Biological Psychology Worksheet
Answer the following questions in short-essay format. Be prepared to discuss your answers.
1. What is biological psychology?
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
2. What is the historical development of biological psychology?
Biological psychology as a scientific discipline later emerged from a variety of scientific and philosophical traditions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In philosophy, the first issues is how to approach what is known as the "mind-body problem," namely the explanation of the relationship, if any, that obtains between minds, or mental processes, and bodily states or processes. Dualism is a family of views about the relationship between mind and physical matter. It begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical. In Western Philosophy, some of the earliest discussions of dualist ideas are in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Each of these maintained, but for different reasons, that human "intelligence" (a faculty of the mind or soul) could not be identified with, or explained in terms of, his physical body. However, the best-known version of dualism is due to René Descartes (expressed in his 1641, Meditations on First Philosophy), and holds that the mind is a non-extended, non-physical substance. Descartes was the first to clearly identify the mind with consciousness and self-awareness, and to distinguish this from the brain, which was the seat of intelligence.
3. Name one to three important theorists associated with biological psychology.
Arvid Carlsson
Richard Axel
Linda B. Buck
4. Describe the relationship between biological psychology and other fields in psychology and neuroscience.
In many cases,