My specialization is General Psychology, and I am especially interested in learning more about the biology of behavior. I would like to study the relationship between the body and the mind, or, more specifically, the influence of biological factors on the mind, and vice versa. I believe that the achievements of the school of psychobiology will be most appropriate for researching this area.
Principles
As it is known, the school of psychobiology developed the idea that psychological phenomena originate from biological causes. Its representatives practically always incorporate both psychological and physiological factors in their studies. For instance, Stein (2009a) researches the psychological phenomenon of love and determines which chemical substances are associated with this feeling, using the factors of both types in the study. Therefore, this school of thought is appropriate for studying the relationship between behavior and brain processes, which I am interested in. Its contributions to general psychology are also significant, for it allows us to understand the origins and causes of psychological phenomena.
Values
The representatives of this school believe that there is a mutual relationship between biological and psychological processes, and set studying the correlation between them as a priority. This belief and the approach based on it often allow me to effectively explain people’s behavior via physiological factors, which is helpful for both general psychology and my area of interest.
Subject matter
The school of thought focuses on the study of biological and physiological factors and their impact on human behavior, cognition, and so on. For example, Stein (2009b) studies the neurological grounds for resilience. Such types of research shed additional light on the topic of correlation between behavior and physiology.
Research methods and other applied methodologies
The representatives of this school ask about the impact of physiological factors on a person’s behavior and vice versa and attempt to identify and measure their mutual influence. They often conduct studies that employ at least one biological variable and one psychological variable. This school would be particularly helpful in determining the relationship between bodily reactions and behavior.
The question I want to answer in my study is the following: To what extent do psychological factors and physiological factors influence a person’s character, reactions, and behavior? I will use mainly the findings of psychobiology in our research.
Principles
The idea that psychological and biological factors are mutually dependent, and the use of both psychological and physiological factors in the studies conducted by the representatives of the school of psychobiology provide examples of high-level studies. The research carried out by this school has shown me that it is important to pay attention to both types of factors. This is why I decided to focus my attention on the relationship between the influence of psychological and physiological factors on a person while studying the relationship between the body and the mind.
Values
The belief that both biological and psychological factors have an impact on a person’s mind, cognition, and behavior convinced me that it is essential to study these factors together and that looking into only one type of them without considering the other type would lead to an incomplete analysis.
Subject matter
Studies that explore the correlation between psychological life and its biological base have convinced me that the investigation of this correlation would add much to our understanding of psychology. It caused me to question the relative significance of the influence of these factors on human behavior.
Research methods
Psychobiologists use both quantitative and qualitative methods in their studies (Gomez-Marin, Paton, Kampff, Costa, & Mainen, 2014). But currently, scientists face several obstacles related to these studies; it is often hard to relate qualitatively different concepts employed in physiology and psychology (Rösler, 2012). Besides, psychobiological studies often require conducting biological experiments in laboratories (Gomez-Marin et al., 2014). Therefore, due to our limited resources, and to the more general nature of our question, it appears more appropriate to conduct a meta-research and use the method of literature review to find an answer to this question.
References
Gomez-Marin, A., Paton, J. J., Kampff, A. R., Costa, R. M., & Mainen, Z. F. (2014). Big behavioral data: Psychology, ethology and the foundations of neuroscience. Nature Neuroscience, 17(11), 1455-1462.
Rösler, F. (2012). Some unsettled problems in behavioral neuroscience research. Psychological Research, 76(2), 131-144.
Stein, D. J. (2009a). Love and attachment: The psychobiology of social bonding. CNS Spectrums, 14(5), 239-242.
Stein, D. J. (2009b). The psychobiology of resilience. CNS Spectrums, 14(2, Suppl. 3), 41-47.