Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Directorate of Distance & Continuing Education, Tirunelveli. 1 BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY LECTURE NOTES 2024 LATEST UPDATE 100% VERIFIED AS CORRECT AND GRADED A+ UNIT I: INTRODUCTION Meaning of Biological Psychology Biological psychology, in common with all branches of psychology, is enmeshed in a complex philosophical and scientific fabric. Biological psychologists study the “animal roots” of behavior, relating actions and experiences to genetics and physiology. Biological psychology is the study of the physiological, evolutionary, and developmental mechanisms of behavior and experience. It is approximately synonymous with the terms biopsychology, psychobiology, physiological psychology, and behavioral neuroscience. The term biological psychology emphasizes that the goal is to relate biology to issues of psychology. Neuroscience includes much that is relevant to behavior but also includes more detail about anatomy and chemistry. Biological psychology is not only a field of study. It is also a point of view. It holds that the proper way to understand behavior is in terms of how it evolved and how the functioning of the brain and other organs controls behavior. We think and act as w e do because we have certain brain mechanisms, and we evolved those brain mechanisms because ancient animals with these mechanisms survived and reproduced better than animals with other mechanisms. Approaches that relate brain and behaviour Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Directorate of Distance & Continuing Education, Tirunelveli. 2 Software/mind and hardware/brain distinction: One useful distinction in mind – brain relations is that between software and hardware.It has been tempting throughout the history of psychology to liken psychological processes to communication technology. Back in the 1940s the brain was likened to a telep hone exchange. Today, the brain/mind is likened to a digital computer, which makes a sharp distinction between hardware and software. The brain may be seen as hardware (i.e., the processing units comparable to the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer), and the mind as software. Language is a good example. Following Noam Chomsky’s seminal work in the 1950s, it is now assumed that we are born with an innate capacity to learn a language (a universal grammatical structure which underlies all languages). However, different communities speak different languages; that is, they acquire different software (words, pronunciation, etc.) via exposure to language environments (i. e., learning). Processes and output: Much of the activity of the brain is not accessible to the conscious mind. For example, when we utter a sentence we are aware of the final sentence – often only after we have spoken it – but not the processes that led to its construction. This example high lights something fundamental about the brain –mind; that is, brain processes do not correspond directly to the psychological contents that dominate conscious awareness. It is believed that we are largely unaware of the process of cogni tion, and aware only of its outputs expressed. in a ‘high -level language’ which differs from the more basic neural code used in the computation (processing) of the brain –mind. The distinction between high -level and low -level processes may be understood by reference to how digital computers u se these different level processes. Cause and effect In common with other sciences, biological psychology focuses on the fundamental importance of separating cause and effect . This focus stands in contrast to some areas of psychology, and the social sciences in general, which are more often concerned with accounting for associations between different types of data. For example, much of social psychology is concerned with explaining observational data; and differential psychology is largely concerned with describing the covariation observed in personality and intelligence variables. Often there is no interest in causal relations – indeed, in some areas of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Directorate of Distance & Continuing Education, Tirunelveli. 3 psychology, there is a belief that psychological phenomena cannot be reduced to biological constructs and processes. In other areas of psychology (e.g., cognitive psychology), there is not a concern with the underlying biological reality, but rather with developing theories at a given level of explanation (e.g., computat ional theories). Biological psychology attempts to reduce data to the simplest level, formalized in cause –effect relations and couched in reductionist terms. Phylogenetic continuity: Biological psychology makes use of observations and experiments on many different animals; in contrast, almost all other branches of psychology study only one animal: Homo sapiens . This choice of species results from a number of factors. First, we may simply be interested in human beings (e.g., in social interaction research); or we might want to study a feature of this species (e.g., language). Second, although less clearly articu lated, there is a widespread belief in psychology th at research on non -human animals cannot yield useful information about our species. This belief is almost certainly false and is perhaps an intellectual leftover of dualism – i.e., the belief that the mind and body are separate. Coupled with this belief is the idea that human beings are qualitatively different from other species. Darwinian evolution and genetics place human beings on a phylogenetic continuum with other animals; they do not set us apart any more than they set a bird and a whale apart. In fac t, what Darwinian theory does is to rob us of our species arrogance – in the grand scheme of the natural world, we are no better and no worse than any other species. Social vs. biological perspectives: It is somewhat unfortunate that social and biological perspectives are often seen as separate – indeed, they are often seen as opposing, mutually incompatible approaches. However, biological research has much to say about issues that have until recently be en thought of as essentially social in nature; and social research has important implications for the manner in which the brain and behaviour are related – there is now an emerging ‘neuroscience of social behaviour’ . Mos t of the important effects of the brain on behaviour depend upon environmental input; and this input is important for how the mind structures the social environment. For example, although there may be genetic influences on aggression, the types of stimuli that activate aggressive responses are environmental, and meaning and interpretation attached to these stimuli can be Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Directorate of Distance & Continuing Education, Tirunelveli. 4 restructured (learned), thus altering actual behaviour. Therefore, brainbased aggression is only a potential (the necessary condition); the social environment, and our cognitive interpretation of it, is the potentiator (the sufficient condition). This line of reasoning has proved remarkably successful in cognitive behaviour therapy, which restructures the thinking of patients suffering from clinical conditions (e.g., depression). Often, the more we learn about genetics a nd neurophysiology, the more importan ce needs to attach to environmental and social factors Branches of Biological Psychology of Viewpoints to explore Biology of Behavior
