PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY: what it is, history and foundations

Physiological psychology covers the general area "of the brain and behavior", and is a modular subject in many university courses, considered by most psychologists as a sector that has developed rapidly in recent years, so much so that the great use of physiological ideas has also spread to many areas of psychology that were not previously common.

In fact, physiological psychology relies on physiological science to determine the association between physical functions and behavior, taking advantage of the contribution of diverse disciplines and grouping them under the objective of understanding the relationships between mental activities, behavior, physiological processes and their anatomical substrates. In this Psychology-Online article, we will delve into what is physiological psychology, its history and its foundations, with some examples about.

Index

1. What is Physiological Psychology
2. History of physiological psychology
3. Fundamentals of Physiological Psychology

The physiological approach of psychology focuses on our biological makeup and the events that occur in our body that cause our behavior. Physiological psychology is, in fact, the branch of psychology that deals with the relationship between the nervous system and behavior, adopting an empirical and practical approach in the study of the brain and human behavior. In this article you will find all branches of psychology.

The objective of this discipline, which can be considered a bridge between neuroscience and psychology, is to define the association between the physiological functions of the brain and observed behavior and mental processes.

Physiological psychologists believe that the mind is a function developed by the brain, and studying its functions allows us to helps to better understand the nature of human consciousness, which seems to be related to the linguistic functions of the brain. Therefore, physiological psychology focuses on the human brain, but also includes the study of nervous system and of the hormones: In this area of ​​research, the focus is on the functions of the brain and spinal cord, sense organs, muscles and the glands, studying in particular the brain cells, structures, components and chemical interactions involved in producing Actions.

Let's look at the historical background of physiological psychology. Theories of the mind-body relationship date back at least Aristotle, which assumed that the two existed as aspects of the same entity, the mind being simply one of the functions of the body. In the dualism of the French philosopher Rene DescartesInstead, both the mind and the soul are spiritual entities that exist separately from the mechanical operations of the human body. However, it is the theory of psychological parallelism of the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz the one who believes that yes, the mind and the body were separate, but that their activities were directly in parallel.

The branch of physiological psychology developed into psychology. Indeed, the first psychology textbook, written by Wilhelm Wundt at the end of the 19th century, it was titled Principles of Physiological Psychology (or Psychophysiology). In recent years, with the vast amount of information in experimental biology, scientists from other disciplines have made important contributions to the research of psychology. behavioral: the result of the joint effort of psychophysiological, physiological and other neurological scientists have discovered that the ultimate function of the nervous system is the behaviour.

The modern history of behavioral physiology research has been written by psychologists who have combined the experimental methods of psychology with those of physiology and have applied them to aspects of interest to all psychologists. Therefore, the processes of perception, control of movement, sleep and wakefulness, reproductive, ingestion, emotional, learning and linguistic behaviors have been studied. In recent years, the physiology of human pathologies such as addictions and mental disorders has begun to be studied.

This field of psychology takes an empirical and practical approach when studying the brain and human behavior. Most physiological psychologists believe that the mind is a phenomenon derived from the nervous system: studying and by acquiring knowledge about the mechanisms of the nervous system they can discover many truths about behavior human.

Physiological psychology studies many topics related to the body's response to behavior or activity in an organism. It is about brain cells, structures, components, and chemical interactions that go into producing actions. Psychologists in this field often focus on topics such as:

• The dream
• The emotions
• Ingestion
• The senses
• Reproductive behavior
• Learning / memory
• The communication
• Psychopharmacology
• Neurological disorders

The foundations of these studies are surrounded by the idea of ​​how the nervous system intertwines with other body systems to create specific behavior. In this article we explain How does the nervous system work.

The means of investigation used by physiological psychology are mainly biological, and an example Typical application is the study of physical stimuli that can lead to the perception of emotions.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Physiological psychology: what it is, history and foundations, we recommend that you enter our category of Basic psychology.

• Carlson, N. R. (2008). Foundations of Physiological Psychology. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.
• Pinel, J. P. J. (2004). Biopsychology. Allyn and Bacon.
• Stern, J.A. (1964). Toward a definition of psychophysiology. Psychophysiology, 1, 90-01.
• Williams, S., Karim, L. R. (2018). Physiological Psychology. Chetpet: Notion Press.