PSY 177 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Monism, Pineal Gland, Phineas Gage
31 May 2017
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Document Summary
Biological psychology, or behavioral neuroscience, is the study of biological bases of psychological processes and behavior. Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system and related systems, and how those systems produce behavior. Biological psychology can help to understand brain disorders and devise treatments. Clinical (working with humans) and laboratory (working with cells etc) approaches are both important in this research we just want to know the underlying cause in order to create better treatment options. An independent variable is the factor that is being manipulated you interact with, ex: looking at the effects of caffeine on people, two groups: one with coffee and other with nothing, then your independent variable is coffee. A dependent variable is what is measured in response to changes in the independent variable: somatic intervention alteration of a structure or function to see how behavior is altered. Sometimes it"s the only way to study something, ex: you cant assign people to have schizophrenia.
