Biopsychology

Question 1

What is biopsychology?

Answer 1

the scientific study of the biology of behavior - dewsbury 1991

Question 2

(Hebb’s The Organisation of Behaviour (1949)) - What is the key factor in the development of Biopsychology?

Answer 2

how complex psychological phenomena, such as perceptions, emotions, thoughts and memories produced by brain activity

Question 3

What are two critical subjects of interest in scientific research and what does bio psych look at?

Answer 3

Brain and behaviour

• looks at relationship between them

Question 4

What is neuroscience and some of its diff approaches?

Answer 4

is the study of the nervous system;

approaches such as:
Neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, neuroendocrinology, neuropharmacology, and neuropathology

Question 5

How is biopsych a discipline of neuroscience?

Answer 5

Biopsychology integrates these various approaches to the study of the nervous system.
BP is an integrative discipline and
Draws together knowledge from other neuroscientific disciplines and applies it to the study of behavior such as language, memory, emotion, and language.

Question 6

Diversity of biopsych research:

advantages of human research?

Answer 6

1. Can follow instructions
2. Report subjective experiences
3. Have a human brain!
4. Often less expensive

Question 7

Advantages of non-human research?

Answer 7

1. Simpler nervous system & brain
2. Possible to use comparative cross-species approach.
   - Valuable cues into the cortical function

Question 8

Experimental biopsych research:

Answer 8

Establish cause and effect relations
Essential to scientific discovery

Are paradoxically very simple Two or more conditions
Between or within-subjects design
Independent variable
Dependent variable

Question 9

Non-experimental biopsych research:

Answer 9

Studies of groups of subjects exposed to conditions in the real world

Not real experiments as potential confounding variables have not been controlled

Question 10

Types of non-experiemtnal designs?

Answer 10

Quasis experimental design,

singe-case studies,

Question 11

Pros/cons of single case studies?

Definition of generalizability?

Answer 11

Case studies focus on a single individual
such as Jimmie G. Diversity of biopsychological research

Usually more in in-depth than other approaches, but may not be generalizable

Generalizability – the degree to which results can be applied to other cases

Question 12

Pros/cons of quasi-experimental studies?

Answer 12

The major short-coming of a quasi-experimental study is that although researchers can examine relations between the variables of interest (e.g., alcohol consumption’s relation to brain damage), a quasi study cannot control for potential confounding variables

Question 13

What’s pure research?

Answer 13

Motivated primarily by the curiosity of the researcher; it is motivated by the desire to find out how things work; it focuses on establishing building blocks or basic concepts that may provide information salient to many problems

Question 14

What’s applied research?

Can both types exist in one project?

Answer 14

Intended to bring about some direct benefit

Yes

Question 15

How many divisions are there of biopsych? What are they?

Answer 15

6

• Physiological psych
• Psychopharma
• Neuropsych
• Psychophysio
• cognitive neuroscience
• Comparative psych

Question 16

Whats physiolgocial psych?

Answer 16

Focuses on the direct manipulation of the nervous system in controlled laboratory settings (e.g., lesions, electrical stimulation, invasive recording)

Subjects are usually laboratory animals strong focus on pure research

Question 17

whats psychopharma?

Answer 17

Nervous system is manipulated pharmacologically

Focuses on drug effects on behavior and how these changes are mediated by changes in neural activity

Many favor pure research use drugs to reveal the nature of brain-behavior interactions

Others study applied questions (e.g., drug abuse, therapeutic drugs)

Question 18

whats neuropsych?

Answer 18

focuses on the behavioral deficits produced in humans by brain damage, typically cortical damage

can’t be studied in humans by experimentation; deals almost exclusively with case studies and quasi experimental studies

most applied; neuropsychological tests of brain-damaged patients facilitate diagnosis, treatment, and lifestyle counseling

Question 19

whats psychophysiology?

Answer 19

focuses on the relation between physiology and behavior by recording the physiological responses of human subjects

because humans are used, all brain recording is noninvasive(i.e., from the surface of the head)

usual measure of brain activity is the scalp electroencephalogram (EEG)

muscle tension, eye movement, heart rate, pupil dilation, and electrical conductance of the skin are other common measures

Question 20

whats cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 20

newest division of biopsychology
focuses on the neural bases of cognitive processes like learning and memory, attention, and complex perceptual processes

often employs human subjects; key methods are noninvasive, functional brain imaging techniques

often involves collaborations between researchers with widely different backgrounds (e.g., psychology, linguistics, computer science)

Question 21

whats comparative psych?

Answer 21

Study of evolutionary & genetic factors of behavior
Features comparative&functional approaches
Features laboratory research as well as studies of animals in their natural environments

Question 22

whats converging operation?

Answer 22

Using multiple approaches to address a single question

For example•Korsakoff’s syndrome – a condition characterized by severe memory loss and most commonly seen in alcoholics•
Is Korsakoff’s the result of the toxic effects of alcohol on the brain?

— what clinical implicartions/