1. What is biological psychology? “Biopsychology is the scientific study of the biology of behavior. Some refer to this field as psychobiology, behavioral biology, or behavioral neuroscience; but I prefer the term biopsychology because it denotes a biological approach to the study of psychology rather than a psychological approach to the study of biology: Psychology commands center stage in this text. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior—the scientific study of all overt activities of the organism as well as all the internal processes that are presumed to underlie them (e.g., learning, memory, motivation, perception, and emotion)” (Pinel, 2009).
Biological and Humanistic Approaches to Personality Many researchers believe that many aspects affect an individual’s personality. This paper is will analyze the biological and humanistic approaches to personality. This paper will also use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to discuss at the extent in which growth needs influence personality formation, describe biological factors that influence the formation of personality, examine the relationship of biological factors to Maslow’s theory of personality and explain the basic aspects of humanistic theory that are incompatible with biological explanations of personality. The concept that individuals inherit their personalities from their parents is the biological approach to personality. Unlike the Big Five, this theory founded by Hans Eysenck establishes three dimensions: extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.
D. O. Hebb Conducted experiments with both animals and humans with clinical case studies about observations done throughout daily life in order to develop his theories, And as a result he is the father of bio psychology. 3. Name one to three important theorists associated with biological psychology. Rene Descartes believes that the body in the mind were not interconnected. He believed that they both had completely different functions such as the body being here to help us live and navigate the physical world while the mind was more like our soul, existing as a catalyst to our emotional, intellectual and psychological abilities.
Personality is what makes every individual unique. To some extent I think biology can influence personality. One way that biology can affect personality is by affecting the environments in which we find ourselves. Biological influences may cause us to wind up in certain situations, and these situations may then influence our personalities. Biology also affects how we see ourselves and how others interact with us.
Plato was the one that proposed that it was the brain that was indeed the organ of all reasoning. Not everyone was in agreement. Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and G. W. Leibniz were all very important in the development of modern psychology and all had their own mind body theories that have proved to be of the upmost importance in biopsychology. The relationship between biological psychology and other fields in psychology and neuroscience can be explained, by saying that humans may serve as experimental subjects in behavioral neuroscience. But a great deal of the experimental text in behavioral neuroscience originates from the study of animals not humans.
Bio-psychologists believe that behaviour is hereditary and carried in the genes. The brain and nervous system are integral to this approach and the chemicals in our bodies such as the neurotransmitters and hormones have a large impact on our behaviour. This can be traced back to the genes and DNA as this is where the chemicals are produced. This approach believes that too much or too little of these chemicals can cause mental health problems such as depression and schizophrenia. 1 – The Biological approach treats mental illnesses as any other illness by labelling it, normally by using the DSM IV or ICD 10 then using drugs to treat the illness (or psychosurgery).
Explain the principal psychological perspectives There are six psychological perspectives for health and social care, Behaviourist, Social learning, psychodynamic, Humanistic, Cognitive and Biological. In this booklet I will explain the principles of each perspective. Biological This theory underpins the key notion that our genes make us who are we; it also centres on a theory called ‘Maturation theory’ which suggest that out behaviour is biological and not environmental. They believe that genes are forwarded to individuals from their parents and that cognitive, physical and other development processes unfold over time depending on the genes and individual has rather than the environment they live in. The ‘Maturation theory’ believes development happens as a sequenced process, also stating that genes help is develop into the person we are meant to be.
The brain is the powerhouse of human behavior, and the biological perspective is all about the study of the brain, aspects like genetics, immune system, nervous system, and how the brain interacts with these different pieces to make you different. Why we do what we do is what this perspective is all about, and by using this perspective you don’t just have a bunch of assumptions but you can now collect facts and cold hard reasoning, to help solve the hardest of physiological questions. The psychological perspective that I believe does not accurately describe human behavior is the Evolutionary Perspective. First off this perspective is not merely based on fact but on logic, reasoning, and problem solving. It is more of an educated suggestion with facts that seem to fit the puzzle.
I will in this paper describe a little bit of both sides of the debate, and then give my opinion on it. Hopefully this paper will also allow you to help draw your own conclusions as well. Scientists have known for years that traits such as eye color and hair color are determined by specific genes encoded in each human cell. The Nature Theory says that traits such as intelligence, personality, aggression, and sexual orientation are also encoded in an individual's DNA. (Nature vs. Nurture, 2006) The search for behavioral genes is the source of constant debate.
Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer Leda Cosmides & John Tooby Introduction The goal of research in evolutionary psychology is to discover and understand the design of the human mind. Evolutionary psychology is an approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology are put to use in research on the structure of the human mind. It is not an area of study, like vision, reasoning, or social behavior. It is a way of thinking about psychology that can be applied to any topic within it. In this view, the mind is a set of information-processing machines that were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors.