Running head: BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY 1

Biological Psychology

Ana Perera

PSY 340

November 7, 2010

Sara Beth Lohre

Biological Psychology 2

Biological Psychology

Etymologically speaking the word psychology means the study of the mind or the soul,

as it was born within the field of philosophy. In practice, authors define psychology as the

science that studies the behavior of living organisms. This paper will explain what biological

psychology is and how it became what it is now. The influence philosophers like Plato and René

Descartes had in the development of this branch of psychology, as well as its connection with

neuroscience and other scopes of psychology. The author will also describe the most important

foundation of the biopsychological approach.

Definition

In the beginning, psychology was not a science by itself; it was only part of philosophy,

the discipline that studies the nature of existence, knowledge, wisdom, and values (Philosophy,

2001). For that reason, some authors understand the Greek root of the word psyche as soul, and

for others it means mind (Online Etymology Dictionary, 2010). Philosophers of all times studied

the mind and its processes, including behavior. Even when they did not label their studies as

psychology until the end of the Renaissance, when philosophers like Göckel, Marulic, Diderot,

and de Biran, began calling their treats and studies of the soul psychology (Green, 2001). Today,

the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010) defines psychology as the study of the

behavior and mental processes of living organisms. “The discipline embraces all aspects of the

human experience — from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations, from child

development to care for the aged” (Definition, para. 1).

René Descartes

Human experiences, like learning and understanding, were part of philosophers’ field of

study before psychology became a science. The Greek philosopher Plato and his followers
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considered mind and body as two independent ideas (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,

2003). By the New Period of the Middle Ages, a French philosopher, René Descartes, who many

consider the father of modern philosophy, understood there had to be a point where the mind and

the body converge. Descartes affirmed that the pineal gland, the only structure of the brain that

does not have a pair, as the place where the physical matter and the non-physical material of the

body work together (Wickens, 2005). René Descartes came to prove that it was not the soul the

controller and manager of all the movements of the body, as there were many instinctive actions

that did not require any activity from the brain to take place; at that time, Descartes believed

that.

Descartes and scientists of his time took the dualism of the human body to the point

where the soul was responsible only for the reasoning capacity of human beings, which,

according to religious beliefs distinguish humans from the rest of the animals (Wickens, 2005).

Scientists also believed that conducts carrying water were the conveyance for the electric

impulses in the body. Descartes had a model to show how the brain operated. This model

described an external signal which, previous communication with the pineal gland, would

stimulate the outer ends of the nerve, move through the central ends, and make the flow of

animal spirits advance toward the corresponding nerve (Shresta, 2002). In the 1780’s, Luigi

Galvani eliminated this theory when he carried out his experiments with frogs and eclectic

shocks.

Luigi Galvani

An Italian scientist, Luigi Galvani, conducted a series of researches in the University of

Bologna applying electric charge to the limbs of frogs to produce a movement. Through these

experiments, Galvani found out that nerves, as electric conductors, send the charge to the muscle
Biological Psychology 4

and provoke the spasm (Corrosion Doctors, 2010). The most powerful proof of Galvani’s theory

was the fact that the frogs’ legs were able to react to the electric shock even when detached from

the body. This finding took place by chance when one of his assistants accidentally touched the

inner nerve cartilage of the frog’s lower limb with the tip of a knife. The surprising reaction of

the disconnected legs, finally convinced Galvani, and his assistants of the theory of

bioelectricity. Bioelectricity explains how nerves carry electric charge to muscles making them

contract, that is, making them move (Corrosion Doctors). Despite Galvani’s findings, there was

still much more to discover about the nervous system. A Spanish scientist, Santiago Ramón y

Cajal, conducted thorough studies of nerve cells and their characteristics.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Santiago Ramón y Cajal, often misspelled as Cajel by certain authors like Andrew

Wickens, took advantage of Italian anatomist Camilo Golgi’s method to stain cells individually

to clearly observe them with a microscope (New York University, 2007). Ramón y Cajal

revealed cells might have either short or long axons. Short axons or interneurons extend

themselves to similar cells, while long axons create pathways toward remote regions of the brain

(Wickens, 2005). Ramón y Cajal also found out a tree like structure, the dendrite, at the end of

the nerve cells or neurons that receives the signals from the brain. These signals travel through

the nervous system by means of multiple connections that Ramón y Cajal called synapses. In his

article for the Nature Publishing Group magazine, Robert R. Llinás (2003) states Ramón y Cajal

was the first scientist to see neurons are present in all kind of brains, and that cells are individual

units that connect to each other in an organized system.

