Social Psychology versus Biological Psychology - Term Paper Example

Social Psychology versus Biological Psychology Psychology refers to an applied and academic discipline, which concerns the scientific study of mental behaviours and functions (Gazzaniga, 2010). Psychology has the direct goal of comprehending people and groups through both establishing wide-ranging principles and studying particular cases, and by numerous accounts it eventually aims to assist the society. In this area, a professional researcher or practitioner, referred to as a psychologist and can be categorised as a behavioural, cognitive or social scientist (Gazzaniga, 2010). Psychologists try to comprehend the task of mental functions in social and individual behaviour, whilst also exploring the biological and physiological processes, which underlie cognitive behaviours and functions (Gazzaniga, 2010). Psychologists investigate concepts such as cognition, perception, attention, phenomenology, emotion, brain functioning, motivation, personality, behaviour, and interpersonal relations, including family resilience, psychological resilience, as well as other areas. Also, psychologists of diverse orientations regard the unaware mind. Psychologists use empirical methods to deduce correlational and causal relationships between psychosocial variables (Gazzaniga, 2010). Additionally, or in opposition, to using deductive and empirical methods, some—particularly counseling and clinical psychologists—at times depend on symbolic understanding and other inductive methods. Psychology has been explained as a "hub science", with mental findings linking to perspectives and research from the social sciences, medicine, natural sciences, and the humanities, like philosophy (Gazzaniga, 2010). This paper will shadow in on two perspectives of psychology, social and biological, and give a clear comparison of the two. Social Psychology Social psychology refers to the scientific research of how human feelings, thoughts, and behaviours are impacted by the imagined, actual, or indirect presence of others (Chow et al., 2010). Through this definition, scientific is the empirical technique of investigation. The terms behaviours, thoughts and feelings, take in all psychological variables, which are quantifiable in a human being. The declaration that others' existence might be implied or imagined proposes that people are liable to social power even when no other individuals are present, such as when following internalised intellectual norms or watching TV. Social psychologists naturally clarify human behavior/action as a result of the relations of mental states, as well as immediate social situations (Gazzaniga, 2010). Generally, social psychologists have a fondness for laboratory-based, pragmatic findings (Chow et al., 2010). Social psychology theories are specific and centered, instead of being general and global. Therefore, social psychologists cope with the factors, which lead people to act in a certain way in the company of others, and observe the conditions under that certain behaviour/actions and feelings arise (Reicher & Haslam, 2006). Social psychology is mainly concerned with the way these thoughts, feelings, intentions, beliefs and goals are developed and how such psychological factors, also, persuade people’s interactions (Chow et al., 2010). This field of psychology is an interdisciplinary domain, which reduces the gap between sociology and psychology. After World War II, there was recurrent collaboration between sociologists and psychologists (Gazzaniga, 2010). Nevertheless, the two subjects have become more and more specialised and spilt from each other in recent years, with sociologists centering on "macro variables" (such as social structure) to a much greater level (Chow et al., 2010). However, sociological looms to social psychology remain a significant complement to psychological study in this field (Gazzaniga, 2010). Biological Psychology Biological psychology, on the other hand, is the use of the principles of biology, to learn the genetic, physiological and developmental means of behaviour in non-human and humans animals. It normally studies at the level of neurotransmitters, neurons, brain circuitry, as well as the basic biological processes, which underlie abnormal and normal behaviour (Chow et al., 2010). Normally, experiments in behaviouural neuroscience concern non-human animal replicas (such as non-human primates and rats and mice) that have consequences for better comprehension of human pathology, and; thus, aid to evidence-based practice. In a number of cases, humans might cater as investigational subjects in behavioural neuroscience (biological psychology) experiments; nevertheless, a lot of the experimental literature in biological psychology arises from the research of non-human species, most often mice, rats, as well as monkeys (Gazzaniga, 2010). Therefore, a vital assumption in biological psychology is that organisms have the same behavioural and biological similarities, enough to authorise extrapolations in species (Chow et al., 2010). This links biological psychology closely to evolutionary psychology,comparative psychology, evolutionary biology, as well