CHAPTER 1
Biopsychology as a
Neuroscience
Renesse Cecilia T. Guangco, RPm
The Human Brain
Neuroscience
Is the scientific study of the nervous system. It
has several disciplines and one of them is:
biopsychology.
01
What is
Biopsychology?
Biopsychology
●
Is the scientific study of the biology of behavior.
●
Some refer to this field as: psychobiology, behavioral biology,
behavioral neuroscience.
Donald O. Hebb
●
D.O. Hebb in 1949 had played a
key role in the emergence of
biopsychology through his book:
The Organization of Behavior
(theories on perceptions,
emotions, thoughts, memories,
that might be produced by brain
activity).
How is Biopsychology is related to other disciplines of
Neuroscience?
Neuroscience is a team effort. Biopsychology is an integrative
discipline that can be further be explained by its relation to other
neuroscientific disciplines such as:
○ Neuroanatomy – study of the structure of the nervous
system
○ Neurochemistry – study of the chemical bases of neural
activity
○ Neuroendocrinology – study of interactions between the
nervous and endocrine system
How is Biopsychology is related to other disciplines of
Neuroscience?
○
○
○
Neuropathology – study of the nervous system disorders
Neuropharmacology – the study of the effects of drugs on
neural activity
Neurophysiology – the study of functions and activities of
the nervous system
02
What types of research
characterize the
Biopsychological Approach?
What types of research characterize Biopsychological
approach?
Biopsychological approach can involve human or nonhuman
subjects, can be formal experiments or non experimental studies,
and it can be pure or applied.
Human and Nonhuman Subjects
Nonhuman Subjects
•
•
•
•
•
•
Human Subjects
Mice and rats are common subjects. •
Cats, dogs, and nonhuman primates •
as well.
•
Cost of maintaining an animal
laboratory can be prohibitive.
Brain and behavior are simpler
Nonhuman subjects gives more
insight and rise to comparative
approach
Fewer ethical constraints than
human subjects
Can follow instructions
Can report subjective experiences
Often cheaper
Experiments and Nonexperiments
Experiments
Nonexperiments
•
•
•
•
•
•
Focus is on cause and effect
Utilizes between-subjects and/or
within-subjects design
IV is the difference between
conditions.
DV is measured to assess the effect
of the IV.
•
•
or Quasiexperimental studies
Happens when studies have been
exposed to the conditions of
interest in the real world.
Case Studies studies that focuses
on a single case or subject.
There is a problem with
generalizability.
Pure and Applied research
Pure Research
Applied Research
•
•
Is motivated primarily by the
curiosity of the researcher- done
solely for the purpose of acquiring
knowledge.
Is intended to bring about some
direct benefit to human kind.
TRADITIONAL RESEARCH - a research that aims to translate the
findings of pure research into useful applications for human kind.
03
What are the Divisions
of Biopsychology?
What are the divisions of Biopsychology?
Physiological Psychology – studies the neural mechanisms of behavior
through the direct manipulation and recording of the brain in controlled
experiments.
●
Surgical and electrical methods are common.
●
Subjects are almost always laboratory animals.
Psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and
behavior with drugs.
●
Many early psychopharmacologists were physiological psychologists.
●
Common purpose is to develop therapeutic drugs.
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology is the study of psychological effects of brain damage in
human patients.
● They deal almost exclusively with case studies and quasiexperimental
studies.
● The cerebral cortex is most likely damaged (in this case) by accident or
surgery.
Psychophysiology
Psychophysiology studies the
relation between physiological
activity and psychological
processes in human subjects.
● Procedures are typically noninvasive. (it is recorded from the
surface of the body)
● Examples are EEG
(electroencephalogram), muscle
tension, eye movement (ANS –
autonomic nervous system
activity.
Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience is the youngest
division of biopsychology. They study the
neural bases of cognition.
●
Cognition refers to higher intellectual
processes such as thought, memory,
attention, and complex perceptual
processes.
●
Commonly involves human participants
and methods are noninvasive.
Comparative Psychology
Comparative Psychologists compare the behavior of different species in
order to understand the evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of
behavior.
○ Ethological research – the study of animal behavior in its natural
environment.
○ Evolutionary psychology – focuses on understanding behavior by
considering its likely evolutionary origins.
○ Behavioral genetics – the study of genetic influences on behavior.
04
How do
Biopsychologists
conduct their work?
How do Biopsychologists work
together?
Major biopsychological issues are rarely resolved by a single experiment
or even by a single series of experiments taking the same general
approach.
The combined approach is called Converging operations.
How do biopsychologists study the
unobservable workings of the mind?
Scientific inference is the fundamental method of
biopsychology and most other sciences. It is the empirical
method that biopsychologists and scientists use to study
the unobservable.
End.
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