Essay Sample on Biopsychology: Psychology Meets Biology to Explain Behavior

The term biopsychology defines the influence of the brain, nervous system, and hormones in influencing individuals' behavior. This a branch of psychology that focuses on biological aspects that affect individual behavior, feelings, and thoughts and provide a connection between psychology and biology. It is also referred to as psychobiology, physiological psychology, behavioral neuroscience, or biological psychology. Advancements in technology that enhance the study of brain activity have increased the psychological evaluation of the functioning of the different parts of the brain. According to Prasad (2020), human behavior is influenced by genetics and physiology. Human behavior and thoughts are evaluated from a physical perspective. The contribution of biology in psychology is reflected in the comparative methods that explain human behavior, thoughts, and feelings. The Biopsychology embraces the use of different animal species in a study and compares the animal’s behavior, which increases the understanding of human behavior.

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Biopsychology studies the brain functions establishing the differences and deviations in functioning of the normal, injured, and malformed brains. In this case, an individual's behavior is evaluated based on the exposure to certain reflexes, neurotransmitters, and hormones. The evolution of behavior over generations can be understood by studying gene and hormone transformations over the ages. The transformations and adaptations form the basis of Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection (Prasad, 2020). The study on the impact of structural changes on the function of body structures and human physiology can influence the changes in behavior. Therefore, Biopsychology establishes the relationship between structural changes and behavior to devise the biological explanation of human character. In this case, Biopsychology explains the basic foundation of inheritance and genetics. The study of Biopsychology connects the changes in the human brain and the behavior. It influences the understanding of human physiology related to the different roles of the brain, nervous system, and hormones.

The concepts and measurements that characterize the biopsychological approach are unique, unique, and sophisticated. The methods are designed to meet the complicated and delicate nature of the human, brain, nervous, and endocrine systems. Neuro-surgery is a technique that allows Biopsychologists to study and understand the functions of the human brain (Khosla, 2020). In most cases, the study is limited to patients with rare neurological conditions as it is unethical to subject patients with well-functioning neurological activities to neural studies. Electro-Encephalograms (EEGs) allow Biopsychologists to record electrical activities of the brain as in patients in a comma. EEGs are a safe and painless approach that can efficiently record the brain's electrical activities and the transmission of impulses. Electrodes are attached to the scalp of the head, which transmits brain waves. The technique is mostly used to study sleep diseases. According to Khosla (2020), the different stages of sleep can be studied using EEGs. Knowledge of the functionality of the brain can also be attained through brain scans. There are different types of brain scans which include Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT), and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) (Khosla, 2020). These scans improve the understanding of the functionality of the brain and its activities.

References

Khosla, M. (2020). Block-1 Introduction to Biopsychology.

Prasad, B. V. (2020). Biopsychology: An Introduction. In Examining Biological Foundations of Human Behavior (pp. 1-14). IGI Global.