Why study biological psychology at all?
• Common question asked by many students. Perhaps because it’s at the border between biology and psychology. • A. Here are some reasons. 1. My VW runs just fine. I can get where I want to go, but to really understand how and why I’m getting places (“explanation” goal), I need to understand the internal combustion engine. • 2. In order to truly understand human behavior and experience, we need to understand human anatomy and physiology (the “monist” position) • Here are some more reasons. • 3. one powerful way to explain behavior is at the level of the structure and physiology of human bodies, or really, human nervous systems. • 4. To fix something wrong (Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Tourette s Syndrome) must understand what’s up in the brain. • like fixing a motor (need to understand the workings) • B. Three examples of research that is clearly biological in method, yet focuses on one kind of behavior: violence. 1. Some people who perform unprovoked violence have temporal lobe abno