By working with different staining methods, Camilo Golgi and Ramón y Cajal were able

to identify other parts of the nervous cell. Their investigations and discoveries of the nervous
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system took them to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1906 (Nobel Prize, 2010). Another

important discovery was the chemicals that transmit the electric messages by means of synapses

through the body. Otto Loewi discovered the first neurotransmitter, which is the name scientists

gave to these chemicals, in 1921. This discovery of this neurotransmitter, the acetylcholine, led

Loewi to win the Nobel Prize as well (Boeree, 2009). Golgi and Ramón y Cajal, and Loewi’s

work laid the grounds for the relationship between brain and behavior.

Relationship between biological psychology and other sciences

Once scholars could establish the connection between brain processes and organisms

behavior, they understood an organ controls human and animal conduct. Being the brain an

organ as it is the heart and the liver, other sciences are strongly linked to it. Physiology, in first

place, as it is studies the way living organisms work, react, and move (Medicine Net, 2010); then

neuroscience, the study of the brain and nervous system; . There is also a relationship with

pathology, which studies the malfunction and diseases of organs; psychiatry, sociology,

anthropology, the other branches of psychology, and the one studied in this paper, biology

(Medical News Today, 2009). This all can be summarized in what Descartes proposed in the

1600’s. There is an undeniable connection between the physical and the non-physical

components of living organisms. Biopsychology exists because medicine and psychology coexist

in the same field of study.

Major underlying assumptions of a biopsychological approach

It is impossible to ignore medicine, along with its branches neuroscience, psychiatry, and

physiology when studying biology. Authors Farrugia and Fetter (2009) establish the relationship

between diseases and organ’s dysfunctions with emotional disorders. As they explain in their

article for the Journal of Mental Health Counseling, a physical disorder can be either the cause
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or the consequence of an emotional condition or. In other words, a patient who suffers from

chronic pain may develop depression, anxiety, or substance abuse; at the same time, a patient

who suffers from a personality disorder or a posttraumatic stress disorder can easily present a

constant headache.

Conclusion

Thanks to the Descartes’ concept of dualism and the discoveries of remarkable researchers

like Galvani, Ramón y Cajal, Golgi, and Loewi, the physical and non-physical parts of the

organism became connected to each other in the understanding of scientists. Having a clear

comprehension of how mental processes and physical function interact made it possible for

science people to combine knowledge first and therapies later to treat disorders of both

emotional and physical origin. Biopsychology is the branch of psychology that opens many of

the closed doors there are in the science of living organisms’ behavior.
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References

Boeree, G. (2009). Neurotransmitters. Retrieved from

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyneurotransmitters.html

Corrosion Doctors. (2010. Luigi Galvani. Retrieved from http://www.corrosion-

doctors.org/Biographies/GalvaniBio.htm

Farrugia, D., & Fetter, H. (2009). Chronic pain: biological understanding and treatment

suggestions for mental health counselors. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 31(3),

189-200. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Green, C. D. (2001). Classics in the history of psychology. Retrieved from

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Krstic/marulic.htm

Llinás, R. R. (2003). The contribution of Santiago Ramón y Cajal to functional neuroscience.

Nature Publishing Group, 4, 77-80. Retrieved from

http://gpilsinside.umaryland.edu/Courses/GPLS620/CAJAL%20REVIEW

%20PAPTERS/Cajal_review_03_Llinas-pdf.pdf

Medicine Net. (2010). Definition of physiology. Retrieved from

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=8223

Medical News Today. (2009). What Is Psychology? What Are The Branches Of Psychology?.

Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/154874.php

New York University. (2007). Ramon y Cajal. The godfather of neuroscience. Retrieved from

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~eh597/cajal.htm

Nobel Prize. (2010). The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine 1906. Camilo Golgi, Santiago

Ramón y Cajal. Retrieved from

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1906/cajal-bio.html#
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Philosophy. (2001). In World of Sociology, Gale. Retrieved from

http://www.credoreference.com/entry/worldsocs/philosophy

Psychology. (2010). In Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved from

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=psychology

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2003). Dualism. Retrieved from

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dualism/

Wickens, A. (2005). Foundations of biopsychology. 2nd ed. New York City: Prentice Hall.