K. (2007). Biological Foundations in Psychology. In A History of…

    • 925 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Biological Psychology is more known for behavioral and neurobiology neuroscience. This is a very interesting and exciting one. It is chiefly concerned with elucidating the neurobiological basis of psychological and behavioral phenomena.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Chapter 2- Darwin was the first to suggest how evolutionoccurs. Humans belong to the primate family known as hominins. Characteristics that evolved to perform one function but were co-opted to perform another function are called exaptations. Each group of three consecutive nucleotide bases along the strand of messenger RNA is called a codon, which instructs the ribosome to add amino acids to the protein being constructed. Subsequent to the nature-nuture issue, a second line of thought surrounding the biology of behavior is the dualistic physiological-psychological debate. Courtship displays are thought to be important because they promote the evolution of new species. Amphibians evolved from bony fishes and later into reptiles, the first vertebrates to lay shell-covered eggs and to be covered with dry scales. In most species mating is indiscriminate or promiscuous; however, there are some species in which males and females create mating bonds with members of the opposite sex. Genes that contain the information necessary for the synthesis of proteins are enhancer genes. Not all DNA is found in the nucleus of the cell; some is found in mitochondria. Monoallelic expression occurs when one of the two alleles of a gene is inactivated, due to an unidentified epigenetic mechanism, and the other allele is expressed. Descartes claimed the mind is made up of the soul, body, and spirit. RNA is like DNA except it contains the base uracil instead of thymine. Epigenetic mechanisms are thought to be the means by which a small number of genes are able to orchestrate the development of human complexity. The mate-bonding pattern in which bonds are formed between one male and one female is known as monogamy. Evolution is not always adaptive. Incidental non-adaptive byproducts are called spandrels. Mitochondria are energy generation structures that are located in the cytoplasm of every cell. Each chromosome has double stranded molecules known as DNA and each is a sequence of…

    • 1980 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Biological psychology focuses on the neural properties of psychology ranging from the fundamental unit of the brain, the neuron, to the highest levels of cortical organizations in the brain. It takes into account many different biological variations explored on the nature side of the nature vs. nurture debate. Topics that are in the field of biological psychology include neuroscience, neurochemistry, and neurophysiology. The development of brain scanning equipment, such as MRI, allows scientists to look at regions of the brain that become active due to working on certain tasks as well as looking for abnormal regions of the brain that are correlated with abnormal behavior.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This course is designed to expose you to the underlying physiological mechanisms of behavior. Physiological psychology is a complex but fascinating field of study. It explores the relationship between our biological systems and behavior. Structure and function of the nervous system from the neuron to the brain, as well as the interrelationships between the brain and such behaviors as eating, sleeping, learning, memory, emotion, and mental disorders will be discussed using examples from the behavior of both humans and lower organisms.…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The purpose of this study was for experimental psychologists to use the same principles of division through out the process, as it remains a representation of modern psychology as the exact counterpart that is parallel to modern biology. Other determines factors that ware of importance were the scope and the divisions of psychological science in consistence with the nature and number of structural elements that consist in the mind. It was determined that Biology, which is the science of living things, is made up of three mutually interdependent sciences which are morphology, physiology and ontogeny that required the necessary classification their divisions as the counterpart is distinguished.…

    • 588 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psychology 100 Test Review

    • 1799 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Cognitive Approach (mental processes involved in knowing how we direct our attention, how we perceive, how we remember, etc)…

    • 1799 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bipolar Disorder

    • 3350 Words
    • 14 Pages

    (C) Davis, S. F., & Palladino, J. J. (2000). Psychology (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.…

    • 3350 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The first written account of brain anatomy came from ancient Egypt. “Even with the emphasis on head injuries described in the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the ancient Egyptians still believed that it was the heart, not the brain, that was the seat of intellect and sensation,” ("Ancient Egypt and Neuroscience", 2014).…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays