The link between biology and psychology has brought a new perspective to the study of human behaviours by evaluating the biological aspects. The interaction of the two fields led to a new field known as biopsychology which can be used to evaluate human daily activities. Biopsychology is the study of the biological makeup of a human brain, genetic variables and neurological system and relating them to human behaviours. Biopsychology’s try to understand how the brain functions the brain and the central nervous system contributes to influencing the behaviours of an individual ( Totsika, & Wulf, 2003) . Therefore, the role of biology is trying to connect the biological makeup of the human brain and the nervous system with behavioural or psychological variables.
An example of an activity that I do on a daily bases can be associated with biopsychology. In 2012, I started watching a TV series called The Big Bang Theory. The show was always televised at 8:30 pm on Wednesday every week. Every episode would be repeated on Saturday evening. The show is still showing today and it’s on its final season. I developed the habit of watching the show as it was interesting and remains interesting to me. With time I found that every time I was not in the house on Wednesday my mind would remember that there was something that was about to start. Most of the times I would find myself rushing home after my daily activities.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The subconscious mind had learnt that there was something that I was supposed to be watching at a certain time of the week. As a regular activity, I would feel uncomfortable if I were not able to watch the show every Wednesday evening. It became an addiction that every week that I missed the show I would be forced to download the episode from a website because I would not wait for the repetition on the weekend. The show has always been funny and interesting to me and thus at the beginning watching it was only because it made me laugh, however after a few seasons I learnt that there was an addiction as I thought deeply about some aspects of the show. The desired to watch the show became a need that I would not stay without watching the show.
The key areas of biological psychology include motivated behaviours such as sex, memory and learning, biological rhythms and sleep, emotions, control of movement, sensation and perception. The human body is made up of different sense organs that communicate to the brain through the nervous system. The process is complex in details as many elements such as DNA, neurons, conscious and unconscious parts of the brain. The activation of the various sense organs receptors is known as sensation. Sensation, therefore, can be defined as the process of receiving information from our five senses ( Totsika, & Wulf, 2003) . For example, the first time I watch The Big Bang theory I involved the hearing and seeing sensory organs and it was just a simple activity. It was what the sensation is all about which mean that we just receiving stimuli from the environment and then it is communicated to the brain. Sensation has a more biological procedure in general.
The way the information is transported from the sensory organ into the brain is referred to as transduction. Therefore transduction refers to how information received by the sensory organ is converted into a neural form and transported to the brain. It is a complex activity of communication between the sensory organs and the brain ( Totsika, & Wulf, 2003) . The process happens very first and it is studied in neuroscience. It is this simple method that allows the connection between the mind and the activity that is sensed from the outer environment. When the brain receives a similar communication from stimuli, the brain records and gives the stimuli a thought.
In a situation where the body receive similar stimuli regular the brain gives the stimuli a complex thinking process. When the mind is able to integrate the information acquired through the five senses it is referred to as perception. Perception originates from information that is processed by the brain when it receives a certain stimulus ( Totsika, & Wulf, 2003) . For example, when I started watching the Big Bang theory is because the brain recorded that the show was funny. I am a fan of comedy shows because I love humour. After the first episode, the show was to be shown every Wednesday evening and my brain recorded that and stored that. With time the unconscious brain automated the processes and I always wanted to watch the show. Perception has a more psychological significance since it is directly affected by the ideologies or past experience of an individual. The complexity of perception is that the mind has to respond to the stimuli and sometimes there can be a mixed reaction. For example, let’s say I had an important appointment that was a ‘must’ to attend on a Wednesday evening but the brain also remembers there is a show that I must watch. Such stimuli force the brain to respond to every stimulus.
Human behaviours are influenced by different factors in the environment and within the human body. Psychologist needed to understand how human biological makeup influences behaviours. In the process, there was born a new discipline such as neuroscience and biopsychology. These studies focus on how the human brain and neurological elements influence human behaviours. Some of the key concepts of biopsychology are a sensation, transduction and perception. The process in which the body receives information (stimuli) from the external environment is referred to as sensation. It is a simple method which involves the five sensory organs ( Totsika, & Wulf, 2003) . For example, when watching a TV series the eyes receive the pictures and while the ears receive the words from the show. The central nervous system receives the information which is coded in neurons and transported into the brain. The process is called transduction. When the brain receives the information, it decodes the information analyze it and creates a response which is referred to as a perception. Perception is what the brain interprets about a stimulus. For example, a show might become interesting or boring according to how the mind perceives it based on the ideologies or experience of a person.
Psychologists, therefore, employ biology in understanding some of the behaviours people develop. For example, people can develop an addiction to something that they perceive is healthy for them. Some desires ate influenced by ideologies or experiences that we have had in the past. The biological makeup of the human body, therefore, influences how people form behaviours and personalities which is vital for a psychologist to address some of the problems that face the human race.
Reference
Totsika, V., & Wulf, G. (2003). The influence of external and internal foci of attention on transfer to novel situations and skills. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport , 74 (2), 220-232.
