The Biological Approach

The Biological Approach

• Focus: body, especially brain and nervous system, in explaining behavior and mental processes.

• Biological inquiry example: how physiological responses relate to thoughts and feelings (e.g., heart racing when afraid; palms sweating when lying).

• Key field: neuroscience

• Definition: the scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system.

• Core claim: thoughts and emotions have a physical basis in the brain; the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion.

• Mechanisms: electrical impulses travel through brain cells; chemical substances released by neurons enable thinking, feeling, and behaving.

• Brain as a system: the nervous system is the most complex, intricate, and elegant system imaginable.

• Conceptual note: while biological approaches can seem to reduce experience to physical structures, neuroscience reveals the brain as an amazingly complex organ, potentially as complex as the psychological processes it supports.

Neuroscience

• Neuroscience emphasizes the brain and nervous system as central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion.

• It studies structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system.

• Thoughts and emotions have a physical basis in the brain.

• Brain activity involves electrical impulses and chemical signaling that enable mental processes and actions.