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Biological Psychology
Biological psychology is the part of psychology that
examines the relationship between biological processes and
psychological functions.
Biological psychology is related to a number of other
disciplines outside of psychology and uses knowledge from,
among others, neurobiology, genetics and anatomy to study
the biological basis of human and animal behavior.
A number of other disciplines in psychology use the same
knowledge base as biological psychology, examples of which
are neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, physiological
psychology, psychophysiology and evolutionary psychology.
In international academic literature, biological
psychology is often included under the term neuroscience.
History
As a discipline of science, biological psychology has
been developed from both philosophical and biological
traditions. Already Plato and Aristotle discussed the
relationship between body and mind, and can thus be said to
be the first to describe issues in biological
psychology. The philosopher Rene Descartes developed
physiological theories in the 1600s to explain both animal
and human behavior. In the 19th century, the
philosopher William James described how physiological
processes and anatomy were the basis of psychological
processes. The discovery of nerve cell communication by
electrical signals was important for understanding how the
central nervous system works, and helped to form the basis
for understanding the relationship between the brain and
behavior. During the 20th century, a rapid evolution of
understanding of the biological basis of behavior
occurred. Examples of major advances during this period
are Ivan Pavlov's studies of classical conditioning, Hans
Selye's description of stress responses, Terje Lømos and Tim
Bliss's studies of long-term potentiation in nerve cells.
Research Methods
Technological developments in the last century have
brought new opportunities for exploration of the biological
basis of behavior. The development of electrophysiological
methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and the
measurement of Galvanic skin response are examples of
methods that have made major contributions in biological
psychology since the first part of the last century. The
development of modern computer technology and systems for
taking pictures of brain function has been very important
for research in biological psychology. In particular, the
development of fMRI in the nineties has led to increasing
knowledge about how the brain functions and controls
behavior.
The research methods in biological psychology are many
and include both animal and human research. The earliest
scientific studies in biological psychology were based on
the observation of brain damage in humans, so-called lesion
studies. A well-known example of this is the 19th-century
description of an American man named Phineas Gage. Gage
survived a blast accident in which he received an iron bar
through frontal parts of the brain. In the post-accident
period, Gage's personality and behavior changed
significantly, and one could conclude that the parts of the
brain that were injured in the accident had specific
functions in relation to behavior regulation.
Today, experimental methods are the most prominent method
in biological psychology. Indirect measures of neural
activity such as EEG, fMRI and positron emission tomography
(PET) have been widely used in experimental studies. Other
electrophysiological methods such as Galvanic Skin Response
(GSR) and Electromyography (EMG) are also used to measure
autonomic nervous system activity and muscle activation,
respectively, often as a measure of strength in reflexes.
Animal models are often used in biological psychology,
and a good example of this is May-Britt and Edvard
Moser's Nobel Prize-winning research on memory processes and
cells in the hippocampus. Clinical studies of patients with
mental disorders are also a widely used method in biological
psychology. This could be, for example, studies of hormonal
changes in patients with severe mental disorders, or brain
imaging of patients where one wants to find out whether
structural changes in the brain are making differences in
behavior. Common to research in biological psychology is
that one wants to investigate whether variation in
biological goals creates variation or disease measured by
behavior or psychological conditions.
Application
Knowledge from biological psychological research is used
in areas such as mental health care, medical treatment, drug
development, technology development and the development
of artificial intelligence systems. |
