Biopsychology as a neuroscience Flashcards
Define and discuss the field of biopsychology.
Biopsychology is the scientific study of the biology of behavior. It uses other knowledge and tools of other disciplines neurosciences. Each discipline studies something different of the brain that controls and produces` behavior.
Describe six areas of neuroscience that are particularly relevant to biopsychological inquiry.
Neuroanatomy- structures of the nervous system
Neurophysiology- functions and activities of the nervous system
Neurochemistry- chemical bases of neural activity
Neuropathology- nervous system disorders
Neuropharmacology- effects of drugs on neural activity
Neuroendrocrinology- interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine systems
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of humans and nonhumans as subjects in biopsychological research.
Nonhumans because they have a simpler brain, comparative approach, and for ethical reasons. Humans because its more quantitative, they can follow instructions, make reports and cheaper to work with.
Explain how converging operations (aka, preponderance of the evidence) contributed to the study of Korsakoff’s syndrome.
The converging operations were epidemiological studies in humans but actually tested on animals. The preponderance of the evidence is people who suffer sever malnutrition and alcoholics both have signs of the Korskoff disease. They bothhave a huge effect on the thiamine absorption
Describe the four major themes of our approach to Biopsychology.
Thinking critically and creatively- base thinking on the evidence presented
Clinical implications- when someone gets injured that leads to new discoveries of treatment and new knowledge
Evolutionary perspective- consideration of environmental pressures on human evolution
Neuroplasticity- the brain is plastic not static
Thinking about the biology of behavior in terms of a traditional physiological-psychological dichotomy is flawed: Explain and discuss.*
What is psychological is physiological, mind and brain are the same thing.
Describe examples of the mind-brain connection.*
What affects the brain affects the mind.
Blindsight is an example, the eye itself is fine but it is blocking the understanding of what something is.
Another example, doctors would poke around in peoples brain to see what part of the brain they poked would stimulate.
Compare and contrast pure research (aka basic research) and applied research.
Pure research is to conduct an experiment just for knowledge but applied research is intended to bring benefit to humankind.
Compare experiments, quasiexperimental studies, and case studies, emphasizing the study of causal effects.
Regular experiments involve the manipulatioin of variables.
Quasiexperimental studies are a group of subjects exposed to conditions in the real world.
Case studies are focused on a single individual, often to test a hypothesis.
