This essay will outline and compare both biological and behavioural perspectives on human behaviour. The history, major discoveries and theories will be discussed along with some of the most influential theorists in each of these two areas of psychology. This essay will also compare the two areas strengths and weaknesses in the field of psychology.
Biological psychology is the study of how biology affects a number of psychological processes i.e. how the mind affects the body (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner & Hood 2015). The study of the mind has had many influential figures throughout history that often use each other’s ideas as a stepping stone to further advance psychology, some of the first being Plato and Aristotle. Plato believed in nativism and theorised some skills and characteristics are innate and a person is born with them (Schacter et al, 2015). Aristotle, however, was in favour of philosophical empiricism i.e. that all knowledge is acquired through experience, yet current scientists do not consider that nativism and empiricism are entirely accurate (Schacter et al, 2015). Aristotle also believed that the brain existed to cool the blood, as during that time people were sceptical that an organ could be responsible for behaviour (Kolb, Whishaw & Teskey 2016). The next major advancement in biological psychology was the introduction of phrenology by Francis Gall, Gall’s theory suggested that all psychological capabilities had a specific place in the brain (Schacter et al, 2015). This theory later turned out to be correct, although was overshadowed by Gall’s insistence that he could state a person’s character dependant on the size of lumps and indentations on a person’s skull, which he thought would represent the size of that brain region beneath (Schacter et al, 2015). Due to this, in spite of a large following, phrenology was quickly discredited. Biologist Pierre Flourens, unhappy with Gall’s research, began removing localized areas of the brain in various animals to observe their behaviour (Schacter et al, 2015). Flourens then found that animal’s movements differed to those with intact brains. This mirrored a situation for surgeon Paul Broca with whom one of his patients had damage to the left side of
The basic assumption of the behaviourist approach is that all behaviour is learned through experiences a person has in their environment. From this we know that behaviourists are on the side of nature in the “nature vs. nurture” debate. In comparison bio psychologists will be firmly on the side of nurture.
The biological perspective also can be called Biopsychological Perspective, is a large scientific perspective that undertake that human behaviour and thought processes have a biological fundamental points. Investigations with biological perspective into biochemistry of behaviour link with genetics and heritability, neurotransmitters and hormones, and the psychophysics of sensation and perception. Parts of biological perspective may include; Physiological psychology, neuroscience, pyschoneuroimunology and psychopharmacology. The biological perspective relies on scientific methods because of this, its scope of information is limited to variable that can be manipulated.
Its main goal is to incorporate these various viewpoints in a more complete picture of any given behavior or mental process. The example we discussed, and the example in the textbook, for this chapter was the biopsychosocial approach for behavior or mental process. The approach consisted of the three different levels of analysis, with nature selection in biological influences, learned fears in psychological influences, and presence of others in social-cultural influences, among others in each level (Myers, 2014). We will be analyzing the biopsychosocial approach for all other chapters in the
Main body The Biological approach to psychology looks at the physical aspects of human nature and involves examining aspects of human nature such as the brain and genetics. It is clear that the human brain accounts for almost all of what we learn and how we behave socially. Social factors must be considered as it obvious that human nature dictates that
Phrenology was the belief that the one could understand an individual’s personality by simply feeling and understanding the bumps and depressions on the skull. People assumed that the skull embodied the brain and believed that different functions and characteristics are found in specific locations in the brain. Further, by feeling someone’s skull and feeling the bumps they could feel if it was irregular or depressed and connect it to whether an individual possessed an excess or scarcity of that trait. Although the claims made by the once formal discipline of phrenology have been shown to be false, contemporary notions of brain structure and function are still related to phrenology. Phrenology emphasized that to understand the mind and behavior,
There are countless psychological models and theories that correlate individual behaviors and paradigms to the capriciousness of managing conflict, many of which apply directly to the influence that goals or interests have in framing individual behaviors. For simplicity purposes, however, this study will focus primarily on the biological, psychological, and social aspects of conflict behaviors and the way they relate to motivation or drive for achieving such prospects.
