What are the central principals of the biological approach in psychology?

-- precious chirunga (precious.chirunga@whitchurch.cardiff.sch.uk), November 04, 2002

Answers

There are, I think, many different approaches to biological psychology, and no single set of principles (note the spelling) will adequately capture them all. Very generally, however, I think the main idea is that psychological functions are, at root, just a species of biological function, and are to be studied by the same methods -- finding out what actions by what parts of the body are responsible for them.

In addition, however, the "medical model" and "biological psychology" do not necessarily denote the same thing. One can take a medical approach to psychology (psychopathology in particular), identifying conditions, listing symptoms and diagnostic criteria, etc. without believing it necessary (or even possible) to reduce the psychological to the biological.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), November 04, 2002.

You'll find a chapter on this in any introductory psychology textbook.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), November 04, 2002.