as neurobiology. Also, biological psychology has methodological and classic similarities to neuropsychology, which depends greatly on the research of the behaviour of humans with nervous system dysfunction (that is, a non-experimentally related biological treatment (Reicher & Haslam, 2006). Synonyms for biological psychology, even if with a somewhat different organisation and emphasis, comprise of biological, biopsychology psychobiology together with psychology (Gazzaniga, 2010). Physiological psychology is another phrase regularly used synonymously with biological psychology, even if many scholars would make physiological psychology a subfield of (biological psychology, with a suitably more slender meaning (Chow et al., 2010). Research Methods of Biological Psychology and Social Psychology Social Psychology Social psychology attempts to respond to questions concerning human behaviour through analysing hypotheses, both in the field and in the laboratory. Careful consideration to research design, sampling, as well as statistical analysis is significant; results are always published in journals (peer reviewed) (Reicher & Haslam, 2006). Also, social psychology studies are seen in general science journals. Correlational methods assess the statistical relationship between two physically occurring variables (Chow et al., 2010). For instance, one could associate the amount of violent television shows children watch with the amount of violent events the children take part in at school (Gazzaniga, 2010). It is vital to remember that this study would not establish that violent TV leads to aggression in children: it is fairly likely that aggressive children opt to view more violent television shows (Chow et al., 2010). Experimental methods, on the other hand, include the researcher changing a variable in the surrounding and gauging the impact on another variable (Reicher & Haslam, 2006). An instance would be permitting two groups of children to play nonviolent or violent videogames, and then seeing their succeeding level of aggression in their free-play period (Gazzaniga, 2010). A valid research is controlled and applies random assignment. Finally, observational methods are entirely evocative and take in naturalistic observation, participant observation, "artificial" observation, as well as archival analysis (Reicher & Haslam, 2006). These are much less common in social psychology, but are, at times, used when first researching a phenomenon (Gazzaniga, 2010). An instance would be to inconspicuously watch children on a playground plus record the number and forms of aggressive behaviour displayed (Chow et al., 2010). Biological Psychology The distinguishing trait of a biological psychology experiment is that either the sovereign variable of the research is biological, or a dependent variable is biological. In simple terms, the nervous system of the being under study is temporarily or permanently changed, or some feature of the nervous system is calculated (Gazzaniga, 2010). Biological psychology uses classic method (lesions) where a brain-region of concern is intentionally or naturally destroyed to view any resulting changes like enhanced or degraded performance on a number of behavioural measures (Chow et al., 2010). Lesions can be put with comparatively high correctness thanks to some brain 'atlases' that offer a map of brain areas in 3-dimensional coordinates (stereotactic) (Chow et al., 2010). Transcranial magnetic stimulation, on the other hand, is a technique normally utilised with human subjects where a magnetic coil used to the scalp causes random electrical action in near cortical neurons that can be experimentally analysed as a useful lesion (Reicher & Haslam, 2006). Another method is psychopharmacological manipulations where a chemical receptor antagonist aggravates neural activity through blocking neurotransmission (Gazzaniga, 2010). Antagonists can be brought in systemically or locally in a surgical process into specific brain structures or the ventricles (Gazzaniga, 2010). For instance, NMDA opponent AP5 has been proved to slow down the initiation of long-standing potentiation of excitatory synaptic change that is considered to be a significant device in memory and learning (Chow et al., 2010). Conclusion This paper has discussed the different traits within social psychology and biological psychology. Social psychology refers to the scientific research of how human feelings, thoughts, and behaviours are impacted by the imagined, actual, or indirect presence of others. Through this definition, scientific is the empirical technique of investigation. Biological psychology, on the other hand, is the use of the principles of biology, to learn the genetic, physiological and developmental means of behaviour in non-human and humans animals. References Chow, B. Y. et al (2010). High-performance genetically targetable optical neural silencing by light-driven proton pumps. Nature, 46(3), 7-10. Gazzaniga, M. (2010). Psychological science. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Reicher, S., & Haslam, S. A. (2006). Rethinking the psychology of tyranny: The BBC prison study. British Journal of Social Psychology, 45(1) 1–40. Read More