About Bio-Psychology

Study notes about bio-psychology ...
Basic definition of Bio-pyschology
Source : http://psychology.about.com/od/biopsychology/a/biopsyc.htm
Bio-psychology is a branch of psychology that analyzes how the brain and neurotransmitters influence our behaviors, thoughts and feelings. This field can be thought of as a combination of basic psychology and neuroscience.
-----------------------------------
Comments : It is a good definition
-----------------------------------
If you are interested in the field of bio-psychology, then it is important to have an understanding of biological processes, anatomy and physiology.

Three of the most important components to understand are the brain, neurotransmitters and the nervous system.
------------------------------------
Paraphrase : If any one is interested in the study of bio-psychology, he will need to study human anatomy, physiology specially with respect to brain functions. He will also study the nervous system. He will relate his study thus done with general behavior and also behavior that is shown under specific situations by humans.
-------------------------------------
What does bio-psychologists do ?
Source : Biological Psychology, 10e by James W. Kalat

Biological psychologists try to answer four types of questions about any given behavior.
1) Physiological: How does it relate to the physiology of the brain and other organs?
------------
Explanation : How does various parts of the nervous system are responsible for this behavior? What happens one after another to make this behavior to be surfaced out as an end result of a detailed process?
-------------
2) Ontogenetic: How does it develop within the individual?
-------------
Explanation : What is the process of development of this behavior starting from the childhood. How the learning process worked. can this learning process be modelled and understood?
-------------
3) Evolutionary: How did the capacity for the behavior evolve?
-------------
Explanation : Did this behavior evolved through few generations? Did they learn it from their ancestors? What were the intermediate steps? How to link the evidences to form this story?
-------------
4) Functional: Why did the capacity for this behavior evolve?
-------------
Explanation : Is there any specific reason why this behavior started? Is it a defense mechanism to deal with a risk or threat? Is it a part of practice or a culture?
-------------
Six major divisions of Bio-Psychology
Source : Biopsychology, 6e by John P. J. Pinel

Physiological psychology :  Study of neural mechanisms of behvior by manipulating the nervous systems of non-human animals in controlled experiments.

Psychpharmacology : Study of effect of drugs on the brain and behavior.

Neuropsychology : Study of psychological effects of brain damage in human patients.

Psychophysiology : Study of the relation between physiological activity and psychological processes in human subjects by non-invasive physiological recording.

Cognitive neuroscience : Study of neural mechanisms of human cognition, largely through the use of functional brain imaging.

Comparative psychology :  Study of evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior, largely through the use of the comparative method.

Career options for the people in this field.
Source : Biological Psychology, 10e by James W. Kalat
If you want to consider a career related to biological psychology, you have a range of options. The relevant careers fall into two categories—research and therapy.

Common researcher titles are ..

Neuroscientists : They study anything related to neurology including related anatomy and physiology and also psychology.
Behavioral neuroscientists : Investigates how functioning of brain and nervous system controls our behavior.
Cognitive neuroscientists : They study brain's involvement in thinking, knowledge gathering and problem solving.
Neuropsychologists : They study behaviors and learn about abilities and disabilities of people with various kinds of brain damage and changes that occurs in their conditions over time,
Evolutionary psychologists : They research on social behaviors of human from an evolutionary perspecive, They study reasons for adapting special kind of common behaviors we demonstate under different situations.

The therapist group include ..
Neurologist : Treats people with brain damage or with diseases of nervous system. Neurosurgeon : Preforms brain surgery or surgery on nervous system. Psychiatrist : Helps people with emotional distress or troublesome behaviors some time using drugs and also without drugs using psychotherapy and other non-drug medical procedures.
Clinical psychologists : Helps people with emotional distress with non-drug methods.

In conclusion bio-psychology is a combination of number of subjects that study psychology from various different angles.  This study may be used for academic research or may be used in different theraputic professions for helping people in giving them relief from disordered health conditions.