Daniel L. Schacter says that psychology is known as the scientific study of a person’s mind, such as their experiences, thoughts, and feelings, and their behavior, which are the individual’s observable actions. Franz Joseph Gall, a French physician, believed that a person’s brain was linked to their mind by the size instead of by the glands. Gall developed a theory called phrenology stating that certain mental abilities or characteristics in a human being are set in a specific location of the brain (Daniel L. Schacter, Daniel T. Gilbert, Daniel M. Wegner, Matthew K. Nock, 2014). This theory also showed how you could link a bump on a person’s skull to a certain characteristic of their personality (Kendra Cherry, 2014). For example, if one person has more mathematical ability or tends to be more persevering than another person, the part of their brain that those qualities are located will
Two perspectives on the human personality will be explained in the following two sections. The first perspective is the biological perspective of personality. This perspective focuses largely on the internal genetic makeup of an individual and the effects this has on his or her personality. The biological perspective is strongly based on other scientific fields in laboratory or clinical conditions such as biology and biochemistry. The biological perspective involves intricate and often time-consuming scientific experiments to test for personality traits and correlations. Evolution is sometimes also mentioned within the biological perspective in sociobiology. The structure and function of the brain (neurobiology) is also central to the biological theory of personality.
Out of the different perspectives in psychology, I believe that Biological and Cognitive perspectives are the most useful when studying human behavior. In order to understand a person’s actions and conduct, one must be able to observe and understand human behavior. Psychologist with a biological perspective seek to understand the links between the brain, hormones, heredity, evolution, and also behavior and mental process. The biological perspective focuses on the nervous system and the brain, this is more useful when studying human behavior because there is already information on the nervous system and the brain, therefore that focus would give more promising results and is a perspective that more people would understand because of the information
The bio-psycho-social model is an adequate approach to understanding behavior because it looks at the mechanism, motive and context behind a person’s behavior. The Bio and Psycho aspects of this model explain the internal stimuli behind a person behavior while the Social shows how outside facts affect it as well. It can be argued that this model is not adequate because it leaves out how environmental aspects play into a person’s behavior, but this factor doesn’t play the same role in behavior as the other three.
The investigation of human thought has been around for a huge number of years. In antiquated Greece, China, India, and Egypt they had a more logical method for moving toward brain sci-ence. They were among the first to have psychiatric healing facilities. Be that as it may, the source and the start of a more progressed and balanced approach originated from Wilhelm Wundt, the "father of brain science". He set up the primary research facility at Leipzig University in 1879. The reviews he directed were focused on both the behavioral and hereditary part of peo-ple. The whole investigation of brain science is based off of nature versus support. Which wran-gles about that human experience can be characterized as hereditary legacy and ecological child-hood. Brain research has five unmistakable branches that are based off of nature versus support.
Franz Joseph Gall created the main principles of phrenology, which was the first scientific theory of brain localization. His theories were based entirely on observation and natural philosophy. Phrenology was the study of associating an individual’s personality characteristics and mental abilities based on the shape of their skull. It was incomparably influential throughout the first half of the 19th century thanks to Gall and his many successors. Some of the main tenants of phrenology were later confirmed by scientific experiments and technology.
The film “Introduction to Psychology No 1. The Perspective” by Dr. Steve Taylor, explains that psychology is an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of human behavior through, Biological Psychology, Psychoanalysis Approach, and the Behaviorist Approach. With biology and the use of the advanced medical machinery to see the inside of the human body, a revolution of knowledge and the understanding in genetics and the brain, has open a new door for a correlation between the physical component of the body and brain and the human behavior. Furthermore, the use of psychodynamic approach to study the unconscious drive and motivator of people to understand and explain the behavior. And with the behaviorist approach, that uses the human behavior as a clue to the working of the mind.
Introduction: Two principles that define the biological level of analysis are that patterns of behavior can be inherited and that animal research may inform our understanding of human behavior.
Psychology first started in 1879 and was found by Wilhelm Wundt. He founded the first laboratory which specialized in psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Wundt used controlled experiments to investigate the mind by using a method called introspection which examined an individual’s mental state to gain an understanding of how our mind works. This approach became known as Structuralism, deals with the study of the conscious mind, with the idea that the conscious mind can be broken down into basic elements that combined to form to the structure of the human mind. Functionalism was the second approach to psychology. It started in 1890 and was influenced by Darwin’s view on natural selection. Functionalism tries to explain the mental processes, instead of concentrating on the consciousness, functionalists focused on the idea of consciousness and behavior. Functionalism also highlighted individual differences, which had a profound effect on education. Psychology is a discipline divided into many approaches, each attempting to explain human behavior through different methods and theories. Psychodynamics, Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Biologicals are four perspectives within psychology that have had great influence in their application throughout society. This essay will give an explanation of the approaches of human behavior. It will also focuses on how each approach has been applied and that therapy are used to help people.