The mind-body problem is one of the oldest issues to which an answer was sought in Western culture. In my future paper, I will attempt to answer it by using the existing scientific data. I hope that the study I will conduct will contribute both to the current scientific knowledge and society.
In my research, I will focus on the relationship between the mind and the body. Since the topic is rather broad, I will have to ask a more specific question and attempt to answer it. The question is as follows: “to what extent do psychological factors, and physiological factors influence a person’s character, reactions, and behavior?” It should also be pointed out that this question is much narrower than the topic, but it still might include a rather large spectrum of issues to be covered. Therefore, I will focus only on this question and will not add any other questions to my study.
The question is strongly related to physiology, and thus I have chosen to base my research on the achievements of the school of psychobiology. But the studies conducted by this school must often include experiments related to medicine and biology, which are hardly available to me. Therefore, I have decided to conduct a metastudy and analyze the psychobiological literature related to the issue. Also, because, as was mentioned, the question I wish to explore is rather broad and general, in fact, too broad and general for a single experiment, it is more appropriate to analyze the available data and use the existing scientific knowledge to answer it. Thus, we will conduct a metastudy and review the literature on the topic. Importantly, the literature we will use might include quantitative research. Still, our study will be more inclined towards the qualitative approach because the question’s nature is more qualitative than quantitative.
Our study will contribute to society by clarifying some issues connected to the relationship between the mind and the body. Knowing to what extent biological and psychological factors influence one’s personality and behavior can help one attempts to influence somebody’s character or behavior. Such knowledge might be used in a variety of spheres, for instance, in child upbringing (to enhance education techniques), in medicine (for example, Tops et al. (2007) research the psychobiological aspects of burnout and how to counter it), in law and ethics (e.g., Díaz (2011) studies the psychobiological basis for aggression and violence, which might be useful while attempting to assess violence and rehabilitate people who have committed it), and many other areas. All of these spheres will also need more specific information directly related to the issues they deal with. Still, more general knowledge will also be extremely helpful to grasp the whole picture and solve the problems more effectively.
My study’s contribution to the knowledge base should also be useful, for it will summarize some existing knowledge and allow me to generalize it. Also, the problem of the relationship between the mind and the body has been asked for a very long time in the Western culture, and I believe that if it is to be solved, the answer is to be found by using the data collected via the methods of the “hard science.”
To sum up, the research paper I will write will be related to the mind-body problem. I plan to look for answers to my questions using psychobiologists’ achievements, and I wish to conduct a metastudy to generalize their findings from the perspective of my questions. I hope that my research will contribute to the society by letting people have general knowledge that can be used in a variety of spheres, and will add to the current scientific knowledge by attempting to answer one of the traditional questions related to psychology by using the achievements of the “hard science.”
References
Díaz, J. L. (2011). The psychobiology of aggression and violence: Bioethical implications. International Social Science Journal, 61(200/201), 233-245. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2451.2011.01760.x
Tops, M., Boksem, M. A. S., Wijers, A. A., Van Duinen, H., Den Boer, J. A., Meijman, T. F., & Korf, J. (2007). The psychobiology of burnout: Are there two different syndromes? Neuropsychobiology, 55(3-4), 143-150.