As a Biology Major some of the theory and application of the Biological Perspective is being thought in my professional courses, furthermore giving me the needed knowledge on the persons that contrived the theory in the first place. Such person was Charles Darwin whom we learn in the class genetics and evolution is accredited for the evolutionary theory which states that evolution contributes to many of the organism qualities including personality in which Biological psychologist base their claim on the Biological process. Biology is defined as the study of all living organisms and how environmental factors affect them while Psychology focuses on the mind and its processes, moreover The Biological Perspective Links Biology and Psychology bases on Biological and physical factors. The Biological Perspective seeks to find answers for psychological problems using Biology, neurological problems, and studies of the immune system. The inception of Psychobiology gave rise to various technics for studying the human brain and the nervous system, in the psychology class the students learnt about the PET scan and MRI Scans that monitor the brain activates and the metal process that happens while the brain is functioning in such cases the brain functions differently due to head trauma and can lead to mental illness. So why is it important for us to understand the human brain? In reality neuroscientist have only scratched the surface of understanding the human brain. A way to see which part of the brain is being used to do a specific job is done by fMRI scan (functional magnetic resonance imaging) which focuses in the cerebral blood flow and with this states what part of the brain is being used. Three other ways of studying patients with brain damage is Nero surgery, Electroencephalograms (EGG), and brain scans (Teresa Coppens, 2016).
Two examples of the Biological perspective in my field/daily life is when is when I develop a crush for a person and the question I always ask myself is why do I feel this why? The Biological perspective gives a logical answer for this state in emotions. According to Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. “ phenyl ethylamine or PEA – This is an amine that naturally occurs in the brain and also in some foods, such as chocolate. It is a stimulant, much like an amphetamine, that causes the release of norepinephrine and dopamine. This chemical is found when you are falling in love. It’s responsible for the head-over-heels, elated part of love.” As a teenager that feeling is present in y daily life for most of the time. Its norepinephrine that causes the reaction to begin such as sweaty hands and the pounding beat of the heart that gives us that nervous feeling. Of course testosterone and oestrogen has something to do with our sex drive. The reason I feel this way is because the human body releases norepinephrine which acts like adrenaline which makes a person exited and gives a fast heartbeat. Together with dopamine, norepinephrine this two chemicals produce intense energy, sleeplessness, craving, loss of appetite and focused attention (Lee Ann Obrigner,2007). A second example of the Biological perspective is when someone gets hostile or aggressive. In our society that is viewed as something immoral and barbaric, but something inside our nervous system triggers that to occur making it a chain of reactions occurring inside our bodies. Biological research can prove that genetics can correlate with the tendency of aggressive behavior which is one of the areas of research in the Biological perspective. The physiological explanation of why aggression occurs is due to testosterone, hence leading to the fact that men are more aggressive that females. As a teenager this is my life lifespan where I have a surge in testosterone due to the fact that males have more testosterone ate the age of fifteen to twenty-five. So the biological perspective can explain why teen agers undergo a ‘rebellious’ at this age, which is due to the amount of hormones being produced. The biological perspective also proves that a neurotransmitter serotonin has been linked with aggression. A study done with people with a criminal record proves that people with a low amount of serotonin have a more aggressive character (Sam Cook,2012).
Another way the Biological perspective correlates with my major is in the field of Neuropsychology which is the study of the structure and function of the brain in relation to clear behaviors and Psychological processes. This is an important field because this area of study combines neurology and psychology with this combination the study is based on psychological effects on the nervous system. This is a very complicated job since they can’t actually handle the brain in its physical state, but rather use technology such as scans to view the brain activity, so as a Biology major who wants to peruse a career in neurology I would have to be very versed in technology. Neuropsychology has a main focus of studying brain related health damage such as Alzheimer and traumatic brain damage, furthermore they investigate how neurological functions affect the human mind. One method of treating this sort of brain damage is using neurofeedback which shows the brain activity in real time. After using the feedback, the neurologist gives options for the client to improve their brain activity and health (John Kirby,2011)
How does the Biological process help in studying and make explanations for human behavior? Analyzing how trauma to the brain influences behaviors, investigating how degenerative brain diseases impact how people act, exploring how genetic factors influence such things as aggression, studying how genetics and brain damage are linked to mental disorders. According to phycologist the three main areas of investigation in the biological perspective that make it important in psychology are the comparative method, physiological, and the inheritance. The comparative method is the study of none human species in terms of behavior and metal process, furthermore the organisms in the study must be under the same phylogenic history which in a biology class was learnt that it must come from the same evolutionary tree, adaptive significance, and development of behavior. The data collected is compared to human data enhancing the understanding of human behavior. The physiology method uses a none human animal subjects in a controlled experiment and collects data on how the human mind affects behavior, this area of the biological perspective focuses on the study on how physiology, genetics, and biology affects the emotional responses (hormones), mental illness, and memory. And the final method in the area of study in the biological perspective is inheritance which means that a study is done to find out which genes is inherited by the offspring from the parents which may lead to them having similar behavior. A method of proving this is using twins in which case there are two types monozygotic (identical twins) which share a hundred percent genetic information opposed to dizygotic (fraternal twins) share only half of the genetic information (Saul McLeod, 2007).
