Physiological Psychology What is, History and Fundamentals

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

In fact, physiological psychology is based on physiological science to determine the association between physical functions and behavior, taking advantage of the contribution of various 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 deepen What is physiological psychology, its history and its foundations, with some examples about.

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

What is physiological psychology

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

Physiological psychologists believe that the mind is a function developed by the brain, and the study of their functions helps us 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 human brain, But it also includes the study of nervous system and of the hormones: In this area of ​​research, attention focuses on the functions of the brain and spinal cord, of the organs of meaning, of the muscles and the glands, studying in particular the brain cells, the structures, the components and the interactions chemicals involved to produce actions.

History of physiological psychology

Let's look at the historical background of physiological psychology. Theories of the relationship between the body and the mind date back to Aristotle, that supposed that the two existed as aspects of the same entity, being the mind simply one of the body functions. In the dualism of the French philosopher Rene Descartes, On the other hand, 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 that believes yes, the mind and body were separated, but that their activities were directly in parallel.

The branch of physiological psychology was developed in 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 large amount of information in experimental biology, scientists from other disciplines have made important contributions to the research of behavioral psychology: the result of the joint effort of psychophysiological, physiological and other neurological scientists have discovered that the function Last of the nervous system is behavior.

The modern history of research on behavioral physiology 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, movement control, sleep and vigil, reproductive, ingestion, emotional, learning and linguistic behaviors have been studied. In recent years, the physiology of human pathologies has begun to study as addictions and mental disorders.

Fundamentals of physiological psychology

This field of psychology adopts 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 acquiring knowledge about nervous system mechanisms can discover many truths about human behavior.

Physiological psychology Study many issues related to body response to behavior or activity in an organism. These are brain cells, structures, components and chemical interactions involved to produce actions. Psychologists in this field usually focus on issues 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 is intertwined with other body systems to create specific behavior. In this article we explain how the nervous system works.

The means of research used by physiological psychology are mostly biological, and a typical example of application is the study of physical stimuli that can lead to the perception of emotions.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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