The Concept and Role of Biological Psychology Research Paper

Biological psychology is the term used to describe a branch of psychology that deals with the study of behavioral and experience mechanisms in humans and animals; specifically touching on the evolutionary, physiological, and developmental aspects of behavior. This field of study also represents a major point of view in the field of psychology, emphasizing that behavior can only be properly understood by analyzing its evolution, as well as analyzing how behavior is controlled by the way the brain and other organs function. The greater part of biological psychology deals with the functioning of the brain. Other terms that are synonymous with the term biological psychology are physiological psychology, psychobiology, biopsychology, and behavioral neuroscience. The main emphasis of the field of biological psychology is to create and analyze the relationship between biology and various psychological issues. Besides laying great emphasis on behavior, neuroscience also delves into the fields of anatomy and chemistry (Kalat 2008, p.2; Eysenck 2004, p.25, 31-32).

Also referred to as physiological psychology, biological psychology dates back to the 18^th and 19^th centuries and continued with its development way into the 20^th century. From such men as Rene Descartes, the development of biological psychology spread down to men like Wilheim Wundt, founder of experimental psychology; who produced a major work titled Foundations of Physiological Psychology between 1874 -1908. Another major pioneer of modern psychology William James, in his very influential text titled Principles of Psychology (1890), devoted a third of the works to the study of the brain as well as the nervous system. Both men carried out a great study in philosophy and medicine and also regarded themselves as physiologists. Yet, their study was not aimed at eroding the field of psychology to physiology but instead aimed at studying the mind through the application of scientific methods of physiology. Biological has over the years evolved to include major modern topics such as motivation, emotion, sensory processes, learning, and memory. Various scholars and researchers have been involved in the development of various fields of physiology with such fields as a neural and physiological mechanisms of emotion and motivation becoming a major field of biological psychology in the twentieth century. Recently, the fields of cognitive and behavioral neuroscience have been incorporated into biological psychology. Many other areas of psychological psychology have now evolved into major fields of study in their own right (Weiner 2003, pp.47, 51-56).

Many theorists have made tremendous contributions to the field of biological psychology and one of the earliest theorists was Charles Darwin, who together with Alfred Russell Wallace is associated with the evolutionary approach. Other evolutionary theorists like David Buss and Daniel Nettle have developed the theory that personality traits are inherited. A German-born British psychologist by the name of Hans Eysenck developed the genetic determinism of personality. He argued that inherited differences influence personality traits in different people. Other important theorists in biological psychology include Carl Rogers who developed the person-centered theory by specifically addressing the influence that childhood experiences have on personality development. Another important biological theorist is Abraham Maslow who developed Maslow’s Theory of Self-Actualization. One of his key contributions was the description of a healthy personality and the hierarchical organization of motives (Weiten et al., pp. 51-58; Eysenck 2004, pp.4, 29).

Biological psychology has a special relationship with other fields of psychology such as developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, abnormal psychology, and individual differences. Biologically, behavior can be explained through four mechanisms namely evolutionary, functional, physiological, and ontogenetic. Physiologically, behavior is related to the functionality of the brain and other organs of the body. Through the ontogenetic approach, the explanation is given about the development of behavior including the influences of such other factors as genes, experiences, and nutrition as well as the interaction of such factors. The evolutionary mechanism attempts to explain behavior by tracing it back to remote ancestors while the functional explanation attempts to describe why the behavior evolved in the manner that it did. But to improve an understanding of behavior, all these functions must be used in combination whenever the opportunity allows. Though personality for example is handled through individual differences, genetic factors covered in biological psychology partly influence these differences. Individual differences are also addressed through developmental factors, cognitive factors, and social processes; making the various approaches an integral part of one another as they work together to explain personality (Kalat 2008, pp.4-5; Eysenck 2004, pp.4-6).

Through recent research, evolutionary theorists have studied behavioral genetics to come up with ample evidence that personality is highly shaped by biological factors. Nevertheless, biological approaches to personality have exhibited some major weaknesses. Estimating the hereditary influence of personality has been quite artificial because it is quite difficult to separate personality into environmental or genetic components and instead, the effects that these two factors have on personality development are twisted in such a way that it gets too difficult to separate them. Ratios of hereditability may appear very precise but their basis is very debatable. Evolutionary theorists also work backward to determine how certain pressures in the human past may have given rise to certain outcomes. Critics have argued that some of the evolutionary explanations of human traits are speculative and quite biased. Despite many studies, there is currently no comprehensive biological theory that has been developed which fully explains personality and available theories usually provide a scanty explanation of how personality is affected by biological factors. Evolutionary theorists for example promise very limited analyses of personality and a lot of extra theoretical work is required regarding biological influences on personality (Weiten et al, 2008, pp.58-59).

Biological psychology has made a tremendous contribution to the field of psychology and through research; new approaches are being developed while old ones are improved. However, although this field of psychology has been probably the most interesting area of research and study, there has been too much overdependence on animals during research and human behavior is subsequently over-generalized from the behavior of animals (Weiten et al., p.59).

References

1. Eysenck, M. (2004). Psychology: An international perspective. London, UK: Taylor & Francis.
2. Kalat, J. (2008). Biological psychology. Sunnyvale, CA: Cengage Learning.
3. Weiner, I. (2003). Handbook of psychology, volume 3. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
4. Weiten, W, Llyod M, Dunn d and Hammer E. (2008). Psychology applied to modern life: Adjustment in the 21^st Century. Sunnyvale, CA: Cengage Learning.