Method of research in the biological perspective always has a characteristic that stands out which is the independent variable of the experiment is biological, or a dependent variable is biological. This leads to the nervous system of the organism under study to be altered temporally or permanently, furthermore none human organisms are used in the experiment (encyclopedia,2016).
So with the study of the brain we learn a lot about our origins and the evolutionary pattern we took, but those is really play a role in the way we behave? That’s the question neuroscience has been trying to answer of a long period of time. And yes it can be proven with the chemical composition and reaction occurring in our body. On a biological bases psychological disorders, Schizophrenics have been observed to have different brain structures and smaller brains than a regular person, furthermore they have higher level of dopamine. Using the biological perspective bio-psychologist have studied the chemical composition of the brain and have solved may problems using drug treatment such as Prozac (for depression). So not all about the biological approach is positive, in psychology the biological approach can be very reductionist meaning it reduces our feelings and emotions leaving us in a state of robotic behaviorism which is unethical. Many drugs developed using the biological approach in psychology have unwanted side effects on the body for example the drug Prozac that was mention before can lead to violent behavior. The drugs developed only treat the physical wound, but not really the psychological wound that was caused by a childhood trauma, so it’s best to confront the situation head on in cases like this (psychologistworld,2013).
The persons who peruse a career in the biological perspective studies the same issues a regular psychologist studies. with an increase in technology and sophistication more precise methods of conducting research has been developed that can be applied in human subjects, furthermore Bio-psychologist are beginning to contribute to areas in psychology such as language, memory, consciousness, and reasoning. Biological psychology has contributed in important therapeutic data and on vas variety of conditioning medical disorders such as Anxiety, Alzheimer’s Disease, Autism, and clinical depression (Neil Carlson,2007).
Conclusion:
In summary the Biological perspective integrates all the biological aspects on how the brain works due to biological components of the host organism, such as the organism’s hormones, the nervous system, and genetic material of said animal/human. The stated factors do in fact affect the state of mind of a person and how the body responds and using the state of mind. There are three main areas of investigation in the biological perspective that make it important in psychology are the comparative method, physiological, and the inheritance. Method of research in the biological perspective always has a characteristic that stands out which is the independent variable of the experiment is biological, or a dependent variable is biological. This leads to the nervous system of the organism under study to be altered temporally or permanently. The use of the Biological approach has some alternative veterinary medication in treating neurologic disorders. Other alternate uses of the Biological perspective in my major is the finding that factors that are involved in a psychological illness can be caused by environmental factors.
Bibliography
Carlson, N. R. (2010). Physiology of behavior. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Cherry, K. (2016). What Is the Biological Perspective? Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/what-is-the-biological-perspective-2794878
Cook, S. (2012) Neural Mechanisms in Aggression. Retrieved from https://revisepsychology.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/4-neural-mechanisms-in-aggression/
John Kirby (2002) Clinical neuropsychology. Retrieved from http://www.abpp.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3304
Lee Obringer. (2017). How Love Works. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved from http://people.howstuffworks.com/love.htm
McLeod, S. (2007). Psychology Perspectives Simply Psychology. Simplypsychology.org. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/perspective.html
New World Encyclopedia. (2016) Biological psychology. Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Biological_psychology
Psychologist World (2013). Biological Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.psychologistworld.com/biological/
Teresa coppens (2016). What Is the Biological Perspective. Owlcation. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/stem/What-Is-the-Biological-Perspective
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